How to Clean, Wash, & Deodorize Your Boxing Gloves [Easy Steps]

Last Updated on January 14, 2020

If you are looking for the best way of how to clean boxing gloves, then don’t look further anywhere. From the horrible odor of stinky gloves to making your gloves smell nice, here we have covered all important aspects of how to clean boxing gloves. Let’s start with step first!

Easiest Steps to Clean and Wash the Boxing Gloves

Follow these steps to wash your boxing gloves.

Step 1: Cleaning and Sanitizing the Gloves

 Step 1.1 Unbox the Gloves

The very first step is to get the gloves out when you have finished your training or boxing. The reason is, when you wear gloves for a while or for long periods, the bacteria from your skin get inside to the gloves. They attract your sweat, and they feed and flourish. That’s the major reason the gloves smell bad. Another reason is, inside the gloves have no airflow, so it’s a great place for bacteria to grow.

Apart from this, if you are in the gym and put off your gloves into a gym bag. It’s good to remove them as soon as possible. The more air they get, the better in position. In short, gloves need air, so you will have to remove them from your gym bag as soon as possible.

Step 2.2 Wipe them out

When you remove the gloves from your bag, it’s time to wipe them out. To do this, you can use a clean piece of cloth or towel that absorbs the moisture. Firstly, wipe the outside and then inside. For inside wiping, you will need to wrap a cloth or towel around your hand and stick that hand into the gloves. You should move slowly inside so that the cloth or towel absorbs excessive moisture. Wipe both gloves repeating the same procedure.

Step 1.3 Sanitize the Gloves

When you wipe your gloves from both sides, you will see the moisture is wiped off. Now sanitize the gloves. For this purpose, you will need to get a half-and-half vinegar and water solution. Get a spray bottle and put the mixture into it to give inside of the gloves several spritzes.

• You can also use apple cider vinegar or white vinegar to sanitize your gloves.
• If you have an anti-fungal or antibacterial issue, you can add tea tree oil up to 10 drops to the vinegar and water mixture.

There is a tip; you should not spray your gloves with harsh chemicals. Also, avoid harsh cleaning so your gloves safe from any damage. Also, harsh cleaning chemicals react with your skin.

Moreover, there are some products, such as Febreze. You should not use this type of product for cleaning purposes because these not kill bacteria actually. It can be a reason of stiffness of gloves. So avoid using them.

Step 1.4 Clean the Outside of the Gloves

When you spray inside using vinegar and water solution, you should also clean the gloves from outside. Just a light mist is enough to coat both gloves. After cleaning from outside with vinegar and water solution, you should wipe them out with a clean piece of cloth or towel. Make sure you have cleaned from every corner, so there is no dirt, sweat, and any other particle left.

Step 1.5 Condition the Gloves

Conditioning of gloves is most important if the gloves are made of leather. The leather material gloves need to be condition properly. Because the leather material can dry out instantly. For this purpose, you can make a homemade condition by using lemon essential oil or can buy commercially. There are so many leather conditioners available on the market. Let’s know about how to condition the gloves!

Firstly, apply some drops of conditioner to the outside of the gloves. Now get a lint-free cloth and move on its upper material in a circulation motion. Let the oil work on the leather. When you have conditioned all over, then wipe off using a clean cloth or towel so all excess will remove.

Read Buyer’s Guide on Best Boxing Gloves

Step 2: Dry the Gloves

Step 2.1 Air Dry the Gloves

As we have told you, the bacterial likes to live inside the gloves to feed sweat and moisture. Therefore, it needs to keep your gloves dry. When you have completed the sanitizing from the inside, you should dry them in the air so that the bacterial will completely remove. There is a need to follow these steps:

• You should open the wrist straps as much as possible so that as the wider, the more air gets inside. The dry air removes any sweat or moisture so that bacteria will not get trapped.
• You can also lay down the gloves in a well-ventilated place. If you are placing them in a room, then you should put them near the window and make sure the window is open. Also, you can put them in front of the fan.

For those persons, who don’t want to sanitize the gloves after every use. Those people should let the gloves dry out in the air.

Step 2.2 Stuff the Gloves with Newspaper

If you don’t want to dry out in the air, you can use a paper or newspaper to stuff them so that the paper can absorb the excess of moisture or sweat. To stuff them with paper, you should follow this tip:

Firstly you will need to crinkle up a few sheets of paper into two loose balls. Now stuff one inside in both gloves and leave them for hours. After a couple of hours, you should check the paper, and you will have noticed that it has become saturated with moisture. Now you should replace the balls with fresh ones.

Step 2.3 Use a Blow Dryer

In case you have many fights in a day, or there is no time to dry them in air, then you can use a blow dryer to dry your gloves quickly. There is no else better way to dry your gloves out quickly. But there is one thing that is considerable. To dry out the gloves, you should set your blow dryer with a cool setting. The reason is, the heat can damage the glove’s skin or might be your glove harden if there are made of leather.

So you will need to turn the cool setting on and direct its nozzle inside the mouth of gloves. You can check the moisture by putting your hands in gloves after five-minute intervals. When it is completely dry, repeat the same process with others.

Step 2.4  Avoid leaving your gloves in the sun

No doubt, the sunlight is a great way to dry the gloves out. But the utmost sunshine can kill the bacteria but also damage your gloves. So don’t leave the gloves in the sunlight for more time.

Don’t leave them for more than 20 minutes if there is a high temperature. If the temperature is normal, 30 minutes is enough in the sun for your gloves.

Step 3: Making the Gloves Smell Nice [Removes Gloves Smell]

Step 3.1 Neutralize bad odors

To neutralize bad odors, there is no good solution instead of baking soda. It is a universal deodorizer, and it works high efficiently against the bad odors. When you have dried out the gloves, you should sprinkle a couple of pinches of baking soda inside the gloves and let them in for few hours.

You can bang out the gloves to remove the baking soda.

Step 3.2 Use dryer sheets

When you have finished the cleaning or drying process, it needs to use dryer sheets and wipe down the inside of each glove with the dryer sheet. We recommend you leave a half sheet until the next time you use them. Use dryer sheets with both pairs.

Step 3.3 Use cedar chips

The cedar chips help to make your gloves odor nice. It absorbs all the left moisture and bacteria. However, it’s optional, but we recommend to use cedar chips to enhance the lifespan of your gloves. To use cedar chips, you should follow these steps.

Firstly, get a pair of cotton socks. Fill both the socks with cedar chips. When you filled, tie them loosely and put them in each glove. It makes the gloves smell great and absorb any excess of moisture and bacteria.

Step 3.4  Use Essential Oils

The most simple way to make your gloves nice is to is essential oils. Also, there are some essential gloves that are good for antibacterial and anti-fungal. Get preferred essential. Put a few drops into a spray a bottle with 240ml water. Shake the mixture until they mix properly. It is the best solution to make your gloves odor nice. However, the best essential oils for antibacterial and anti-fungal include:

• Orange juice
• Peppermint
• Eucalyptus
• Lemongrass

Read About : Ringside Boxing Gloves Review – Top Rated List of 2020

FAQs [Frequently Asked Questions]

Can I put boxing gloves on the washing machines?

Well, it wouldn’t suggest putting your gloves into the machine for washing. It can damage your gloves to shreds.

How to keep gloves clean?

• Cleaning and Sanitizing the Gloves
• Drying the Gloves
• Making the Gloves Smell Nice

Is hand wrap important?

If you want extra protection dryer hand, then hand wraps important. Also, they absorb the excess of moisture and sweat.

Conclusion (Final Words on How to Clean Boxing Gloves)

All in all, it is important to clean your gloves properly so that you will be safe from skin infections. Also, proper cleaning enhances the lifetime of your gloves. Well, we have provided the best cleaning way against How to Clean, Wash and Deodorize Boxing Gloves. Hope so; you found this post useful. Thank you for visiting!