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Caring for Your Gi

"The single best way to care for your gi is to wash it as soon as possible, every time it is worn. This keeps infections from spreading, prevents taps by stench, and keep white gis white, more than anything else you do.

Like a belt, a well worn gi can be a beautiful thing. But there's a big difference between a well worn gi and one that causes tap-by-stench, not to mention staph or ringworm. There are a few things you can do to make sure your gi looks good and lasts as long as possible.

1) When you first get your gi and before the first wash, soak it in a bath tub with 1-2 cups white vinegar and enough cold water to completely submerse your uniform. Most companies recommend this for colored uniforms, but white uniforms are also dyed. Soaking them in vinegar for at least 20-30 minutes will set the color. Adding a half cup of white vinegar each time you wash will help too, but this can be a little expensive, and will make you smell a little odd.

2) To make sure your gi lasts as long as possible, wash it by itself in cold water, on the gentlest cycle, and hang dry. The spin cycle of your washing machine wears out fibers, especially the lapel, faster than any amount of use. Bleach also breaks down the fibers of the gi, so use color safe detergents only.

3) To kill bacteria and keep a white gi white, use a good detergent. Adding 1/2 cup Borax (available at Walmart near the detergents) will keep the gi whiter and get rid of any left-over smell. If you don't want borax powder dusting off your gi, mix the borax, detergent, and water in the machine first, then add your uniform. Even better, let your uniform soak in the mix overnight, then start the wash cycle in the morning.

4) Special care for white gis:
For the most part, the yellow tint on older kimonos have doesn't come from dye wearing off, it comes from allowing sweat to dry on the gi. After a long night of training, it's easy to shove your soaked, stinky gi into your bag and forget about it for a few days, but this not only stains the gi, it gives bacteria time to grow and could be fatal to any family member who happens to discover your athletic bag. The single best way to care for your gi is to wash it as soon as possible, every time it is worn. This keeps infections from spreading, prevents taps by stench, and keep white gis white, more than anything else you do.

While taking care of your gi might seem more like a home economics class than a jiu jitsu strategy, a clean gi has more practical benefits than you might realize. More opponents translates into better jiu jitsu. Make sure it's your arm bar, and not your odor, that your opponent fears.
 


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