The best part of doing laundry is pulling warm, freshly cleaned clothes out of the dryer. Who doesn’t love that smell? Well, maybe athletes. Sometimes, workout clothes can still stink! Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be a permanent problem. Let’s talk about why your clean laundry still smells bad and what you can do about it.
Don’t Be Fooled
It’s important to start by pointing out that you might still a have a problem even if you think your clothes smell fine when they come out of the dryer. If you use a detergent that employs a powerful fragrance as part of its formula, that fragrance may be the only thing you smell when the clothes are finished drying. However, as time goes by and the fragrance fades, those same clothes might start to smell less and less appealing...
Unfortunately, some people decide that when their clean laundry starts to smell dirty, the solution is to buy a detergent with even more fragrance to cover up the problem. Don’t make this mistake! Piling on more smells will not get to the root of the issue. Instead, what you want to do is find a detergent that is actually capable of cleaning your clothes properly, without any need to mask a funky odor at the end of the cycle.
Some Laundry Science
We don’t want to bore you with the details of how clean clothes can come out smelling bad. However, we do want to provide the basics of how this happens, so you can understand the problem and find a solution. Here’s what you need to know:
- For years, most articles of clothing were made out of cotton fibers. Cotton has many great properties when used for clothing, such as breathability and softness against the skin. However, it holds onto water, which means garments get wet and heavy during sweaty athletic activities.
- To solve this problem, clothing manufacturers have started to make activewear garments from synthetic fibers. The difference is incredible. These new garments don’t absorb water, making them far more comfortable for a long list of activities. Today, nearly all activewear is made from some type of synthetic material, and many casual items include synthetics, as well.
- While the performance of synthetic garments is excellent, they tend to hold on to stink—even after they’ve been washed. The problem is bacteria. When you sweat, you leave oils behind on your garments. Oils can become trapped, especially in synthetics (as they expel the water, they keep the oils in). The oils attract bacteria, and it’s actually the gas the bacteria produce from digesting the oils that smells so unpleasant. To wipe out the smell, wipe out the oils that attract those bacteria.
In the end, what you are looking for is a detergent that attacks the oils in your clothes, rather than trying to cover up the smell with a powerful fragrance. If the oils are eliminated during the wash cycle, the smell will be gone, and your clean clothes will finally be truly clean. However, most regular detergents are designed for cotton, which leaves the oils trapped inside your workout clothes, and you wind up with clean laundry that still smells bad. The solution? Use a dedicated sportswear detergent, like WIN Detergent.
Synthetics In Casual Clothing
But dedicated sportswear detergent isn’t just for sportswear, because synthetics aren’t used strictly in sportswear, either.
A funny thing has happened since synthetic fibers took over the activewear market: they have made their way into many other segments of the clothing market, as well. It turns out that the same features that make synthetic fibers attractive for sports make them attractive for everyday life, too. After all, you probably sweat plenty during regular day-to-day activities, not just when you’re exercising.
Since virtually all of your activewear and much of the rest of your wardrobe will feature synthetic fibers, it only makes sense to turn to a detergent that is designed to care for such materials.
Try WIN Detergent
Using the right detergent can go a long way to ensure your clean clothes actually smell clean. Order a bottle of WIN Activewear Detergent today to see what a difference our product can make. With WIN Detergent, you will be able to successfully eliminate the oils that have built up in your synthetic clothing, and that lingering stench should be a problem of the past. Finally, you can look forward to opening your dryer door and breathing in that clean clothes smell time after time.