Gi Cleaning Tips

By Michael B. 

If you’ve been training for any length of time, you’ve probably rolled with someone whose gi looked and smelled like it predates Noah’s Ark. You may have also been that person without knowing it. And if you’ve ever held up your gi after a training camp and genuinely couldn’t identify the origin of a stain, this post definitely applies to you.

 

The cleanliness of your gi is a form of respect—for your training partners, for yourself, and for the art. BJJ demands a lot from your body and your mind. Treating your equipment with basic care is the least complicated way to honor that investment, and it takes little time, money, or effort.

 

Here’s what actually works.

 

The most important rule: wash it immediately. Not the next morning, not when you get around to it. When you get home, it goes in the machine. A damp gi sitting in a bag is a bacterial incubator, and the smell it produces is not something cold water fixes later.

 

Always use cold water. Heat permanently sets protein-based stains like sweat and blood, so warm water is working against you even when the gi looks clean going in.

 

Wash it on its own. Gis are thick and need room to move through the water properly, and washing it separately keeps your other laundry from catching whatever the gi picked up on the mat.

 

For detergent, use Tide Ultra OXI White and Bright, which is specifically formulated to brighten whites in cold water and is also color safe. Add OxiClean White Revive as a booster and Lysol Laundry Sanitizer to kill the bacteria responsible for odors. Lysol Sanitizer is designed to work at cold temperatures, so you’re not trading cleanliness for stain protection. For any set-in stains, the OxiClean gel stick applied directly before washing handles them without any soaking or additional steps.

 

If your machine has a bright whites cycle, use it. Just set the temperature to cold if your machine allows it, as many modern machines do. The extended agitation and extra rinse are worth having.

 

For drying, the dryer is where gis shrink and collars warp. Use the ultra low heat or air-only setting, or lay it flat on a drying rack.

 

Everything above applies. Cold water matters even more here since warm water fades dye over time. Skip the White Revive and use a color-safe sport detergent instead. The Lysol Sanitizer and OxiClean gel stick still work great. Same drying rules.

 

Your belt absorbs just as much sweat as the rest of your gi. Wash it. There is a persistent myth that washing your belt washes away your rank, which is not a real thing. What is a real thing is the smell of a belt that has never seen detergent. Cold water, same sanitizer, air dry or ultra low heat.

 

That’s it. The people you train with will notice, and so will your gi three years from now when it still fits and doesn’t look or smell like a prehistoric dishrag.