Washing & Caring for Rashguards and Fight Shorts
Mat gear lives a hard life. A few simple rules keep it performing — and stop it smelling.
Technical fabrics are tougher than they look, but they don’t forgive heat and fabric softener. Treat your gear right and it keeps its compression, its colour, and — crucially — its smell under control for years.
Wash it cold, and wash it soon
Get sweaty gear out of your bag the moment you’re home. Bacteria thrive in a warm, damp, balled-up rashguard, and that’s where permanent odour starts. Turn garments inside out, wash on a cold cycle, and don’t let kit fester overnight.
No fabric softener. Ever.
This is the one that catches everyone. Fabric softener coats synthetic fibres in a waxy film that clogs the weave — it kills the moisture-wicking, traps odour-causing bacteria, and slowly wrecks the stretch. Skip it entirely. A normal detergent dose is all you need.
Care Tip
Stubborn smell that survives a wash? Soak the garment in a 50/50 cold water and white vinegar mix for 20–30 minutes before washing. It neutralises odour without the fabric damage of bleach.
Keep it away from heat
Heat is the enemy of elastane. Never tumble dry rashguards or fight shorts — the dryer cooks the stretch out of them and shrinks panels unevenly. Air dry instead, ideally on a hanger out of direct sunlight to protect the print.
A word on shorts
If your Muay Thai or kickboxing shorts have a Velcro fly or closure, fasten it before washing — open Velcro snags and pills everything it touches in the drum, including your rashguards.
Five minutes of care per session. That’s the whole game.
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