How to sanitize gymnastics grips

November 6, 2015 4:28 PM

My daughter's been doing gymnastics for several years, and a stinky problem keeps developing. After a season of work on the bars, the grips she uses for that get really funky.

The grips consist of a wide leather strap with holes for two fingers and a nylon strap at one end that goes around the wrist.

What I've been doing is using saddle soap on the leather, which is sort of thick suede, and Woolite on the nylon. When dry after, the leather is very stiff and hard. I've been working it back and forth to loosen it up, and wire-brushing the surface to soften it. This produces fairly good results, but is a lot of work, and is pretty hard on the leather.

I think she's going to outgrow this pair of grips soon, and wonder if there is a treatment we could put on new ones that would prevent bacterial growth, or a better remedial treatment than what I've been doing. Anyone Know?

posted by Kirth Gerson to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (13 answers total)

No specific ideas, but you might look at treatments for hockey equipment, in particular gloves (which often have leather palms) and goalie gear. Because that stuff can get NASTY.
posted by St. Hubbins at 4:35 PM on November 6, 2015

Stick them in a ziplock and freeze them for a few days? It should kill a lot of the stinky bacteria without harming the leather. You could also try a bit of tea tree oil, which is a natural antimicrobial.
posted by zug at 4:37 PM on November 6, 2015

Not a gymnast, but a rock climber. Our leather shoes get pretty bad. The key to having sweaty leather not stink is to not have bacteria grow in the first place. That means keeping them dry. For my climbing shoes, I pull them out of my bag as soon as possible and stick a couple of these desiccant packs in each one. Once a pair starts to stink a little, they very quickly start to stink a lot.

Since the gymnast strap is much easier to dry than a shoe, it's probably from your daughter storing them in her gym bag. If they're not too expensive, buy another pair and always have her hang them up to dry.

I've tried the freezer trick (and it doesn't seem to kill the bacteria, at best they go dormant). E coli survives -80F. I've tried peroxide and that does help (slightly less destructive than a trip through a washing machine or full washing). Lysol was about as good as peroxide. Nothing is as good as not letting it get stinky in the first place.
posted by just.good.enough at 4:48 PM on November 6, 2015

I wonder if, on the desiccant front, you could fill some socks or tights with rice and put those in a larger bag (like a shaving kit or lined makeup bag) so your daughter could throw it in there as soon as she's done.

Alternately, maybe it could be clipped to a handle of her bag with a carabiner or similar so it's out in circulating air?
posted by Lyn Never at 5:14 PM on November 6, 2015

When I was playing roller derby, pad stank was A Definite Thing. The only thing that seemed to really help was washing very regularly, and airing all my kit out for as long as possible after training, so that it wasn't, like, stewing in its own (my own) rankness.

(Most of my pads were synthetic foams and plastics, but I sprang for very high-end wrist guards that were part-leather, and this served just fine.)
posted by kalimac at 5:32 PM on November 6, 2015

+1 for drying. I have a ski boot dryer (similar to this one), and I put rock-climbing shoes, cleats, Frisbee gloves, and of course ski boots on it. It works wonders, as long as you have an outdoor area to use it in.

Get one like the linked one where you can turn the heating element on or off; heat is great for ski boots but it seems like it might ruin climbing shoes.
posted by Dilligas at 7:07 PM on November 6, 2015

Sunshine is a wonderful bleach. After washing the gear, as mentioned by others, stick it out in the sun for a day, and a lot of funk will vanish.
posted by colin_l at 7:42 PM on November 6, 2015

Sunshine is a wonderful bleach.

Yes, but unfortunately, sunshine eats nylon.
posted by Bruce H. at 8:00 PM on November 6, 2015

Spray'm with tilex. Rinse 4 hours later and air dry.
posted by mercredi at 8:40 PM on November 6, 2015

mercredi, I'm not sure if you're serious, but the MSDS for Tilex makes me reluctant to have my daughter's skin sweating into and abrading on the stuff. I'm also not sure that mold or mildew is the cause of the problem, rather than bacteria.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 8:20 AM on November 7, 2015

In my area, there are several businesses that use ozone generators to destink athletic equipment (like hockey equipment, for example). On investigating, it looks like they're not ridiculous expensive to purchase small units for home use - but it might be worth looking into whether there's a business near you that already does this. (If you buy your own, you can use it for other equipment as time goes on - but maybe not worth the expense.)
posted by VioletU at 9:10 AM on November 7, 2015

I'm not a gymnast, but how particular is your daughter about her grips? Could she be happy rotating two pairs instead of always using the same ones? Natural fibers like leather benefit hugely from being able to thoroughly dry (2+ days) between uses (same principle applies to nice shoes).
posted by telegraph at 9:46 AM on November 7, 2015

That might be an option, if she can remember to swap them, and if there aren't variations between the pairs that would affect her routine. She's doing Giants, and introducing a variable could be disastrous.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 11:05 AM on November 7, 2015