How to Wash a BJJ Gi (and Make It…

A good gi should last you years – even with you training daily in a desperate bid to claim the top podium spot at the Blackpool open. Most don’t make it to two, and it’s not the training that kills them. It’s the tumble dryer, the 60-degree wash, and the night it spent zipped in a bag in the boot of your car. Your Gi is one of the only bits of ‘equipment’ required for jiu-jitsu, and taking care of it isn’t difficult. 

Here’s how to wash a BJJ gi properly, how to stop it shrinking, how to get the smell out, and the bit about your own skin that nobody tells white belts.

How often should you wash your gi?

Every session. Not every other session. Not “when it starts to smell”, because by the time you can smell it, so can everyone you’ve rolled with.

If you train three or four times a week, buy a second gi. Two gis rotated, each getting a full day to dry, will outlast one gi that’s always slightly damp. It’s the best money you’ll spend on kit.

How to wash it

1. Out of the bag the second you’re home. Even if it’s not going in the machine tonight, hang it up. A wet gi in a closed bag is a science experiment.
2. Inside out. Protects the patches and gets the detergent onto the side that was on your skin.
3. Tie the trousers. A loose drawstring wraps round the drum and pulls at the seams.
4. Cold or 30 degrees. Heat shrinks cotton. Modern detergent cleans fine at low temperatures, so there’s no reason to go hotter on a pre-shrunk gi.
5. Normal detergent. No fabric softener. Softener coats the weave, locks sweat and smell in, and makes your sleeves slippery to grip, which your training partners will love and your coach won’t.
6. Don’t cram the machine. A heavy gi needs room to move. Wash it on its own or with the rest of your training kit.
7. Hang it to dry.

Drying: where gis go to die

Don’t tumble dry it. That’s how a gi that fitted on Monday ends up fitting your nephew by Friday, and it breaks down the weave faster than anything else you’ll ever do to it.

Hang it on a hanger or over a rail, jacket open, trousers by the waistband. Give the collar some air. It’s the thickest bit, it’s the slowest to dry, and a collar that stays damp is where the smell lives.

Indoors is fine. Coloured gis fade in strong sun, so keep those in the shade. White gis can go outside, on the rare days the weather lets you.

Does a BJJ gi shrink? Most decent gis are pre-shrunk and barely move if you wash cold and hang dry. Unshrunk cotton will drop a size or so on a hot wash. If you’ve bought one with room to shrink, follow the maker’s guidance and do it once, on purpose. Otherwise, cold wash, off the dryer, job done.

Getting the smell out

If your gi still smells when it comes out of the machine, the smell’s in the fibres, not on the surface, and another normal wash won’t touch it.

• Soak it first. An hour in cold water with an oxygen-based laundry booster before a normal wash shifts what one cycle leaves behind.
• Or white vinegar. Half a cup in the drum on a cold wash.
• No chlorine bleach on coloured gis. Go carefully on white ones too. It weakens cotton.
• Check the machine. If everything you wash comes out smelling, it’s the drum, not the gi. Run it empty on a hot wash with a machine cleaner once a month.

The proper fix is not letting it start. Out of the bag, hung up, washed the same night.

Rashguards, spats and shorts

Same rules, gentler. Synthetic fabric holds sweat right against your skin and dries fast, which is brilliant on the mat and grim in a bag.

• One wear, one wash. A rashguard under a gi still counts as worn. It’s done more work than the gi has.
• Cold, inside out, no softener.
• Hang to dry. Never tumble dry. Never iron a printed rashguard unless you want the print to come off in bits.

And yes, wash your belt

There’s a tradition that you don’t wash your belt. The tradition is wrong.

Your belt spends every session being dragged across the mat, gripped by sweaty hands and tied over a wet gi. It isn’t sacred. It’s a strip of cotton that’s been on the floor. Wash it with your gi, cold, and hang it up. It’ll fade a bit. A faded clean belt beats a crisp filthy one every time.

The bit nobody tells you: your skin

A clean gi on a sweaty body is half the job. You’ve just spent an hour wrapped round a dozen people on a shared mat. Whatever was on them and on the mat is now on you.

• Shower as soon as you can. Twenty minutes after training makes a difference. Two hours later, after the drive home and your tea, is a different story.
• Scrub, with your own soap. Soap needs a bit of friction to lift sweat and grime off your skin, which is why a bar works so well: you physically can’t use one without running it over yourself. Keep one that’s yours and nobody else’s. If you want one made for this, we make our BJJ soap bars for exactly that.
• Your own towel. Never the gym’s. Never your mate’s.
• Short nails. Fingers and toes. Long nails cut people and carry whatever’s under them.
• Anything on your skin you can’t explain, get it looked at before you train. A pharmacist will tell you if it’s nothing or a week off. Nobody worth training with gives you grief for asking.

Quick answers

What temperature should I wash my gi at? Cold or 30 degrees.

Can I tumble dry my gi? No. Hang it up.

How often should I wash my gi? After every session.

Can I use fabric softener? No. It traps sweat and smell in the weave.

How do I get the smell out? Pre-soak with an oxygen booster or add white vinegar to a cold wash, then hang it to dry properly.

Should I wash my BJJ belt? Yes. Cold, with your gi.

The short version

Out of the bag when you get home. Inside out, trousers tied, cold wash, no softener. Hang it up, keep it off the dryer. Two gis if you train a lot. Then shower, scrub with your own soap, and use your own towel.

Look after your gi and it’ll see you through a fair few belts.

Written by Eddie at Combat Sports Hygiene, UK makers of hygiene products for grapplers and hygiene partners of the UKBJJA, SAFE MMA, the British Wrestling Association and EMMAA.