For a soccer goalkeeper, their goalie gloves are probably the most important piece of equipment next to their soccer cleats. When balls are being fired at you at high speed and with all kinds of spin, you need to have every bit of help you can possibly get, and a good pair of goalie gloves will do just that for you.
However, just like any other piece of sports equipment, you need to take proper care of them for them to be able to take proper care of you. Washing your soccer goalie gloves is a critical piece of that care, and many people are not sure how to go about doing it. For that matter, many people don’t even bother with it at all, which is truly a shame because not only does not taking care of your goalie gloves shorten their usable lifespan, but it also leads to you having very, very smelly hands when you’re done with a training session or a game. These are both very simple to avoid by simply washing your gloves on a regular basis. The good news is that it is really very simple to keep your gloves clean, and we’ll take a quick look at the best way to do that now.
Many people are concerned about whether they should use this specialty cleaner or that dish soap on their gloves or not. The simple answer is that you don’t need anything more than warm water to keep your gloves adequately clean. In fact, if you think about it, why would you want to put soap on your goalie gloves? Soap is slippery, right? Do you want something slippery on your gloves? No, of course you don’t. However, after diving around in the dirt, mud and grass, you definitely want to get them as clean as possible for your next session.
Probably the easiest thing you can do is to just make a habit of taking your gloves with you into the shower after each of your sessions. Before you start soaping yourself up, just run your gloves under the warm water while rubbing them together to get all the mud and grass off of them. Open them up and let the water flow into the gloves as well because undoubtedly there will be some dirt inside as well, not to mention rinsing out all the sweat build up in there will keep you from smelling like a locker room (or worse) after each time you take your gloves off.
Don’t put your goalie gloves in a dryer unless you are 100% sure that it is set to NO HEAT. The last thing you want (other than putting slippery soap all over your gloves) is to melt them in the dryer. Ideally you want to just let the gloves sit out for a day or so, or until your next use, to let them dry completely. If for some reason you are unable to do that, you can tumble them in the dryer, but again, make sure it is set to NO HEAT.
This procedure is very quick, easy and simple, but it will make a huge difference to you as far as the longevity of your gloves. And unless you are playing professionally and have an endless supply of gloves at your ready disposal, this is probably an important thing for you. I know it is for me.
So go on now… go to your next training session or game ready to make those brilliant saves. Just remember to wash those soccer goalie gloves when you’re done!