Cleaning Your Gloves After Use
Clap your gloves together after games and practices. Your gloves will likely pick up lots of dirt or clay during practices and games. Clap the gloves together a few times after each use. This will help loosen and remove any excess debris.
Brush your gloves lightly with a dry leather brush. When you get home, use a dry leather brush to get rid of any dirt that didn’t come off when you clapped the gloves together. Be sure to brush lightly, as applying too much pressure might damage the leather’s fibers. You can find a dry leather brush at a leather goods store, shoe store, or sporting goods store.
Wipe your gloves with a leather cleaning wipe. If you need to spot clean your gloves after play, you can give them a quick wipe with a disposable leather cleaning pad. Make sure any wipes you purchase are marked safe for leather. Avoid using baby wipes or any cleaning wipes not marked for leather. These typically contain alcohol, which is bad for leather.
Washing Leather Batting Gloves
Rub the gloves with a solution of lukewarm water and detergent. Fill a cup or bowl with lukewarm water and add two or three drops of alcohol-free detergent. Soak a soft rag in the solution and gently rub the gloves with it. Turn the gloves inside out and wash their interiors with the rag.
Rinse the gloves under cool water. Hold the gloves under a gentle stream of cool, running water. Rinse them just enough to remove any suds, but don’t completely saturate them. Rinse the insides then turn them right side out and rinse the exteriors.
Soak up excess moisture then air dry the gloves. After rinsing the gloves, use a clean, dry towel to soak up excess water. Turn the gloves inside out again and squeeze the towel around them to ring out moisture. Then turn them right side out, towel dry the outsides, and hang them to completely air dry. Hang your gloves away from direct sunlight to air dry.
Treat the leather with a conditioner. When the gloves of are dry, apply a leather or glove conditioner to the leather palms. Use a clean, lint-free cloth to rub a small amount of conditioner onto the surface, let it set for a few minutes, then use another cloth to wipe the gloves once more. Use a baseball glove conditioner, leather shoe conditioner, or other treatment designed for leather.
Cleaning Synthetic Gloves in a Washing Machine
Check your gloves’ care instructions label. Before machine washing your batting gloves, be sure to check their care instructions, which you can find on their tags or in their original packaging. Most synthetic gloves are machine washable and this method is recommended by some manufacturers. If you can’t find any information about machine washing your synthetic gloves, you should hand wash them as you would leather gloves just to be safe.
Use a cold water setting and non-bleach detergent. If your synthetic gloves are machine washable, wash them on a cold setting. Avoid using bleach or fabric softener, and use only a non-bleach detergent. Add an antibacterial denture cleanser tablet to the wash to remove strong odors.
Avoid machine drying or ironing your gloves. When your wash cycle is finished, wring out your gloves in a dry towel if you need to remove any excess water. Hang your gloves out of direct sunlight to air dry them. Putting your gloves in a dryer or ironing them will shrink them, so be sure to air dry them only.
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