Football gloves can become the leading culprit in why your equipment smells. Gloves can be overused and underappreciated and find themselves wadded up and left in the corner of your bag with all that excess dirt and miscellaneous debris.

Once those gloves take on a film of dirt, they become less productive for game use. Soil can take the natural feel of grip away from them and make you feel helpless during play.

The only thing that will bring life back to them is simply cleaning them.

Can you even wash football gloves? The answer is yes.

There are a few ways to wash your football gloves and get them feeling and smelling like new. Having gloves that function correctly is the main objective of cleaning them.

Getting them back to their natural tact to give the user a better grip is essential, and how you do it can make or break how long you’ll have to wait to use them.

The best way to clean them is to simply wash them with soap and water. You’ll first want to put the gloves on and wash your hands in cold water as if you have no gloves on. Scrub them with soap and water, and don’t forget between the fingers. Dish soap can also be an excellent substitute for getting them squeaky clean.

I wouldn’t recommend washing just before game time; they will need some time to dry. If you have time, clean them the night before, towel dry them, and let them completely dry overnight.

If time has slipped by and we need functional gloves as soon as possible, using cleaning wipes can get the gloves back to a usable and sticky state just before game time.

If you don’t have time to clean them, but you’ll need to get the stickiness back in them, spitting on them may not be the best at making them “clean,” and they will become sticky again.

The saliva will bind with the dirt and debris and remove the dirt film layer that prevents them from being sticky and functional.