How to safely wash & care for your activewear
Why should I care for my activewear?
Your activewear goes through a lot of stretching and movement compared to the average pair of trousers. In fact, if you’re anything like us - we wear out leggings anywhere and everywhere! So that little TLC will make your leggings run a long way (see what we did there?).
How often should I care for my activewear?
When it comes to activewear - you have to take a little bit of extra care with them, but we’ll show you just how easy it is to clean your activewear in this guide.
Ideally, you should wash your activewear after every use. Otherwise, your leggings can build up layers upon layers of bacteria - and that’s not what you want!
If you’re not able to wash your leggings right away - always put them out flat (or hung up) to air-dry before placing them in your laundry basket as usual.
Care for your activewear
How to wash activewear
There’s a specific way to safely wash your activewear leggings. For our Lacuna leggings, we recommend you always wash them on a cold wash - or hand wash for a gentle clean that helps preserve the legging’s shape. Never apply bleach products to leggings either, as this will cause discolouration.
Use a mesh laundry bag to protect your activewear from rough fabrics, zips and buttons when in the washing machine with other items. We also recommend turning activewear leggings inside out before placing in the washing machine, as this will help further protect the outer layer of fabric that’s on show.
Plus, most washing machines have an active wash cycle (sometimes called sport cycle). It’s great for effective yet gentle stain removal for your activewear!
Mesh bags like this will keep your items protected in the wash
How to handwash workout leggings:
- Let your activewear leggings air dry completely
- Place your leggings in cold tap water inside out (hot water can break down the elasticity in your leggings!)
- Use a handwash detergent only
- Fabric softeners can cause a coating on your leggings, trapping dirt and nasty smells
- Hang them out to air-dry completely before wearing again.
Should I wash my activewear separately?
It’s a good idea to separate your activewear and non-active wear purely because of the temperature you’ll be washing your activewear in. However, if you plan on doing a cold wash, then it’s safe to wash your activewear leggings in with the rest of your laundry.
Treat stains on activewear
Sweat stains, especially on lighter coloured fabric, are inevitable. This amazing guide on stain removal on all kinds of fabric is incredibly useful - even beyond treating stains on leggings!
Drying
Keeping your leggings flat and out to air dry prevents them from wrinkling. Never put your activewear in a dryer, as the harshness of a tumble dryer can potentially cause holes and snags in your leggings (and stop you looking fabulous - we don’t want that!). So play it safe and hang them out to dry outdoors or on a clothes horse.
Pilling
Wondering how to get fuzzies off leggings? Some activewear fabrics, especially the softer ones, are prone to pilling after lots of use. Pilling can be found in the backside and crotch areas in particular, and don’t look good at all. However, that's no reason to throw your most-loved activewear away!
How to remove pilling from leggings
Simply get a small pair of scissors or a disposable razor to easily remove the pills by snipping them (carefully!), or running the razor blade over the surface. The pills will come away, leaving your items looking good as new!
Are your leggings pilling? No problem! Simply sweep away with a sharp razor
Repair
Wondering how to repair leggings? We found a great resource by Sewing Is Cool which guides you through how to repair holes in your leggings at home with a sewing machine.
This might not be ideal, but typically, all stretchy fabrics need to be repaired with a sewing machine, as normal stitches will pop out when the fabric is stretched in some way. Leggings are made with stretch fabric, so we highly recommend going to an alteration shop if you don’t have access to a machine and you want to salvage your leggings.
Recycle your leggings
Even with the best care and repair in the world, we know nothing lasts forever. Make sure you recycle your activewear items once you can no longer use them. This keeps the materials in circulation to be repurposed into something new, rather than shoved into landfill.
You can take them to your local recycling centre, or you can send them back to us and we’ll recycle them for you!
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