How To Not (Literally) Stink

 In this episode of the Beer Leaguer Podcast  we’re talking about those teammates that stink.
Literally.
Mason joins me to talk about how we keep our gear from stinking and why it's actually good for equipment longevity to put a little care into it.

[Note: We don't touch on the services for cleaning your gear, because while they are out there, they're not available near us. Thus we have not tried them.]

Episode Links:
DeadSpin article
Green Enzyme Cleaner
Staph and Your Gear
The Utty (gear hanger)
Beer Leaguer Gear Cleaning Video
Shock Doctor Dryer (long since sold out)

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Music by RomaRecord1973 via Pixabay

Chapters

• 5:54 How We Clean Our Equipment
• 14:41 Does Foam Padding Degrade?
• 15:37 Washing Gloves Without Destroying Them
• 25:25 DIY Gear Spray Rundown

Transcript

0:21

In this episode of the Beer Leaguer Podcast, we're talking about those teammates that stink. Literally. Like, their gear actually smells foul. Mason joins me to talk about all the hows and whys of cleaning your gear, so you can stop smelling like a dead animal and actually help your equipment to last longer. And. Everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. this episode, joined once again by Mason howdy. And this show we're going to talk about, something that I think is near and dear to everybody in one way or the other, washing your gear because you shouldn't stink. we're getting to the point of the season where I think most cities fall slash winter leagues are wrapping up. So, you know, probably planning what you're doing for summer if you play summer hockey or if you don't do anything over the summer for hockey, or maybe just play pickup or something like that. Or maybe you play outdoors, and that means that your gear is probably not getting the use that normally does. Probably getting, you know, left behind in a garage or your basement or wherever you put your gear for a couple extra weeks more than normal. And that is the perfect time to wash your gear. So before we get into, I think some of the stuff of how we wash our gear and stuff, I wanted to point out a couple of reasons why you should wash your gear. and feel free to chime in if you have other ones or any thoughts on this. Okay. Okay. What it actually does if you wash your gear properly, it helps your stuff last longer. So all your gear, it'll help last longer if you give it proper cleaning and maintenance too. Nobody likes a stinky guy. I know there's the thing of one of these dumb hockey. I don't know, bro kind of rules of I don't want to wash the, the goals out of my stuff or something like that. No, nobody likes a guy that smells. Just don't pass on to that. We've all been around that personal locker room who obviously is, you know. Oh, yeah. I've left my stuff in the trunk of my car. You know, since our last game a week and a half ago. Yeah, and it reeks. Nobody likes to open their bag, and it's like, oh, no, that guy's here. Yeah, that. That's. No one likes that guy. I don't care what you think. Nobody likes that guy. and finally just. It's a safety thing. I know a alarming amount of people that have gotten, staph infections from their gear and stem infections is kind of the worst part. But I know people that also get weird rashes and just issues like that because their gear is not clean, you know, and especially if you're not wearing anything underneath some of your gear, which a lot of people don't, then yeah, if you don't keep your gear clean, just think about that's just it's kind of like if you went and had your like certain clothes you wear to go workout in and then you work out in them every day or whatever and just keep putting them on, you know, like, let me, let me just go put on my, workout underpants today and go for another. Well, that analogy and and just, it's well, because they're going to be I mean, think like, that's what you're that's what you're you're protective gear. And I even talk about a base layer, your protective gear. That's what you're doing. Yeah. So think about if you go for a workout, you're nice and sweaty. You go, like, peel off all your clothes that are drenched. And a couple days later, you go put them back on. I mean, they're going to be dry, but they're going to be crusty and gross. yeah. I mean, we could do a whole talk about this, but like, some people just leave that shit in their bag and it's, like, still wet. Yes, that's what I mean. That's like. It's disgusting. Like, if you think about it, you. Like I said, you can feel that when I say that. You can tell what that feels like, and that's gross. But that's what you're doing with your pads even if you don't wash them. Yeah. Well, even to like, add on to it, if you leave it in the garage forever or you leave it, you know, in a shed, you don't know what's on your gear, you can have rodents and bugs. Like anything. Carrying some fucking disease would just be all over your gear and you'll never even know. I had someone I used to play with. He would leave his gear in his garage. we played summer hockey, so he'd leave his gear in the garage over the winter. He had cats the start of every season. He'd be having to clean off Cappie. and if you know, cap, it doesn't really ever come out. So you think it's cleaned out, and then he'd get out and we'd be playing in, like, you know, in the sun and be sweating and everything, and it would just start diffusing that lovely ammonia smell. Oh, my God, that was great. Yes, it was. Yeah. It was disgusting. that was kind of my first walk into people that don't really take care of their gear like that, because it's not. It's like I said, it's not just a, you know, a smell thing. It's it's a health thing. And it does also help your gear stuff. so I don't know if, makes you want to talk about what you do for for your gear because I know you, you're pretty good about it. Yeah, I mean, I so my ongoing maintenance, which is gotten easier since I got, laundry bag. So I definitely, like, I would suggest the bare minimum low maintenance you do is at least take your jerseys and undergarments, like, out of your bag. Like, that's the wet shit. Usually. give your other stuff a chance to breathe. But, I always take my gear out either that night or the next morning. and spread it out. Just give it some some room to breathe. they really dry out really well. some people I used to use, like, an alcohol spray and. Just try the spray. Keep the surface fresh. I've got away from that in the last few years, but mostly because I'm really stringent about drying out really? Well. whenever possible, I get it in the sun. nice hot sun. Dry it out real good and kill some germs. and then 2 or 3 times a year, I try to do a deep clean. So I do similar to what you do. Rise and watch some of your previous videos. when I had a top blow dryer, I throw some stuff in the dryer and let it, like, fill it up, but it's up for a while. now I got a front loader, so I heavily use my, my bathtub. So I'll fill the bathtub up. put my stuff in there. really sloshing around. Try to get, like, the dirt out until it's. I at least do one round of clean water. drain the tub, and then I fill a tub, usually with, kind of, like, warm ish water. I can't do too hot. and lately, I've been using a lot of the, this Lysol, the, laundry sanitizer. I'll pour, like, a bunch of that in there and just kind of let it soak. I'll usually use, like, a little bit of, like, mild, You know, soap, detergent or whatever, and just kind of let it soak for a few hours. And then I like to it out, let it dry in the sun. for my, the latest time, I. So I just cleaned my gear a couple weeks ago. I actually tried putting side beads on it like this. That means you get for your laundry. I don't know if it worked, but. Yeah, that's what I do to clean my gear. I didn't notice you smelling linen fresh. Well, we've we've had, three marathon games. I probably smelled like Mac right after the first one. yeah. I mean, that's pretty close to it. I do like my, process hasn't changed a whole lot, and I always, like. I don't think my gear ever smells. I feel like it's always hard to tell if your stuff smells, but I feel like my, like, my gloves don't even really smell bad. Yeah. I don't smell you. I will say one thing that I forgot, and that is probably the most important, is I use a boot dryer now. I got a boot dryer from my brother in law, and I dry out my skates every day. I dry out my clothes and I do it. I do a couple rounds of that because, like, I rusted through rivets and an old pair of skates, I had, like, I just don't want to. I like my skates too much now. I don't want to, like, have to replace the runners or have somebody replace the rivets and stuff. So I try to take really good care of them. And and that's what I mean. That's a good reason of taking care of, you know, wash cleaning your stuff doesn't necessarily mean dunking it in the tub, but it's like a boot dryer that. Yeah. so what are the. So I guess what I do is, I try to say I'm going to take my gear out after every game, but it's the next day, inevitably, because I just get tired and I want to do it. So, the next day I take all my gear out of the bag. I don't always take out my jerseys, honestly, because they're in a separate compartment for everything, and it's literally just my jerseys. It's not like my under compression stuff that I wear, so they don't get too bad. I do, I do switch on occasion, but I don't always take them out. but I do take all my gear out of my bag. I have one of those PVC, gear hanger things that I can just throw all my gear on real easily. It's not pretty. It's not great. It's something I made. and, you know, it's one of those things that cost me, like, 20 bucks to make. It took, like, 15 minutes. Yeah. that's where, like, I think I talked about it in another, one of my shorts episodes was, something called the Addi, and that's it's just a bunch of hooks that are on, like, a, bungee cord, and it's made to hang, and they sell it like hockey specific ones. but it's just like hanging sugar on the back of a door, you know? So if you don't have, like, a big area, you can hang it out like that. They make there's ones that also it's the same idea. It's, like hooks that attach onto your hockey stick, which is kind of cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen that. That's cool. So anything to get. Just get your stuff out and laid out a little bit. Just airing it out. I think it's like 80% of keeping your gear from being gross. Yeah I agree. so I do that. I air everything out, for my skates. I always, you know, before I put em on my bag, I always wipe down the blade and, real quick. And then, I have the little shammy, skate guards, you know, that are in when they're in my bag. I buy them when I get home. I take those off so everything can air out, and I take my insoles out so everything can air out. and then, yeah, I have a an old, I think from the 90s shock doctor, deodorizer dryer that does, like, ozone and hot air. And I put my gloves and masks on there. It's a it's basically a really fancy, expensive at the time. Not when I bought it because nobody knew it. It was, hockey branded boot dryer. So if I boot dryers for really cheap at places like Costco and all these. Yeah. Just saying. If anybody follows the TikTok channel and I pointed out when they had them at all these not that long ago, it's a father beer. They're on Tik Tok showing off like, here's a shameless thanks. So it's me. It's fine. but like that. And that takes care of that stuff. And then I, I have, this enzyme spray that's from, Taki store. Sell it to spray on my gear, and I don't spray down my gear after every game. I do every other game. Probably, or if it's a game where I think I particularly sweat like crazy. Like you just said, we've played a couple marathon games. I was, like, just dripping in sweat. So I did this morning when I put my gear away, I sprayed it because I was like, it's probably gross. Yeah. and that's, that's my day to day thing. And that's a real quick thing to do. It just everything's out of the bag. Everything's. Everything gets to air out. but I, I, I do also I wear an under layer, which I think makes a big difference. And that gets washed after every game. Yeah. So people that don't, which is disgusting. but that gets washed every game. you know, from that, then probably honestly, once a year, I actually do like a deep clean on my gear. And that's just it's in the tub. It's with a combination of, oxi clean and simple green. And it's that's. I put my gloves in there because your gloves. Gloves come out fine. If you if you properly dry them and stuff, they'll be fine. I put in. So gloves, shoulder pads, my pants, and then my shins. And I always take the shin guards apart because every pair of shin guards I've had last number of years have multiple pieces. and I, you know, nicely soak those and rinse them through, and you can see my whole process. I'll link the video in the description of me doing that, but I rinse all that stuff through till it gets gross and, you know, do all that and then, yeah, lay it outside, in the sun in the summer. That's also a reason. Now, hey, it's going to be nice out pretty soon. It's a good time to put your gear out. I have also used my pressure washer on that stuff, and that's. And that's not a bad way to do it. It does a pretty good job. You know, if you do want to put it in the tub, I feel like even a hose would be thing. Yeah. Anything. I know people that take their gear and they dump it into their pools because like, they have, like chlorine and everything in there. And instead of putting the tub, it's put it in their pool of the chlorine. Did this thing I feel like that would degrade, the foam. I mean, it will eventually. That's the thing is, there's a big myth of how quickly this foam degrades. And I mean, yeah, if you leave it in the pool overnight, probably. Yeah. But if you're putting it in for like an hour or something. Yeah. You know, it's not gonna it's not going to do anything. I think about it. Yeah. It has to stand up to, to being on ice. Stuff gets wet. Yeah. It's not like the foam gets wet and all sudden it's gonna, you know, dissolve. Yeah. Big hockey needs their money, though. I suppose, but I do, I think that's I think it's a big myth that people have that it's. You're going to destroy all these things. Like same thing with gloves as people freak out that if you get your gloves wet, that all of a sudden they're just going to, like, get holes in them and be destroyed. Forget, don't you know, make sure you thoroughly dry them. Yeah. And it's the same kind of thing with clothes. It's not the washing that destroys your clothes, it's the drying. If you're doing a high heat. Same thing with any of your hockey stuff. Yeah it is, it's not. The washing is gonna be the problem. It's how you dry it. So if you leave it outside, you know, for a day or two in the hot sun, be fine. Yeah, I mean, I, I have gloves that I, this is how I've treated my gloves for the last almost 30 years. And I have gloves that are still pretty decent shape that are like 25 years old. So you've seen them. You see those gloves? Yeah. I do have a question about gloves. but before we move on, you mentioned like, having your not washing your jerseys after every game. Is that like a superstition for you or. No, I know you have it, so I was I did it a few seasons where I like, didn't wash my jerseys at all. And then that was like my good luck. I did at least take them out of my bag so they dry out. I didn't stink, but now it's like my routine to, like, wash em, like every after every game. I try to let them air dry, too, but, Yeah, it's kind of curious. Yeah. I don't have any superstitions like that. Yeah, nothing like I don't play good enough. They have these superstitions. Are you talking about? I should probably go back to my I. This is a down here for me. I should, I should probably stop watching all my stuff and really amped up on the superstitions. That's that is it is that is is me washing me, not washing my jerseys, am I? That's why I don't score goals. that's the problem. I it depends on your superstition, right. Like you're not scoring goals. Maybe you should wash your stuff and or not. Yeah, I, I've never because I've never thought my jerseys were that bad. I mean I wash them a couple times a year. I don't I just don't wash them every game. and they do air out. you know, it is protected though, like you were saying, if they sat in the same because all my bags I've used for the last number of years have, like, a jersey pocket in the lid. Yeah. So the jerseys I keep in there, they're separate. So they don't I don't I don't ever think that they're gross when I, when I, take them out of the bag, you know, all my other stuff kind of sitting in the bag together just ferments together into, you know, gross. but my jerseys kind of miss out on that. So I usually wind up washing my jerseys. I say maybe twice, twice a season, Okay. Not not a ton. like I say, they do air out, though. but yeah, I don't I don't I hope they don't. I'm either not gross. Yeah. I mean, I haven't noticed that I would I'm like scarred from dubia a couple seasons ago or like, well it's good for a couple of seasons, but, all that is fucking Jersey and it's covered in black mold like that. If, if you're like, hanging your stuff out for the season, I would just say like, take your bat, you take your jersey out of your bag, you don't want to come back to that. Well, that's I think that's a huge thing is don't leave. I think the biggest point of anything that we'll make of this is don't just leave your stuff in the bag. Yes. That's the absolute worst thing to do. It's fine if you do it for like a day or something or two days, but take it out. Yeah. Don't just leave it in your bag fermenting somewhere because. Yeah, like, yeah, we've seen people with mold on their jerseys. We've seen people with, dead rats in their bag. like, there's been some gross like. Yeah, you know, besides people stuff just reeking or also I've seen people that pull out their stuff and it's just between games, you know, in our games, like once a week, they pull their stuff out and it's like dripping because it's just been sitting in the bag and they're like, oh, my gloves or what? It's like, yeah, but you expect it to dry out. Sitting in your bag and putting on wet gloves is gross. Putting on wet gloves that have been sitting in just funk for a week. Like, that's disgusting. Yeah. Yeah, I, I don't know how people can be okay with that. back to the gloves. So do you have do you have any tricks or have you, like, heard of anything to help get rid of, like, the residue, the, the tape residue on the palms? Well, first of all, don't use tape. Yes, that does are for us mere peasants that have used it. Well, I mean, I use, lizard skins and, buttons are the two things I've used last number of years. And they do make a difference. Those do make a big difference of, not wearing out the palm as much as you don't get the residue, on there. as far as forgetting off tape residue, I, I would think, and, I don't know, this is just me guessing here. taking something like a, laundry soap, something like a naphtha or something like that, I would think would, you kind of rub that in and set that in. I would think that would really help loosen it up. But it's definitely warm water. So the glue. But that's that because that's all it is. It's glue residue. so that warms up. So I think if you put it in like some warm water, something like a laundry soap like that do good. yeah. Or like what? I, like I said, when I wash my gear, I use a combination of oxiclean and the simple green and I think. And the oxiclean is, it's kind of like bleach, and you have to use it in warm or hot water. even just that might work. for it, I thought. I thought about trying some oil. I recently read, like, how to get stickers off. You were all use, like, olive oil or maybe not olive oil, because that shit's ridiculous. Expensive. But, just like some kind of vegetable oil. Right. And that'll help get stickers off your walls. So I thought about doing, like gloves, like either oil or an oil based cleaner. I don't know, I haven't done a ton of research into it. Yeah, it's I mean, well, because you can, you can get, the it also depends on what your palm is. Your gloves are made out of, if they're that microfiber stuff that's going to be you got to be more careful with that because that will soak up something like an oil. I used to back in the day when I had leather palm gloves. I actually would condition the palms with baseball glove conditioner. I did that, like, every offseason, babysitting. Well, I had baseball glove conditioner. I was like baseball gloves. Leather. The palms are leather, you know? Yeah. Made sense to me. but now. Yeah, a lot of them are like that microfiber or the, it's like a, I think, like a wool compound or something that they use. And a lot of those, I don't think take to stuff like that as well, like I would be and something like an oil. I'd be worried about it. staying absorbed. Yeah. In the palm and possibly going rancid because if you don't get it out real good. Yeah. because they're pretty, they're pretty porous. And also, too, when you're, having tape residue, you have to realize that there's two things that are getting under your palm, your gloves. There is the glue residue from the tape, which you should be able to get off. But then there's also the coloring from your tape, which that's a whole nother thing to get off. That's probably not coming off because that's probably a permanent color stain. Yeah. On there. so if you're trying to get that off, that's, that's going to be way harder to do. That's, one thing I don't even think about. until recently, like using something like lizard skins or, some kind of rubber grip. It's like how it helps lengthen the life of your gloves, and that's that's something that gets overlooked. yeah. Need to get one of those. That's a big reason I like those is. Yeah, because of that. Because they don't rip up your gloves. they don't wear the stuff off on your gloves or anything like that. so it really does help the life of it. I mean, it's as far as their performance, otherwise whatever. To me, it doesn't make a difference. yeah, but just for the glove stuff, I like it. yeah. Because I get very attached to my gloves and I don't like to get new ones. Yeah. So yeah, that's. I would be worried about losing a little bit of a feel for the puck. Not that I'm like, fabulous by any, any means, but, Yeah, I've thought about trying them out. I recently stopped using, like, a lot of tape. I had like a tiny, like 3 or 4 inch wrap of tape, at the back of my stick and like, that's about it. I think I'm gonna like it too. So we'll see. I honestly, I didn't used to ever tape the end of my stick until about six years ago. and then I finally realized it was really hard to pick my stick up on ice. So I need to have a little butt end just so I can pick it up when I lose it. So that's literally the only reason I have anything other but end of my stick makes sense. So. All right. Another thing I wanted to talk about. So we're talking about, kind of like after game stuff. I have a list here, from it's actually from a Deadspin article, which I thought was weird of things to use for like, kind of this is the, like, post game sprayer, gear down stuff. All right. And I want to get your reaction to these ideas. Amazing. Okay. What you think if they're good idea bad idea. If you would use them. so number one, white vinegar. sounds legit. I do it that that's totally a good thing. It's because vinegar is great for, deodorizing. neutralizing bacteria. all the stuff you need. That's my favorite cleaner. It really it's kind of like the best All-Purpose cleaner. It's supposed to be good instead of, jet dry for, rinsing. That's what I've heard. Yeah, I tried it. Oh, yeah, I use that for for actually, when I wash my any of my hockey or workouts stuff, I throw some, vinegar into the rinse cycle. Yeah. Like a lot of companies now, recently, this last year have actually made vinegar type replacements, that are just that they're basically just vinegar. But you put in so but it's good for everything because it clears everything, clears all your cleans everything clean for clean your windows, clean your, laundry, clean your floors. So, vinegar makes excellent. And it's cheap. So. And that's how you can just spray your gear down with let it evaporate. vodka. This is another big one. Yeah, I did this. I think it worked all right. I've never done it, but I've heard people say it works good. They say. And they say the cheaper the vodka you buy, the better. Yeah, it's closer to rubbing alcohol. Yeah. I mean, that's basically what it is. they want this list. Clorox green works wipes. which I've never used or never heard of. Even I know Clorox wipes. Yeah. Gut gut feel. I'd be nervous to use the Clorox product on my my gear. They say on here that it it's works for everything. It works good. Okay. I imagine it cleans it, but I can't imagine the I would think it'd be really good for hard surfaces. Yeah, I can imagine a wipe would really get in there. Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't think that'd be the best choice. I think they'd be good for like cleaning your helmet. Maybe. yeah, maybe I was going to ask you about that, but we can we can circle back. All right. the next one on here is isopropyl alcohol rubbing. yeah. Man, I think we just talked about that kind of being close to vodka. I wouldn't I don't know if I'd do it because it's expensive, but I feel like it would be all right. Yeah, I use that, like, to clean all my electronics. Yeah. Because evaporates. but they do bring up a good point out here, which is a good thing for this, is that, it can, dry out leather. Yeah. So you do have to be careful with it. so foam and stuff, it should be fine. but for anything has leather on it. should be careful. febreeze. For break. Be sure. I mean, I might mask your stink for a little bit, but I know it's not good for cleaning, I would say. Yeah. It's not. It's not going to do squat. It's all you're going to honestly get from Febreeze is. I think it smells nice, right? When you put it on. Then as soon as you start doing anything again, you're gonna get that gross febreeze and whatever stink you originally had. Mix. Yeah. also to it, if you get for breeze, it smells, it could irritate your skin really bad because you just basically spring, spring for breeze on your skin, which not good. Yeah. and the last one they have on here is Lysol. I feel like it would work. gets back to that irritant, like, pretty close to yours. I mean, any very, like, strong chemical. I would have be hesitant to use. Yeah, I'd be a lot more worried about, like, the febreeze, our Lysol breaking down the foam on your pads, then. Yeah. Put him in a tub of, you know, an easy cleaner. And I'll just say, for that, I use the simple green I keep saying I use because I kept seeing people talk about it because it does foam up really nice. And that's a big thing when you're cleaning your stuff. And the foam is really nice, it's probably gonna get everything out. And you only need a really little bit of it. Yeah, and it's less likely to do any damage. So I do realize I'm saying this and I serve my stuff in Lysol products. I don't know. Yeah, well, I think there's a difference between soaking in something to versus, spraying on their stuff. Right, right. I so from this list, I would say I think you would agree with this, that vinegar is probably the best one overall. yeah, I use vinegar on everything. I put that shit on everything. And then, you can spray your gear with it and put it on your French fries. There you go. Yeah. then, after that, I would say the only other ones I would say are worth using is the rubbing alcohol on the vodka. Yeah. So I think vinegar is probably the best, like, best bang for your buck kind of thing. Yeah. I mean, you got to have, like, a gallon of it on hand, just just for anything else. So Army knife of cleaners. Yeah. Like I say, I say most people have it around the house for it, but you can put. What is it I think I believe it's a 3 to 1 ratio of, water to vinegar in a spray bottle. And that's kind of the recommended thing for spray down your hockey year. One thing, though, with vinegar versus rubbing alcohol is the rubbing alcohol. You can spray it down, you can saturate your gear. It'll dry fast because that's why I you know, like I said, I use it on electronics and stuff. Like that's how I clean my phone, because it dries super fast, evaporates right away. whereas the anything else you put on with it is not going to dry nearly as fast and you are going to like the vinegar, you kind of need to saturate stuff with it. It'll dry pretty quickly, but it's not going to dry, you know, within an hour or two. It's like an overnight or a day. So of dry you have do you have a recommended alcohol percentage? I think obviously for electronics it's like 100%. But I wonder if like hockey gear, like 80% would be better because it sits maybe a little longer. Yeah. I mean, that's what I, I just use whatever they have at the, at the local, I don't know, I don't know if you call the store the, the local five and dime. Yes. The corner store. The corner store, I mean, I say, yeah, shack. Yes. At Radio Shack, like, Dollar Tree has super cheap like, it's whatever they have there. It's, Okay. Yeah. Like 75% or 80% or something like that. Yeah. the biggest, it doesn't need to stay on there very long to kill bacteria, especially if you do it regularly. That's kind of the whole point of using rubbing alcohol and stuff is regularly use it. It dissipates quickly, but because you regularly use it, it's only on there a little bit. It'll eventually kill most of the bacteria you have. Yeah. So. Okay. You had a helmet question? yeah. What kind of, So I use a bubble so I can talk about how I clean that, but, like, how do you maintain your helmet in general? Like, aside from base protection, do you do anything? not a ton. I do occasionally kind of wipe the outside down with something. That is what I would use, like a cleaning wipe or something like that. Yeah. what I usually do is I just have, like, a, microfiber or something that if I'm, like, spraying my gear down, with the cleaner, I'll spray, like, the plastic hard part of my helmet real quick and just give it a quick wipe. Just. And there's nothing on it, but it just kind of gets off. There's any gunk has gotten to it. And then with that, like that microfiber, I will, just kind of wipe the inside padding of it. Yeah, of my helmet, because the it depends on what kind of padding you have in your helmet. to, I think how to clean it because there is, the super old school. I think it's almost always white in color, really squishy padding that I don't think is in really any helmets anymore. That stuff would absorb and not release any liquids. Yeah. So that was like it'd be real careful with it. then there's the more, like, hard foam that is in a lot of helmets. Now. that's actually pretty good, because that stuff usually doesn't absorb anything. That's what's in my helmet. so even if I sat there, just sprayed it with something, it's not absorbing. so that's why I just kind of give it a good wipe on the foam parts. but then there is the. I guess it's more than that because there's the newer stuff like the D3. Oh, and that's a little bit more absorbent. so you have to be a little bit more careful with how you clean it. Like, I throw stuff inside your helmet. I don't know if I'd spray anything directly on the foam. Yeah, cause I'd be more worried about that foam breaking down than anything else. Yeah. I'd probably putting that on something and wiping it in there. but then also there's the new 3D printed helmets, which they're plastic like. I don't think you have to. I think just a quick wipe occasionally would probably be all you have to do. yeah. for those things, I've never had an issue with my helmet being really gross. I also wear a really cool skull cap. Always, that I think helps, I would think honestly, more so if you have, like, if you're something that wears a bunch of hair product, your helmets probably get gross from that. I kind of fall into that category. I don't wear stuff since working from home. I don't wear stuff in my hair as often, but, yeah, I wouldn't say I mostly ask out of curiosity because I do like nothing to my helmet, and it's not. I would agree, it's not gross. I think I have like the white foam that you're talking about. I used to have like the nice Easton 700. This this is like a ten year old helmet now, but would have been a ten year old helmet now. but I love you. Don't take the padding out of it. And I could, like, wash it. I used to do that a lot. but, yeah, now I don't do anything. I do clean my visor with, like you said, like a microfiber. I wipe it down with some water and I reapply. some baby shampoo before games. yeah. I would be nervous to, like, use anything in my helmet and fear of, like, because when I sweat, like, I. You can get a bunch of shit in your eyes, like. Yeah, chemicals floating around in your helmet. I'd be worried about that. yeah. That's just curious. Yeah, that's why I, I think whenever we say washing your gear, not helmets, not skates, those are separate categories of stuff. I think everything else you can wash kind of the same. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I think I think it's the only way you can really do that with helmets is just kind of wipe it off on the inside, you know, wipe it with something on it. That might be a good spot for one of these Clorox wipes or whatever they were talking about in this article that maybe, but I would I would just think that's all you have to do. I don't know anybody that's helmets or that that bad. Usually. Yeah. And honestly, if you sweat I will say this too is if you're someone that sweats a whole bunch, from your head is, get some kind of a little, little skull cap thing. I wear one, because of that. Because I sweat like crazy. I have a nice one that, like, has a little a little channel to channel. Sweat away from me because I hate getting sweat in my eyes. Or they make, sweat bands that you put inside of the helmet. They kind of like the, like, stickers that you change every game. Every two games, whatever. those also, I know people that use those that they like them a lot, and that helps. I think that makes a huge difference for your helmet. If you are someone that sweats a lot, otherwise your sweat will break down that foam. pretty bad. And helmets. One of the few things I care about making sure are a decent shape. Other foam stuff a cover. Yeah, you know, but the helmet I care about, and I don't. Okay. Like I said, with helmets and skates. Skates. Same thing. There's not much you can really do with cleaning skates. You can kind of wipe the outsides down, and that's about it. I do occasionally, spray that, like enzyme cleaner that I use on my stuff. I do occasionally spray that in the skates. every so often. Not regularly. I do also spray when I get people skates to sharpen. I everybody's everybody skates that I sharpen for my sharpening service. You get a run on the, deodorizer slash, heater, and I do spray it with the, enzyme cleaner. So nice. I'm missing out on that with just the blades. That. Yeah. Seriously, that that's what I. That's why you should do the whole skate kit. The full service. So I does that. Does that kind of cover it for cleaning gear? I think so, unless I talk about cleaning your your your stick. But, have good reason to do that. I don't I don't know that I've ever cleaned a stick. Maybe you should. You're, you can just stick a little look down at my back, You know, that's a good way to clean it. yeah, I apparently I just break sticks now, so. Yeah, you know, I can just keep getting new ones. so, yeah, I think that kind of covers all the stuff for for cleaning things. I will say again, we said in the beginning, I reiterate it, the I think the two biggest things you can do, I'll say two for keeping your gear not being disgusting. One aired out. It doesn't have to be a nice stand. Have anything good just even just, you know, putting it on the floor and airing it out overnight, that's fine. Or in your garage overnight or something, but air it out. And the other thing I know we talked about, but we kind of glossed over it a couple times, is wearing stuff under your gear? Yeah. Like that makes a huge difference of wearing some kind of under compression garments or whatever. Even an old t shirt. You know, people do that, anything like that, because that's just going to soak up all the sweat and stuff before it gets to your gear generally. And I think that helps your gear from being gross. especially with skates. there's people that's, well, there's people that do it barefoot. And I just can't imagine that. That just seems so disgusting to me, you know, put some kind of socks on and that'll help. That'll. It helps your skates. If you hate the feeling of socks, you can get super thin ones. They make super thin socks. I don't feel like you're wearing socks for that purpose. For people that like to be barefoot. but it helps. It helps your skates from getting as gross as they would if you were barefoot. So I think just those two things, we do nothing else. Those two things help. And this other stuff is added. Bonus have your gear last longer, help you not be the stinky person in the locker. Yeah, because trust me, everybody talks about you. If you're the smelly one in the locker room, everyone talks about you. I mean, look, me and Mason are talking about, like, gross locker room people stuff from three, four, six years ago. Yeah. It stays. So no one, no one likes that. So I think that's it. Any other stuff to add, Mason, I got nothing. All right. Well thanks everybody. As always I appreciate any sort of like, subscribes, reviews podcast out. All right everyone catch you in the next one. So ya.