If you are using your batting gloves regularly, whether you play or practice a lot, you will need to maintain the cleanliness of your gloves.
Your batting gloves will keep your hands safe from blisters when you are batting, and they will also keep your hands warm when you are batting in the colder months.
Why do I need to clean batting gloves?
Because you wear batting gloves every time you bat, they will accumulate sweat and dirt quite rapidly. Unless you clean your hands before every time you wear your gloves, they will get dirty quite quickly.
But it is also advisable to clean your gloves anyway, no matter how clean your hands are. This build-up of dirt and sweat can cause your batting gloves to worsen in condition. In this guide, you will find a step by step guide on how to clean your batting gloves.
As well as a few tips and tricks along the way.
Where to begin
Firstly, before all of the detailed cleaning, it pays to hit your gloves against one another before putting them back into your baseball bag. The main reason for this is to remove any loose dirt that may have built up over the course of a game.
This loose dirt will be bigger than the dirt that you will be using the cleaning products for and would only cause more muddiness.
Tools you will need
Here is a list of things that you will need that are specific to cleaning batting gloves and will get them looking and feeling fresh again.
- A leather cleaning brush.
- A container to mix your solutions in.
- A container to put the gloves in when you want to clean them, thus avoiding the products going anywhere around your home.
- A soft dry rag.
- Dishwasher soap.
- Water
- Leather cleaner.
Step one
When you get home after a game or after practice, pull your gloves out of your bag that you already hit together to get rid of loose dirt. Place them either into the sink, somewhere you don’t mind getting dirty, or a container that you can use specifically for this task.
Take your dry leather cleaning brush and use it to gently brush off any dust that may not have come off when you hit the gloves together. If you brus too hard, the surface of the leather may become damaged over time, so don’t put too much pressure on when using the leather brush.
Step two
Take a second to look at the inside of your gloves. Since this is where your hands will sweat when you are batting, it is important to check that the inside is dirty or needs cleaning. If the inside of the gloves is dirty, or even smelly, turn the gloves fully inside out.
Once you have done this you can get your small solution mixing container and mix together water and dishwasher soap. Then take the soft cloth and dip into this solution, wiping the cloth over the gloves’ insides will act as a gentle but effective cleaner.
Then take a dry rag and pat off the excess solution from the gloves.
Step three
Using the same dishwasher soap and water solution, turn the gloves back the right way and rub the solution over the gloves with the same soft cloth. You can rub until a lather forms on your gloves, this will get rid of any stubborn dirt.
You can also add some leather cleaner to this solution for the outside of the gloves. Because this is specifically designed for leather, it will prolong the life of the leather on your gloves.
Step four
Wipe the gloves clean. You can repeat the whole process if there are any stubborn areas of dirt. You will then need to dry your gloves at room temperature. this can take up to a week which is why you should clean them as soon as you get in from a game if you play once a week.
If you play more than once a week, you may want to consider buying more pairs of batting gloves so that you can have them on rotation. You don’t need to wash your gloves after every single game, but some routine can help them stay looking and feeling fresh.
Can I wash them in a machine?
This is definitely not advised. You should not machine wash or machine dry your batting gloves. This is because they are leather and this material does not do very well when completely saturated in water, or when it goes from one extreme temperature to another.
If your batting glove is made from synthetic materials, however, machine washing and drying could be an option.
How can I keep on top of cleaning my batting gloves?
If you don’t want to perform that step by step deep clean after every game, you can keep up a maintenance clean instead. In order to do this, still hit your gloves against one another after the game, but you only need to use dishwasher soap and water to gently wipe them down and then pat them dry.
This is instead of the rigorous routine stated above, although it is still advised to do a deep clean regularly.
