New perk! Get after it with local recommendations just for you. Discover nearby events, routes out your door, and hidden gems when you sign up for the Local Running Drop.
WIN Sports Detergent
Price: $11
If you keep your running clothes for more than about six months, they’ve likely developed a special scent reminiscent of a boy’s middle-school locker room. Or they’ve developed sneaky stink. Sneaky stink, what’s happened to one of my sports bras I’ve had for more than seven years (reduce, reuse, recycle, right?) is when the smell seems to wash out, but then at the first inkling, the first mention, the first thought of sweat, it explodes with an olfactory offense that ruins everything it contacts.
I’ve seen the various detergents and sticks available for just this enigma but have been dubious because I figured they contained stuff I didn’t want in my washing machine—or that they didn’t work.
Finally, after a few runs last week with legendary ultrarunner, Jenn Shelton (women’s 100-mile world record holder until 2016, Marathon Olympic Trials Qualifier and current FKT holder of the 93-mile Wonderland Trail), we threw our stanky drawers into my wash to try out WIN detergent.
Then I promptly forgot about them.
Two days later, Jenn left town and I arrived home from work to a pile of folded laundry. The first thing I did was smell my ancient, fading sports bra. No stink! I put it on for my evening run to see if the sneaky stink was still there.
Miraculously, it didn’t unload a smelly attack even after my run. Perhaps it worked. I figured Jenn’s clothes must still smell because she… well… is an adventure maniac and lives in a van.
I messaged her.
“NO STINK… NO STINKZ!,” she messaged back. “But is it full of chemicals? I’d rather smell like p*ss than p*ss on the earth,” she followed up.
“Good point,” I replied. Upon inspection, WIN Green detergent is biodegradable, fragrance free, dye free, septic safe, color safe and meets U.S. EPA Safer Product Standards. (There is also a Blue that has a scent and doesn’t meet the EPA guidelines.)
So there’s that.
This is now my go-to detergent for all my old running clothes. I just wish they could make one that also brought my speed back.
Megan Janssen is the Associate Editor of Trail Runner magazine.