Volleyball alert: How do I get my knee-pads from smelling?

When I played volleyball, I never actually got my knee pads to smell good, but you can help keep them from smelling terrible. Washing them often helps, as does using a bit of bleach. It also helps to let them air out after you use them. When you get home, set them out to dry rather than leaving them stuffed in your bag.

While this doesn’t help the pads, it’s something else I found helpful. When storing them in my bag, I always kept my pads and shoes in a separate compartment from my clothes. That way, the little bit of odor that I couldn’t keep out of them didn’t affect the smell of everything else in the bag. When I got home, I set the pads and shoes out of the bag to dry out, and I left the bag open so it could dry out as well.

Febreze try it, you may like the smell after.

Put them in the freezer overnight. The freezing should kill the odor causing bacteria. Then, after use allow them to dry thoroughly. I find my workout items stink less if I dry them out in the sun.

You might try a dilute bleach solution.

Spray some Lysol into them till it soaks in. It’s what I have done to my knee guards for work. It works for a while and needs to be treated when it starts to smell funky again.

They stink because there’s some sort of bug growing in there. My daughters ended up with a bacterial infection on their legs from their knee pads that they still have a decade later. Purchase some hospital quality disinfectant from a janitorial supply store, and soak them in a solution every week, then rinse.

Never wash a good pair of knee pads. The smell is just part of the sport.

@gondwanalon i didn’t want to be the first to say that