Have you ever been handed a bag full of dirty sports jerseys at the end of a match and been told it’s your rostered turn to launder them?
Or has your favourite ‘Player of the Match’ arrived home with tales of outstanding passes, ‘speccy’ plays, impressive shots for goal, and joyous (AKA sweaty) team celebrations? The memories may fade, but can the same be said for the ingrained dirt and odour of the victor’s sports gear?
Then there are the days of cold, wet winter weather when you put off washing the sports clobber, only to have Thursday upon you and realise that the weekend’s sports fixture is looming.
We’ve even saved clients from scrubbing jerseys at 1pm in the morning so that an international team can fly out of Canberra at 8am with clean kit.
Australians love sport. What we don’t necessarily love is doing sports-associated laundry. Mud, grass stains, blood, orange juice, grass paint from all the advertising logos, and maybe the post-match remains of a sausage sandwich with sauce, can all be deeply embedded in shirts, jerseys, guernseys, jumpers, shorts and skirts at the end of a match.
And it’s not just once in a while, it’s every winter weekend.
Different stains need different treatment. But for the home launderer, inevitably the easiest thing to do is just bung them into the wash with a standard strongly-perfumed washing detergent so that at least when they come out of the other side they smell nice, if not fully clean.
Studies that forecast future trends in laundry suggest that by 2030 most clothes, including sports gear, will have labels that contain not only information about the fibres used in the clothing, but the capacity to locate where the clothing has been worn (using GPS, for example), and what the weather conditions have been.
When you pop the clothing into a new, high-tech washing machine, the machine will read the information and factor in what kind of soiling might be present and what kind of treatment is needed.
Bring on the future, we say!
Until then, the Ainslie Laundrette team will continue to use all of our scientific knowledge of stains and fabrics when we launder sports gear, for junior, senior, and international teams alike.
To make our job easier, we use The Laundress Sport Detergent and Wash and Stain bar with a gentle brush. It halves the time and energy we would normally devote to cleaning those sporting tops and shorts.
That’s our own ‘speccy’ play.
Laundress items are available for you to purchase for Ainslie Laundrette. Our June special also means that if you buy any product from The Laundress range you’ll go into the draw to win one of 10 sports kits valued at $77.