How to Wash Hand Wraps

Why wraps need washing more than the rest of your kit

A hand wrap has one job you can see — binding the hand and wrist — and one you cannot: soaking up the sweat that would otherwise sit in the lining of your gloves. It is doing that job every session, against your skin, and unlike the gloves it is washable. So a wrap that goes unwashed is both a smell problem and a wasted advantage. Our gloves vs hand wraps page covers that second role; how to clean boxing gloves explains what happens to the gloves when you skip it.

The table version

Why the dryer is the real enemy

Almost every wrap worth owning is semi-elastic: a cotton or polyester base with elastic woven through it, which is what lets the wrap conform to the hand and hold tension across the wrist. Heat degrades that elastic. A wrap that has been through a hot dryer a few times goes slack, and a slack wrap does not hold a knuckle pad or lock a wrist — it just adds bulk. You cannot see the damage; you feel it as a wrap that will not stay tight. The same applies to a radiator, which is a dryer with extra steps.

How to stop wraps tangling

Two 180 in strips of fabric in a washing machine want to become one rope. Three things fix it, in order:

1. Close the hook-and-loop. Most tangles start when the hooks grab the other wrap.
2. Use a mesh bag. One zipped bag for the pair is usually enough; one bag each if yours are stubborn.
3. Roll them loosely before they go in. Not tight — just enough that they go in as a coil rather than a snake.

If they do come out knotted, do not pull. Find the closure end, lay the wrap out flat on the floor and work from that end — yanking a wet semi-elastic wrap is how you stretch it permanently.

Washing wraps by hand, and in a hotel sink

Fill a sink with cool water and a small amount of detergent, submerge the unrolled wrap, and squeeze it through your hands rather than scrubbing it. Rinse until the water runs clear. Then — and this is the part people get wrong — press the water out between two towels rather than wringing the wrap. Wringing twists the elastic. Hang it over the shower rail and it will be dry in a day, or faster for a 120 in wrap.

Two pairs is the actual solution

Everything above is easier if you are not trying to keep one pair alive. A wrap needs about a day to dry, so training three or four times a week on a single pair means putting on a damp wrap most sessions. A second or third pair costs very little — the Meister 180 in below is there for exactly this — and the benefit is immediate: a dry, clean wrap every session, and gloves that last longer because the wrap is doing its absorption job properly. If you want to know which fabrics survive this routine best, that is best breathable hand wraps.

What about quick wraps and gel wraps?

Different rules. A slip-on gel wrap has foam and gel inserts that behave like glove padding, not like fabric: turn them inside out, air dry them after every session, and wash them cold in a mesh bag far less often than you would a cloth wrap. Never tumble dry them, and never soak them — the inserts hold water in the middle. Our quick wrap roundup covers the models and their care.