Care guide: Shin Guards

In striking disciplines like Muay Thai, kickboxing, and mma, you will likely be drilling or sparring during training. To protect your own shins from taking unnecessary damage and to protect your training partners from the forceful kicking impact of your bare shin, wearing shin guards would be ideal for protection

Just like any piece of equipment or apparel, your shin guards need to be cleaned after they are worn to help prevent bacterial infections and bad odor. 

Unlike clothes, YOUR SHIN GUARDS CAN NOT AND SHOULD NOT BE PUT IN THE WASHING MACHINE/LAUNDRY. 

For gear that is not apparel, liquids and moisture are the enemy when it comes to storage.

Let’s say you sweat a lot during training and never properly clean your shin guards after training sessions. The sweat and moisture will be absorbed by the interior of the shin guards and slowly destroy the padding and inner lining. It will also cause your shin guards to develop a terrible, terrible smell that is nearly impossible to get rid of, meaning you will have to replace them and buy a new pair.

So how can you clean your shin guards? 

Disinfectant spray

The quickest and easiest way to clean your shin guards would be to spray them down with a disinfectant spray. 

First, dry off any liquids/moisture on your shin guards with a paper towel. Then, spray the interior and exterior of the shin guards (or anywhere that they have come into contact with). Spraying your shin guards with a disinfectant spray will keep the growth, spread, and development (into viruses) of bacteria at bay. The drying off + disinfectant spray method is extremely quick and convenient to do

Disinfectant wipes

Wiping your shin guards by hand will take a little bit more time, but it will ensure a more thorough cleaning and allow you to sanitize parts of the shin guards that a spray would have missed (ex. Inside of footpad and footstrap).

First, dry off any liquids/moisture on your shin guards with a paper towel. Next, take a disinfectant wipe (you will need more than one, especially if you have other gear like gloves that you have to clean) and wipe down the entire interior of your shin guards. After wiping the interior, move to the exterior and wipe the entirety of the outer surfaces (don’t forget the straps). 

Tip: Avoid the scratchy part of the velcro straps, as the wipe will be torn apart by and get stuck in this velcro. 

When the wipe you are using dries out and no longer has the liquid feel to it, responsibly dispose of the wipe and get a new one. When your wipe no longer leaves the shiny cleaning fluid on the shin guard after wiping, this is a sign to get a new one. We said earlier that liquid/moisture are the enemy and that is still true. This fluid will dry up quickly, but if you would like to dry it off with a wipe afterwards as well, feel free to. This also applies to the spray method

Washing Machine + Dryer

DO NOT PUT YOUR SHIN GUARDS IN HERE. Please and thank you

Drying

Air drying your shin guards is the easiest and most effective method. Open the straps and make sure they are not looped in the hooks (as they would be if you were wearing them). The velcro straps should be attached to one another and should hang off loosely (if you shook the shin guards back and forth, the straps should fly around). This will create the largest possible opening into the inside of your shin guards without restricting air flow, which is what you want: more room for air to cycle in and out of.

Air them out until it’s time to pack them for your next training session. If you train multiple times a day, try to air them out for at least 8-12 hours to ensure they are dry before using again (you may also want to look into alternating between different pairs of shin guards, if you can afford it).

Make sure that the shin guards are left to air dry in an open area that does not restrict air flow. Do not leave them in your zipped up bag.

Tips that other people have found to help:

Blowing a fan onto your shin guards - helps speed up the drying process

Thank you for reading - we hope this care guide for shin guards was helpful!