How to Prolong the Life of Your Expensive Yoga Pants

Image via Matt Madd, Flickr

Once you invest in a luxury pair of gym pants, you will find yourself asking why you ever wore anything else and knowing for sure that you will never go back to wearing cheaper brands. From the feel of the material to the way it fits your body, the patterns and colours it comes in and how comfortable you feel when you are doing yoga, luxury activewear is expensive for a reason.

So how can you make sure that these pants will serve for a very long time so you don’t feel too guilty about spending so much on activewear? Well, below are a few tips on how you can take care of your yoga pants so that you can rock them for many classes to come.

Check the label

First things first, always check the label to know the dos and don’ts. Activewear brands can vary in their washing instructions. Some might suggest hot water while others will tell you to use a cold temperature for washing. Just in case, always read the instructions.

Cold water

Having said this, if you are ever unsure on how to wash your yoga pants, you should stick to cold water to avoid shrinking. These days, quality detergents don’t need hot water to wash clothes perfectly in the washing machine.

When you are soaking wet…

Regardless of whether you bought your luxury leggings from Lululemon or AloYoga, if your yoga pants are soaking wet from sweat, then they cannot be thrown in the laundry basket, waiting for you to load them up in the washing machine. If you have time, soak them in water with a bit of detergent to keep the smell of sweat at bay and wash them in the washing machine with your next load. If you don’t have time, then at least hang them to dry from all that sweat.

Image via The Upside, Instagram

Avoid fluff

Nobody likes to wear clothes with small pieces of fluff all over them. Avoid this and waste less time brushing fluff from your gear by not washing your yoga pants with fluffy clothing like towels or knitwear.

Never use bleach

According to the recommendations coming straight from the sportswear industry experts including those from Lululemon, Zobha and Smartwool, “bleach does not play nice with technical fabrics,” so it’s best to steer clear from it. If you have stained your pants with that post-workout smoothie, then try and remove the stain with natural products, if the detergent doesn’t work.

Give them a tumble

There is no evidence which shows that the lifespan of clothing is shortened with the tumble dryer, so unless the instructions on the label say no, you can put your yoga pants in the tumble dryer. This way, they will be dry for that early morning workout, they will be soft and you will find very little fluff on them which is always ideal!

Finally, if you find that the smell of sweat persists, you might have to soak your clothes every time you use them and before washing them in the washing machine.

These are my tips on how to prolong the life of those expensive yoga pants. Have I missed anything? Do you have a tip for me? Share your thoughts below!