How to clean inground dirt off karate gi

[RedSkyLastNight]

Hopefully that's how you spell it! (the white jacket and trousers worn for martial arts).

DS's karate gi, despite all my best efforts has obvious patches of dirt/grime on it. At a recent grading one of the senior instructors in the area called it "a f**king disgrace".

Things I've tried

• soaking with soap crystals
• washing with soap crystals
• washing with so called "stain catchers"
• washing with biological washing powder (I'm allergic to it, so it doesn't generally darken the doors of our house)
• washing with Vanish like OxiClean products

Things I have not tried but considering

• washing above 40 degrees (it tends to shrink even at 40)
• bleaching/soaking in bleach - bit worried the red labels will make everything pink

Any other ideas?
Or reassurances that the things I've not tried are ok?

(I have said to DS that he should ask the instructor for washing tips next time he sees him).

I only ever wash mine with other whites, otherwise it goes kind of grey. It’s fine with the colour catchers for the badges and trim. I’d be wary of using bleach as it may make whites yellow? A lot of kids where I go only get changed into their uniform when they get there and then changed again before leaving. Could you get a new one and do that if it won’t come out?

It's only ever washed by itself, so not that (and it's actual inground dirt from rolling round on the floor, not just grey iyswim). He only wears it to travel to and from training and training itself, (and travel only about 5 minutes!).
It's a proper heavyweight one, so expensive, so very loathe to buy a new one, but that might be the answer.

Ah, could try a long (cold) soak overnight then a 40 wash with Oxyclean. Or scrub with the Vanish bar. Mine is the heavyweight one and it does seem to hold dirt more than my light one did. I may be tempted to speak to the instructors as a) they should not be using words like ‘fucking disgrace’ - martial arts is supposed to be disciplined and respectful with no loss of control which that sort of language isn’t displaying and b) they need to clean the floors properly!

Hard to track down these days, but Biotex powder worked wonders on permanent hair dye/ white top accident
They have it in my local Sainsbury's

Dhs is currently soaking in a bucket of vanish after an outdoor training session over the (very wet) weekend. Not sure of the chances of it doing much again the mud though. Being so heavy it doesn't get much agitation in the machine so we've been trying to swish it in the water as much as we can.

I wonder if we still have a vanish bar lurking in the back of the cupboard.

He asked others before coming home and has been told a boil was will help. In his case it's a bit big, so a bit of shrinking might not be a bad thing. I think it will shrink though.

Things I've tried on mine :

Rubbing washing up liquid into the dirty spots, then scrubbing with a nail brush before washing; soaking in bicarb; lemon juice; ordinary bar soap.

TBH, on a heavyweight gi some dirt just seems to stay (especially if, like me, you tend to attract dirt . If you can stretch to a spare, Cimac and Giko heavyweight gis are significantly cheaper than ,say, a Tokaido. (I have five! Although it's partly because they have an elasticated waist rather than a drawstring)

As a karate instructor myself though I'm rather shocked by the attitude of your ds's sensei. I would never berate a student of mine using language like that. Is it a decent club or one of those McDojos?

Thanks for tips. I have suggested to DS that he might like to try scrubbing with Vanish bar/OxiClean/something similar. But might try soaking first. DS was surprisingly keen to get involved in laundry, so instructor must have made an impact!
The instructor in question (not the main instructor but one of the senior black belts if that makes sense) is known for being plain speaking, plus DS is over 6 foot tall and normally trains with the adults, so I think they forget how old he is. In fairness to him, the gi was particularly bad (DS is meant to wash it himself, but normally I/DH have to nag him to do so, and clearly we've forgotten to nag recently. This incident has prompted me to tell DS that washing his gi is his responsibility.)

It's a proper club - the main sensei is ranked in the top 10 in the world (I think) in their particular branch of karate, and they have competitors at European championships. DS has his black belt grading in a couple of months, hence why this is suddenly a hot topic, as looking after your gi is meant to be one of the things you prove you do ...

Old thread but no-one has mentioned Napisan. I usually wash my son's karate GI and school shirts in a combo of Napisan and Bio powder and they come out very white and clean. The GI was really muddy the other week (from running through the car park) but came out no problem.