At Global Ozone, we get it. With busy practice schedules and game film to watch, sanitizing gear might be the last thing on your mind. You can probably dream up even more than four reasons not to disinfect it right away, but we’ve got a solution for you. Take a look at the most common reasons why people want to skip sanitizing gear — and why it’s more important than ever to do it anyway.
1. It takes too long
After a long practice or a hard-fought away game, the last thing you want to do is deal with the dirty, smelly gear piled up in your locker room. And we know how tedious it can be to sanitize each piece of equipment by hand, getting in all the nooks and crannies. It could take hours (and lots of manpower) to disinfect everything.
But germs don’t wait around until you have time to sanitize and can quickly cause an outbreak on your team. Rather than leave it for another day, you can choose a more streamlined approach to sanitizing gear that will make things quick and easy.
2. It’ll just get smelly again
Sometimes, it feels fruitless to constantly wash and disinfect gear, only for the stench to linger anyway. Why bother if it’s going to smell bad no matter what?
But who wants to put on smelly, sweaty gear day after day? Your team won’t be comfortable and may not perform to their full potential. Worse, that smell is a tell-tale sign of microbial growth. If you think perpetually smelly gear is nothing more than a nuisance, you’re opening the door to germs and possible outbreaks.
The good news? There are sanitizing options that actually get all of the smells and odors out (and eliminate all of the odor-causing germs), so you don’t feel like it’s a waste of time.
3. It doesn’t need to be sanitized
Plastic and metal aren’t germ carriers, right? Wrong.
It’s a common misconception that hard gear can’t spread germs, so we get why you’d be inclined to just wipe it down to get rid of any sweat. But in fact, gear made of plastic and metal is just as capable of carrying viruses and bacteria as your water bottle. MRSA actually survives for the longest on plastic, and after growing for weeks, it can infect players through open wounds and small cuts.
4. We don’t have infection issues
If you’re lucky enough to avoid outbreaks in spite of a lax sanitizing protocol, don’t expect it to last forever. And when MRSA, staph, VRE, the flu, and other serious infections start to spread, it can jeopardize your entire team.
All it takes is one infected person to bring germs into the locker room and share a pair of gloves or pads, and before you know it, your whole team could be benched. Just ask Coach Ressa, who had to solve staph issues that were threatening his football season. Don’t wait until half your team is sick — take proactive steps to keep your players healthy and on the field.
Don’t wait to sanitize
After long days of practice and big wins, we know the struggle of compiling all your gear and getting to work on washing it with liquid detergents and aerosols. It’s time-consuming and sometimes doesn’t feel worth it — but sanitizing gear is one of the most important things for your team to practice.
That’s why we want to make it quick and painless for athletic staff to handle sweaty, smelly gear with Sports-O-Zone. Our completely dry cycle unleashes ozone gas to kill germs, wipe out odor, and save you time. Simply toss your gear into the Sports-O-Zone sanitizing chamber, and in just 32 minutes, it’ll be fresh and safe to use again. Say goodbye to long nights of washing gear by hand.
Ready to ditch the smell and traditional sanitizing products? Reach out to us today.
