There's a version of this going around BJJ Instagram: someone soaks their gi in a deep-cleaning powder overnight and pulls it out of water that looks like swamp runoff. Dark brown, genuinely grim. The implication is always the same: this is what's living in your gi right now, and you didn't know.
I wash my gi after every session. I run a hot cycle once a month. I don't air my gi out for days between rolls or leave it balled up in a bag. So I figured I'd test it on a gi that was already, by most standards, clean. Not to debunk the trend, just to see what it actually does to a gi that isn't being neglected.
Overnight soak, OxiClean, standard ratio, water heated to 43°C.
The water was grotty, yeah. Not clear. But nowhere near the dark brown swamp water from the viral posts. Whatever was coming out of the gi was real, just nowhere near that volume.
The gi itself showed no visible difference before and after. Same color, same feel, nothing that looked or smelled different in a way I could point to.
The actual takeaway is that the dramatic results in those posts aren't typical of a well-maintained gi. They're more likely typical of a gi that's gone a long time without a real wash, though I can't say for certain what product or starting condition was behind that specific video.
If you're already doing the basics (wash your gi after training, hot cycle monthly) there's not much left for an overnight soak to pull out. The deep clean isn't useless, it's just not adding much on top of habits you're probably already running.
OSS.
Run your own gi test and get a different result? Let us know, letsroll@newazanetwork.com