SportzGemz

I was honored to meet with Troy Landreville of the Langley Advance who interviewed me for the article below. This is one of the best descriptions of what our product does that I have read yet.

Thank you Troy!

The gag reflex some get from the noxious odour of bacteria-ridden sports equipment may be a thing of the past, if a local woman has anything to say.

A local entrepreneur believes she has a solution for moms and wives who feel the need to pull on Hazmat suits and gas masks every time they walk into their garages or basements.

Langley mom and entrepreneur Wendy Ratel has distributed SportzGemz to retail sporting goods stores across Canada, including Offside Pro Shops, located inside the Langley Sportsplex. Troy Landreville/Langley Advance

Wendy Ratel, a Langley mom of three, is the driving force behind SportzGemz.

SportzGemz sells beanbag-style pouches filled with the volcanic mineral zeolite. The pouches are placed inside sports equipment such as gloves and shinpads to eliminate bacteria and noxious odours.

After years of driving her son and two daughters to hockey, ringette, basketball, softball and golf practices through the years, Ratel felt enough is enough.

“There has to be a way to enjoy the sports, have the kids benefit and not have everything smell like sweat,” she said.

The smell was bad enough, but when Ratel’s daughter’s legs burned from bacteria in catching pads (softball), she said the problem became a “full-time focus.”

“I went looking for a solution that was natural, that would solve the problem,” Ratel said.

Sprays and powders weren’t the solution, Ratel noted.

Sprays encapsulate the smell and drop it into the fabric, they don’t eliminate it, Ratel said, adding that many sprays have toxins and chemicals in them as well.

“Add that to the smell of sweat and you have a nasty mix,” she said. “The kids complained about the powders. They didn’t like the residue left behind and when used in skates or cleats, the powder ended up between their toes and that didn’t feel very good.”

After months of research and trial and error, a natural mineral was found. According to Ratel, this mineral – zeolite – absorbed the smell and when placed near the equipment, the ionic charge of zeolite draws the odour to it and actually absorbs the smell inside itself.

Ratel said zeolite has two properties: first, it dries fast enough so the bacteria doesn’t get a chance to appear, and second, there is a minor silver content in the mineral itself, and silver is anti-microbial, “so the mineral inherently has microbial properties to it.”

“Even with three hockey bags in the garage, you could walk in without your eyes watering,” she said. “Better yet, the mineral is non-toxic, so the mineral could work on the equipment, but doesn’t leave behind a residue that coats the equipment and can potentially be absorbed into the skin.”

Zeolite also dries, Ratel noted, adding that hockey gloves and skates were dry in about five hours.

“When a kid is on the ice five or six times a week, equipment usually doesn’t dry out,” Ratel said. “Gloves can be wet to touch. The bacteria growing inside the gloves can causes rashes on the hands and the smell is horrific.”

Ratel said using drying methods such as hanging equipment on hockey trees is effective because it separates the items and gives them room to breathe, but it doesn’t solve the problem.

“Simply drying the material doesn’t deal with the bacteria build-up, nor does it deal with the smell,” she said. “If you use [SportzGemz products] in connection with the things you are already doing, like washing the equipment periodically or hanging it off [hockey] trees, then you actually walk into a garage and not get knocked over by the smell.”

National Hockey League linesman and Langley resident Brad Lazarowich travels with SportzGemz pouches wherever he officiates, according to Ratel.

Ratel’s and Lazorwich’s daughters had played softball together, hence the connection.

“He loves that his skates are dry and there isn’t a smell in the hotel room from his skates,” Ratel said. “He is responsible for his own equipment, so he keeps it with him all the time.”