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.”

My husband and I used to have great debates about the hockey equipment my son wore.  I used to opt for the more expensive, stressing that if it was more expensive, it was probably better.  Dave would go for fit and be much more practical.  One of the pieces of equipment we could agree on were hockey gloves or ringette gloves for our daughter.

Hockey gloves need to fit and fit well!  Here’s a list of what we look for.

Some hockey gloves my kids like

1. Decide how long you want to keep the hockey gloves.  If you are buying gloves for a child, you may be replacing them yearly as the child grows.  As the child gets older you may replace them every two years.  When our son started playing midget hockey, we bought very good quality gloves for him, knowing this would be the last pair we bought.
2. Think about the level of competition. Rep players need better quality equipment than house or recreational players.  Hits are harder, the competition is more intense and the kids play more often at rep levels.
3. Do some research.  There’s lots of info on the internet about different brands.
4. Decide how much you want to spend. The price of hockey gloves varies widely.  Sometimes you can get great deals on last year’s model – just ask!
5. We’ve always gone to a hockey store, rather than a chain store to purchase gloves and skates.  The staff is more knowledgeable and the selection is better.
6. Look for gloves that are comfortable and are not too wide on your hands.  Your fingers should fit inside the fingers of the gloves with only a small gap to spare.  Some gloves have individual pads on the fingers for each joint.  This makes the glove for flexible.
7. Another thing to look for is how high the padding comes up your wrists.  Your wrists take a beating and you want them protected.  Think of your hockey equipment as armour and you want as few gaps between pads as possible.
8. Pick up a stick and make sure you can handle it correctly.
9. Lastly, make sure the athlete is the one trying on the hockey gloves.  They have to wear them!

I remember the first time I took my son for hockey equipment.  It wasn’t the best experience.  Hopefully these tips will be helpful.

First, I want to thank you for sending the sample SportzGems. Your samples arrived about 2-weeks ago, and it took about that long to do a little testing on the gear of the smelliest hockey player in Massachusetts. (At this time of year, he only skates twice per week, once on-ice and once in in-lines.) Anyway, the most offensive articles belonging to my 20-year old are his summer training in-line skates (I thought to build an addition onto the house just to get them away from the living quarters).   And, after a couple of days of having your SportzGem packets in those skates, I can tell you that they are now odor free!

Conny Strub inline skater

I’m in my skates 4 or 5 hours a day. They never dried out. A few days of using the Sportz Gemz and my skates are dry and the smell is so much better. Thank you! 

Conny Strub, Canadian National Team Inline Speed Skater