Any time a company offers military grade products for a variety of physical pursuits, I stand at attention (pun intended). Products like this are usually cost-effective, durable, and work for pretty much every situation. The McNett family of products is no exception to this rule. McNett has a wide variety of products, many of which I’d love to use on the regular, being an outdoorsman and athlete. Whether you’re a gym buff, a climber, a diver, or a survivalist, McNett has a series of solutions to the problems any active person faces.
Recently, I tried three such products that I thought Breaking Muscle readers might like. The first two have similar purposes, so I’ll put them in one section:
Rank Away Odor Eliminator Soak and Mirazyme
These two odor-eliminating products are enzyme-based. That means instead of just covering up smells, the enzymes break down the molecules that cause the smell to begin with and destroy them at the source.
I was excited about this and I’ll tell you why. I personally don’t smell much. I don’t know why but my shoes, equipment, clothes, and so forth have never really smelled. Unfortunately, my training partner doesn’t have the same advantage. He plays about every sport you can imagine, including the smelliest sports, like hockey. When we carpooled to the gym he’d apologize every single time for the smell of his equipment, particularly his cleats.
When I received these products, I informed him I had something we were going to test on him. I gave him each of these products to test out, and sent him off after a workout one day. The next day when I got in his car there was no smell. I asked him about it to confirm that the cleats and other equipment were still in the car and it was confirmed.
The smell was gone. The cleats started to smell again late the second day, even without him wearing them, but they never returned to full odor. To be fair it was a very hot, muggy day – ideal conditions for bacterial growth. To have been that effective with only one treatment was pretty impressive to both of us.
The Rank Away was the most effective product of the two, which is understandable because its design is specifically for shoes. With both enzymes and an antifungal agent, it had the biggest impact. The Mirazyme worked well on lesser smelling equipment too, but its design is mainly for aquatic bacterias, algaes, and so forth. For divers I suspect it works even better.
I’ve worked with industrial strength enzyme formulas in the past, and they typically are not safe for use if they will come into contact with skin. McNett indicates that both of these products are safe for people and pets alike, and that was our experience. Neither of us had any issues with either of these products, but I wanted to advise users to test it on a backup product first to ensure there’s no sensitivity.
PT Pod
The other product I have been using is McNett’s PT Pod. This towel is designed for keeping trainees sweat-free, clean, and dry while they train. Sounds on the surface like a simple towel, but it’s not. This thing is packed with more features than a Swiss army knife.
Firstly the towel is microfiber. This makes it very soft to the touch and highly absorbent. There are some things I know a lot about, and for whatever reason microfiber is one of them. I’ll tell you, although McNett does not tout this feature, microfiber is far better at removing bacteria than normal fibers. So to recap: the PT Pod is softer, more absorbent, and has antibacterial properties that normal towels do not.
If the antibacterial property of the towel makes you smile, then be ready to get even more excited, because the towel is also laced with ionized silver. Silver has antimicrobial properties that make it even better at preventing bacterial growth. It also dries faster than a normal towel, which provides further protection.
But the PT Pod is not just a towel. It has a zippered pouch built right in that the entire towel folds into. When ready to use, unzip, take the towel out, and viola, suddenly not only do you have a towel but a built in pouch to keep your belongings with you, and a snapping loop so you can attach it to your belt. The loop even has a name tag.
I never thought I would have so much to say about a towel, but there it is. I did find once that if I unzipped the zipper all the way it was impossible to close my belongings in the pouch, but this was easy enough to resolve. Also, as cool as the pouch is, I didn’t really have an urge to keep my stuff in a pouch on the towel, and I suppose it would be possible to whack yourself in the face by accident with whatever you keep in there, but these are trivialities.
These McNett products were all awesome, and all the best of their kind. Whether it was keeping my forehead and hands dry in the gym, or making my trip there much less offensive by presenting the odor-eliminating products to my buddy, these are solid products at a great price that I’d recommend to anyone.
