Quick answer: what does a gym towel actually do?
A gym towel absorbs sweat, protects shared equipment from moisture transfer and gives you somewhere clean to put your face that is not a bench that seventeen strangers also put their faces on. The best gym towels are quick-dry microfibre with a zip pocket for your key or locker coin.
Nobody talks about their gym towel. People discuss protein ratios, programme splits, whether their squat stance is wide enough. The gym towel sits quietly in the bag, does its job and gets no credit whatsoever.
Until you forget it. Then it is all you can think about.
Here is what a good gym towel actually does, and why the zip pocket is a bigger deal than it sounds.
It keeps things hygienic without making it weird
Gym equipment gets used by a lot of people. A cable machine handle, a bench, a pull-up bar , everything shared picks up what the last person left behind. Draping your own towel over the bench before you lie down is gym etiquette that most people agree with in theory and forget about in practice.
A dedicated gym towel makes it easy without thinking. You put it down. You pick it up. Nobody has to have a conversation about it.
The Will and Wind gym towel is 200 GSM microfibre. That density matters: it absorbs more per wipe rather than just moving moisture around the surface. It also dries in one to two hours, which means it is not the source of that smell in your gym bag by Wednesday morning. Read about the material in our microfibre vs cotton comparison or go deeper with microfibre towel for sweat: why it wins.
The zip pocket: the feature that actually changes your day
Picture the classic gym scenario. You lock your bag in a locker. The key goes... somewhere. Your pocket if you have one. The side of your shoe if you do not. The front desk if you are feeling particularly optimistic about their system.
The Will and Wind gym towel has a zip pocket large enough for a locker coin, a key, earbuds or a card. The zip closes fully. It does not come undone mid-set. You keep the towel around your neck and your key is always exactly where the towel is.
It sounds small. It is not small. We wrote about it in why gym towels with zip pockets are a game changer and the response was basically "yes obviously why does every gym towel not have this."
It is the right size to actually work
A hand towel does not cover a bench. A bath towel takes up the entire bag. The Will and Wind gym towel at 100cm x 60cm covers a full bench seat, drapes properly over equipment and folds into something that takes up a sensible amount of space.
At under 150 grams it adds almost nothing to a gym bag. After a week you stop noticing it is in there, which means you stop forgetting to bring it.
It goes wherever your sessions do
The gym towel works at the pool, the boxing gym, a stadium, a park workout. It is not a dedicated piece of equipment. It is the towel that goes in the bag and comes out wherever you need it.
If you travel with it, it doubles as a compact travel towel for hotel gyms and hostels. See how to choose a sustainable towel for beach and gym use for the overlap between gym and travel formats.
It is made from recycled bottles (and you can verify that)
Each Will and Wind gym towel is GRS 4.0 certified rPET. That means recycled post-consumer plastic bottles, independently audited annually. Thirteen bottles per towel. The certification is checked by a third party rather than written on packaging because it sounded good.
The full story is at what is rPET and why it matters and at our sustainability page.
FAQs
How often should I wash a gym towel?
After every use. Cold machine wash, no fabric softener. Fabric softener coats the microfibre and reduces absorbency over time. A Will and Wind gym towel washed and aired out after a session is dry and ready the next morning.
What size should a gym towel be?
100cm x 60cm is the practical minimum for gym use. Large enough to cover a full bench and drape over cable equipment, small enough to fold and carry without noticing the weight.
Can I use my gym towel at the pool?
Yes. The zip pocket is particularly useful at the pool , it holds a locker coin while you swim so you are not working out where to keep it. The microfibre dries fast enough that it is ready again before your next session.
Is microfibre better than cotton for a gym towel?
For gym use, yes. Cotton absorbs well but holds onto moisture and smell considerably longer. A microfibre gym towel is dry and fresh again the same day. See microfibre vs cotton: the honest comparison.
Does the Will and Wind gym towel have different designs?
Yes. The gym towel comes in the same original Australian ocean photography designs as the rest of the range. It is the one gym towel that does not look like it came free with a protein tub.
Shop the full range at Will and Wind gym towels. For more on what to look for, read why gym towels with zip pockets are a game changer and microfibre towel for sweat: why it wins at the gym.