SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Panthers training camp started Thursday and already, there are dirty little secrets floating around about the team.
Specifically, questions to how their jerseys stay so clean.
You can find the answer at Fowler Brothers Cleaners and Laundry.
That’s where Bill Fowler does his dirty work, washing the Carolina Panthers game day jerseys and coaches’ clothes.
“Everything you see on Saturday,” Fowler says.
The jerseys have to be pristine.
“They want everything on them to look like they fell out of Hart, Shaffner and Marx,” says Fowler.
Fowler says other NFL teams respect his uniform cleaning and that they’ve called him for advice.
His three secret weapons are three different cleaning chemicals, the equivalent of offense, defense and special teams in football.
First, the jerseys are washed in cold water to get out the blood and sweat.
Then they’re washed again in warm water.
Then they’re washed a third time with an additive, if needed.
Fowler says field paint is his worst enemy.
“That’s the pain, that is difficult,” he says.
Pants and jerseys are line dried, inspected, repaired, pressed and sent back to Charlotte.
Of course, there are dry cleaners in Charlotte, but sending uniforms to Spartanburg has a special meaning.
"This is kind of like a Wofford College family,” says Fowler.
Fowler and his brother went to school at Wofford College with Panthers owner Jerry Richardson back in the 1950's.
The friendship remains today, through blood, sweat and grass stains.
It’s even survived the stench of nasty jerseys on a really hot day.
"Same odor as a locker room, you've been there, you smelled it, we get the same thing," Fowler says.
Fowler says Steve Smith and former Panther Julius Peppers typically had the dirtiest jerseys from their reckless abandon on the field.
