- Insider spoke to "
Survivor " contestants about how their one outfit is chosen for the show. - Competitors typically have to wear the same set of clothes and underwear for up to 39 days.
- Players find creative ways to clean their outfits, like boiling clothes and using hand sanitizer.
For 21 years, CBS' "Survivor" has kept viewers glued to the screen as its castaways compete each season for a $1 million prize.
Players arrive at the remote location wearing one outfit that needs to potentially last them for 39 days. But out in the elements, the clothes get weathered, ripped, and really stinky.
Insider spoke to several former competitors to see what it was like to wear the same clothes for that long - and how they got creative with cleaning their garments or even getting new underwear.
Although players can suggest their outfits, they don't get the final say
Elaine Stott said that before she competed on "Survivor: Island of the Idols," she had to negotiate what clothes she could bring with her.
From her flannels to her blue jeans, Stott chose clothes that she would typically wear at home, but she was surprised when her underwear - "shorter panties than I would ever wear" - was picked out by the wardrobe department.
"They don't want everybody to have the same kind of outfit," Stott explained.
Although she initially fought back on the style of underwear, the crew made a deal by letting Stott bring her favorite hat to the island.
"I compromised because I said, 'Listen, I'll do whatever you want me to do, I don't care. Just, I have to take my hat,'" Stott added.
Producers may sometimes swap game clothes for more formal wear
Four-time "Survivor" player and one-time champion Tyson Apostol said that the producers "suckered" him into picking out a nicer outfit for his first season.
According to Apostol, when the "Survivor" crew asks players to pick out game clothes, they also request "press day" outfits.
"The first time I was on the show, they said, 'Submit three outfits that you'll use for press day' - so something you would wear to a business-casual dinner," Apostol told Insider. "For me, it was just like jeans and a T-shirt."
"And then they choose one of your press-day outfits as your game outfit," he added. "So that's how they kind of suckered you into choosing something."
Apostol said he suspects the crew didn't even open the box of clothes options he sent in.
Multi-season players are sometimes encouraged to repeat looks if they return to compete
Four-time player Apostol said that "Survivor" producers urge repeat competitors to wear similar outfits every time they return to the show.
"They kind of try to mold you into the same character you were the first time," Apostol said. "They're like, 'Oh, you wore a deep V-neck the first season you were on the show 12 years ago? I want you in that again.'"
He said he's "not a deep V-neck guy anymore" and probably hasn't worn one since he competed years ago.
Although some players are more flexible about what they wear, Apostol said he's not afraid to push that boundary with producers.
"I'm very picky about what I wear and what I don't," he told Insider. "It's a little bit of a battle every season for me."
Producers have seemingly been phasing out swimwear in recent seasons
For multiple seasons, "Survivor" players were allowed to bring a single outfit as well as a swimsuit, but apparently, recent players haven't been as lucky.
"Survivor: Island of the Idols" competitor Karishma Patel pointed out that she and her fellow castaways weren't able to wear swimsuits during their season, which made physical challenges even more taxing.
"Whatever you're wearing is all we had. It was miserable," Patel said. "We were talking about it amongst each other, and we think that there was a push towards making us look more like we were shipwrecked."
Outfits that are too hot in the daytime may prove useful at night
According to players, it's difficult to find a singular outfit that keeps them comfortable on hot days and freezing nights. Patel wore a long-sleeved shirt and pants during her season and said the experience was brutal.
Patel told Insider her shirt "got hot really fast" and the sleeves were sometimes obstructive during challenges.
She said that showrunners kept trying to get her to cut off her sleeves, but she didn't want to because she got cold at night.
Patel said that it was also difficult to wash her pants regularly and wait for them to dry because the temperature would drop drastically in the evening and she would get "eaten alive" by bugs.
Although long sleeves and pants may be beneficial at night, there are other downsides like the heat and water challenges, which Stott considered when speaking to a crew member about her outfit.
"I was like, 'Well ... if I jump off a boat and I got blue jeans and steel-toe boots on, I'm going to f---ing drown,'" Stott said. "And she was laughing. I was like, 'No, I'm serious. I'm going to die. Have you ever swam in blue jeans?'"
Players often don't realize how smelly they are
The sweat that comes with competing and camping in the hot sun would make anyone stink, especially after 30 days or so on a remote island.
Three-time "Survivor" player Malcolm Freberg said that although most competitors grow used to the smell, the camera crew will let them know if it's time for laundry day.
"You don't notice when it's on you, but there are camera crews who aren't as filthy as you," Freberg told Insider. "They'll tell you when you stink ... At least in my case, I had this one guy say, 'You've got to wash your clothes.'"
Some competitors tried to clean their clothes by boiling them or scrubbing them with hand sanitizer
Weeks without a washing machine can make it hard to stay fresh, but players come up with different ways of cleaning their clothes on the island.
Freberg said that in an effort to keep his clothes clean and kill the bacteria on them, he would wash them in boiling water.
"All you do is boil it, just toss it in the pot you cook with, which is just disgusting now that I'm thinking about it," Freberg said.
Not all players have the same method - Apostol called the boiling technique a "waste of time."
"It's one of those survival techniques where they're like, you should boil your clothes and keep them clean," Apostol told Insider. "You're like, 'OK, but I got to boil my water and I got to boil my clothes. I got to cook my food, and there's only one pot.' You don't have time to do it all."
Instead, the "Survivor" winner said he would rinse and scrub his clothes, then leave them in the sun to dry to kill off "pretty much everything."
For "Survivor: Island of the Idols" player Lauren-Ashley Beck, washing her clothes was a multistep process.
She said the show gave competitors hand sanitizer in the medical box, so she used it in her laundry routine.
"I would take my dress, put a ton of hand sanitizer in it, take it to the ocean, rub it. And then I'd take my water from my water bottle and rinse it off and hang-dry it," Beck told Insider.
In special cases, the crew may replace clothing necessities
If a competitor burns a huge hole in their shirt or if the hook on their bra breaks, they can get that piece exchanged, according to Patel.
"Production has a second complete set of your clothes, [an] identical set, in case something happens to the clothes that you're wearing," Patel told Insider.
"They can't put that on
Freberg said that although he was able to wear running shoes for challenges and flip-flops around camp while on "Survivor: Philippines," he lost one of his sandals just days into the
He said it was "a big deal" when wardrobe gave him a replacement because he wouldn't have been able to get around the island's unpredictable terrain without it.
Similarly, sometimes players ask for a new pair of underwear
Although players are typically stuck with one pair of underwear for the entirety of their season, there have been a few exceptions.
When Stott reached day 30 on the island, she said that she had lost so much weight that her original pair of underwear no longer fit around her waist.
"My a-- was hanging out and I see the family-visit challenge coming up, and I was like, 'I have got to get new britches, you know?'" Stott said.
Plus she said she was concerned that wearing the same pair for over a month without properly washing it was bad for her hygiene.
"People don't want to talk about it ... but you legit get your period out there," Stott said. "You legit could get a yeast infection. And you're probably more susceptible to it out there than anywhere else."
When Stott caught wind that her fellow player Beck had been able to get a second pair of underwear, she spoke to production and used what Beck had said about hygiene to do the same.