Interesting topic. I see two schools of thought - there are believers and there are non believers and those in the middle.
I hunt with some guys that do nothing with their hunting clothes.......they hang them in the work shop until hunting season and then they wear them for the season and when done hang them back back up until next year. I also hunt with guys that wash their clothes in scent a way and air dry at the beginning of the season and store them in a sealed bags with cedar bows for the season. Before a hunt they shower with scent a way soap and drive to the farm in street clothes and change at the side of their truck and before they walk out they spray down again with scent a way.
I am the guy in the middle. I do wash my clothes at the beginning of the season in a scent free soap, but I store my clothes in a tote in the back of my pick-up truck for convenience only (I like to have all my gear in one location). Sometimes I will spray down with scent a way (aka pixie dust) if it is out, but most times I just spray my heels of my boots with doe urine for the walk in. I put more effort into picking out what stand I hunt (depending on the wind direction), and the best way to get to that stand. I check the wind a couple of times during my hunt to see if it is changing direction or of it is an updraft or a downdraft. Another issue I see is some hunters cannot sit still - in the early weeks of the bow season I had a 6 pointer chase a doe into 30yds of me then wandered around for 4-5 minutes, and another time I had 5-6 does all within 25yds of my stand.
I still bring coffee or hot soup broth in a thermos with me for the really cold sits and sometimes use a Zippo hand warmer in a hand muff - yes these create smells but I think the deer are more curious than anything. I cannot tell you how many times I have been hunting and can smell the diesel from 2-3 farms over when the farmer is working his fields or spreading manure.
The way I see it scent control cannot hurt but I do not get compulsive about it. Regardless of how much product you use if you do not play the wind to your advantage your hunting success will be greatly limited.
https://i.imgur.com/Vc4GDvq.mp4
