Most of the time half way through summer you run into that problem. You have a pair of sneakers that are in good condition but they smell really bad. It happens to everyone and if you have tried all of the ways that you find on the internet you probably had bad results if any. Well I am going to tell you the way to remove that smell from your shoes but it will be up to you on how long it lasts.
Normal Smells in shoes are from bacteria. Yes thats right you are putting your feet into a really nasty science experiment full of bacteria that could result in some really bad infections if your feet also have injury due to lots of walking and hiking. That is really the main situation that you want to cure. Things will smell bad to you because its a warning system. Your sneakers are saying they are full of bacteria and you shouldn’t be wearing them.
So the easy thing about this is all you need to do is wash your shoes to remove the normal body sweat and soil that might be in them and then disinfect them to kill the bacteria.
Unfortunately this bacteria is relatively difficult to kill and because the things we use to try to kill it are normally watered down solutions the water helps the bacteria regrow. So after you disinfect your shoes you will now need to keep them dry. This means taking them off if you start sweating a lot, changing or at least using socks that will absorb some of your sweat. But you never want to allow your shoes to go more than an hour or so before you address the moisture problem. If you are out and camping then you might want to bring 2 pairs of sneakers or some sandals that you can wear to let your sneakers dry. If it is rough terrain I normally like to hike in ankle high boots that have good lacing to prevent injury from twisting an ankle on the trail but it depends on the situation. If you are just around the house then you can take your sneakers off and put them in the sun to dry and if its nighttime then use a hair dryer and don’t let them stay wet overnight.
What is the Magic Formula to get rid of Smells in Sneakers?
I am not promoting this product for pay I am just talking about it because I found it works.
Lysol Concentrate in a 3x solution. This means you take the regular bottle of Lysol Concentrate and where they suggest that you use 2.5 ounces of concentrate to a gallon of water you will be using about 6 ounces or half a bottle of concentrate per gallon of water. It is actually a 2.4x solution but it is stronger than what the label states. If you are having a serious problem then use the whole bottle of concentrate per gallon and it will make about a 5x solution.
And that is the situation you need a very strong bacteria killer that also won’t cause serious harm to your shoes. You could use bleach right out of the container but if you do that the bleach will not only bleach the bacteria out but it can harm colors of materials and if used for a prolonged period of time bleach will destroy the fabric. How do I know this? I got bleach on a tshirt and decided instead of throwing it away I would bleach the shirt in a bucket of bleach. I left it in there for a few hours and the started taring apart. So although bleach is a recommended product to kill bacteria on some surfaces you can’t use it on fabrics and if you dilute it enough that it won’t cause harm then it won’t be strong enough to kill the bacteria in your shoes.
To treat your shoes you should first clean them of general dirt. Use a strong liquid soap and scrub off all the dirt with a soft brush or rag. When you are done use your fingers to squeeze out most of the water and let your sneakers sit in a sink on the heel side so water runs out. You want to get as much of the water out as you can because it will dilute the lysol when you apply it later.
Then take your solution and put it in a pump spray bottle. The type used for household cleaners that you have emptied and rinsed clean.
Spray the inside of your sneakers with the toes pointed down and make sure that you get the tongue of the shoe. If you need to then loosen the laces and make sure that you have saturated the shoe really well. Let them rest for a few minutes and come back and spray them again. Do that a few times over the first 10 minutes to make sure the shoe is completely saturated with lysol concentrate.
Now you need to let the sneakers sit for 3 to 6 hours in a place where they won’t dry out. Don’t put them in the Sun or outside, in the sink you are washing them in or a bucket is fine.
The long waiting time is required to kill the bacteria. The bacteria won’t be killed instantly and if you don’t kill all of it then it will grow back in a matter of days or maybe just hours.
That last part is where most of the other methods fail. People that suggest using vinegar or alcohol or baking soda. If there is a possibility that those products could kill the bacteria they are normally not applied in a strong enough solution or for long enough to do the job. Alcohol in a 90% solution probably would kill the bacteria but you would have to soak the shoe in alcohol for a long time and alcohol might also cause problems with the adhesives used in the fabrics and rubber used in sneakers and shoes so just like bleach you don’t really want to do this. Vinegar even the strongest solution of 5% is unlikely to kill the bacteria in your shoes. Thats 5% vinegar which is a mild acid and then 95% water which we know we don’t want. For vinegar to work you would definitely need to soak it for many hours and the results may not be good.
Final Note
Nothing works 100% of the time and the reason for that is there are always factors that you can’t get around. In this how to it is suggested to use a stronger concentration than the basic disinfectant mix on the bottle but there is nothing on the bottle saying you can’t mix the product stronger and they actually do have a professional version that is a much stronger product used in Medical and other high demand areas. If you have any doubts you should use a small amount of your concentrate on a q tip and see if it will harm the fabric or materials of your shoe. I don’t think that will be the case but if you are cleaning shoes worth a hundred or many hundreds of dollars then it is up to you to make sure you aren’t going to harm them. Even a pair of $15 sneakers that you like you don’t want to lose so if in doubt then test the materials in your shoes.
Soaking time for this product to work can range on many factors but a few hours is suggested. If necessary you might want to come back and resoak the shoes after an hour.
If you have partial results that seem good but not complete then you haven’t killed all the bacteria and you should immediately retreat the shoes for best results. If not then the bacteria will grow back.
This howto does not address other smells in your shoes like spilling gasoline on them at the gas station or stepping in something we don’t want to think about. However after you clean the shoes normally with soap and water a treatment of this product could help replace any smells.
Remember keep your shoes dry. Don’t go to sleep with them wet and don’t wear them all day wet because thats how bacteria starts to grow. Keep your shoes clean and disinfected and that will give you better foot health.