If you want your sneakers to last longer, there are a few things you should do. Keep reading to learn how to clean sneakers the right way.
Did you know that decades ago, sneakers were made of nothing more than canvas and rubber? Today, sneakers are quite varied and come in all sorts of designs, colors, and materials. Even so, the question of how to clean sneakers remains the same.
If you care about your sneakers, you’ll have to clean them sooner or later. If you don’t, the dirt and moisture in the crevices of the shoes will eventually start to eat away at the shoe’s material, and at a certain point, you’ll have to throw your shoes out. Fortunately, you can avoid this problem by cleaning sneakers on a regular basis, but where should you start?
Keep reading and learn more about how to clean your shoes and how to make shoes last longer.
Protect Your Shoes before You Ever Put Them On
If you are really serious about sneaker care, the best thing you can do is protect your shoes before you even put them on for the first time. How can you go about doing this, you might ask?
It has everything to do with using a simple repellent spray. A repellant spray acts to keep moisture away from your shoes. This works because the repellent spray is full of hydrophobic ingredients.
For that reason, if it rains or if you happen to step into a puddle, the repellant spray will act as a protective film around your shoe so that it doesn’t get destroyed by the moisture. After spraying down your shoes, you can see how effective the spray is just by sprinkling some water over the tops of your shoes.
As long as you sprayed the shoes enough, you should notice that the water will fall off the shoes in tiny beads rather than soaking into the fabric of the shoe. This will drastically increase the lifespan of your shoes because moisture is a shoe’s worst enemy.
The Details
If you let moisture sit around in your shoes for any period of time, there is a chance that mold and bacteria could start growing within the layers of fabric.
As a result, the fabric of the shoe will start to become weaker and weaker until the shoe starts to fall apart. Because most shoes these days are made to be quite durable, this will take a long time to happen. Even so, lingering moisture can also leave your sneakers with a terrible smell that will be very difficult to get out.
Of course, once you use the repellant spray on your shoes, this doesn’t mean that you can go swimming in them and expect them to be fine. The spray can only do so much and the moisture will penetrate your shoes sooner or later, especially once the spray starts to rub off over a few months.
You’ll be able to see how the spray is holding up on your shoes by sprinkling some water over the shoes after a month or two. If the water drops don’t slide off of your shoe, you’ll need to apply more repellent spray. Do this as often as necessary to protect your shoes.
Clean Your Shoes on a Regular Basis by Hand
When it comes to how to clean shoes, many people think all they have to do is throw their shoes into the washer machine and call it a day. However, the task isn’t so simple. In fact, washing your shoes in this way might even end up ruining them for good, and then you’ll have to end up buying a new pair of shoes through this link.
Instead, the best way to clean your shoes is with your hands. But how often should you clean your shoes, you might ask? It all depends on how often you use your shoes and how you use them.
For example, if you don’t use your shoes very much and only walk on the asphalt or sidewalk with them, they should stay in good shape for a long time. They also won’t get that dirty because you’ll be able to steer clear of most instances of mud, puddles, and other aspects that tend to get shoes dirty. In this case, you won’t need to wash your shoes very often at all, maybe once or twice a year.
If your shoes are white, you might need to wash them more often since dirt shows more on white shoes. On the other hand, if you take your shoes hiking and running through the woods, you can expect that you’ll have to wash them much more often, maybe even several times a month. This is because your shoes will be subjected to mud, puddles, grass, moss, stones, and many other things.
What You Need to Know
If you come back home and leave your muddy shoes by the door, all that dirt and moisture will eventually end up ruining the shoes and leaving them with a nasty smell. Fortunately, washing a pair of shoes by hand is easier than you might expect. All you need to do is find a sturdy rag, dampen it with water, and wipe away the surface debris on your shoes.
If your shoes have stains, get a brush such as a toothbrush and work on the stains until they come out. Be careful that the brush you choose isn’t too harsh. If the bristles are too hard, they can end up damaging and even tearing the fabric of your shoes. If water doesn’t work to clean your shoes, try investing in a shoe cleaner.
This kind of cleaner will penetrate the shoe fabric and will do a much better job of removing debris and stains. Once you’re done washing the shoes, don’t throw them in the drier. This can add a lot of wear and tear to your shoes.
Instead, leave them out to dry in a cool, dry area. Avoid areas that are too warm as this could make it easier for bacteria to grow within the fabric of the shoes.
Keep Bad Smells Out of Your Shoes
If your shoes have a bad smell, that’s a bad sign. Smells tend to originate from the insoles of the shoes. When you walk or run in your sneakers, your feet will sweat into the insoles and, unless you do something about it, the sweat will stay there.
Keep in mind that sweat is full of bacteria from your body. When sweat sits around in your insoles, the bacteria in the fabric will start to multiply. As a result, the smell in your shoes will only get worse and worse.
At a certain point, the bacteria might break down the insoles to such an extent that you’ll have to end up throwing your shoes in the trash. But is there anything you can really do to keep your feet from sweating into your shoes? Yes, there is, and it mainly has to do with wearing the right socks.
If you wear socks that don’t breathe well with your shoes, your feet are inevitably going to start sweating. As a result, that sweat will seep into your shoes and make them smell terrible. But if you wear moisture-wicking and breathable socks, you won’t have to deal with this problem in the first place.
These special socks will make sure that your feet have better insulation and beyond that, they will catch any sweat that your feet end up producing. For that reason, the sweat won’t end up in your shoes at all. Leaving your shoes dry out in the open after using them is also a good way to make sure that any moisture in the fabric evaporates.
Deodorizing Your Shoes
But what if your shoes already have a terrible smell to them? In that case, you can use several different techniques to get rid of the smell. For example, putting a few drops of essential oils such as peppermint or tea tree can do wonders for eliminating bad odors.
If that doesn’t work or if you don’t have essential oils on hand, you can always sprinkle some baking soda inside your shoes. The baking soda will help absorb any moisture in the shoes and it will also absorb the odor. After a few hours of letting the baking soda sit, you can clean out your shoes and they should no longer have a bad odor.
How to Clean Sneakers
How to clean sneakers and learning how to make your sneakers last longer isn’t difficult once you get into the habit of cleaning your shoes on a regular basis. All you need to do is keep moisture away from the fabric and clean them by hand once in a while.
To learn more, don’t hesitate to explore our other blogs on our website.