smelly shoes

squeaky

Hmm..

it can be tricky this one. I had an "episode" about three years ago... my feet and all my shoes trainers slippers went seriously stinky. I tried all sorts of things - but here's what worked...

I eventually tracked it down to being one brand new pair of trainers that started everything off, but no matter how often I "treated" them, or bathed my feet in various medicated foot baths I ended up cross infecting everything.

The cure was to spray ALL my shoes trainers slippers with febreeze. It took four spray sessions. AND... forget "medicated"... part fill a washing up bowl big enough to take your feet with water as hot as you can stand and put a REALLY BIG squirt of washing up liquid in it. Wash your feet in the bowl and then leave your feet in until the water gets too cold to stand. I'm talking a couple of hours or more if you can. Repeat this whole thing every second day another three times.

I've been completely trouble free ever since.

RENEGADE_2

squeaky wrote: »

Hmm..

it can be tricky this one. I had an "episode" about three years ago... my feet and all my shoes trainers slippers went seriously stinky. I tried all sorts of things - but here's what worked...

I eventually tracked it down to being one brand new pair of trainers that started everything off, but no matter how often I "treated" them, or bathed my feet in various medicated foot baths I ended up cross infecting everything.

The cure was to spray ALL my shoes trainers slippers with febreeze. It took four spray sessions. AND... forget "medicated"... part fill a washing up bowl big enough to take your feet with water as hot as you can stand and put a REALLY BIG squirt of washing up liquid in it. Wash your feet in the bowl and then leave your feet in until the water gets too cold to stand. I'm talking a couple of hours or more if you can. Repeat this whole thing every second day another three times.

I've been completely trouble free ever since.

Neutralising a bad odour is one thing but curing the problem is another. Shoes don't smell bad, if they did you wouldn't buy them. It's that part of the body that goes in. Even if clean upon arrival, the enclosure starts to cause problems and every one of those originates from within the person and not the shoe! Poor shoes get blamed!!

All I can say is - with those shoes/trainers, only wear them when you expect to remove them after a short time; always rotate your footwear; engage barefoot wherever you can (soft surfaces), and don't write off the air fresheners! After the spray and treatment, they can do a good job of keeping things pleasant!

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

squeaky wrote: »

Hmm..

it can be tricky this one. I had an "episode" about three years ago... my feet and all my shoes trainers slippers went seriously stinky. I tried all sorts of things - but here's what worked...

I eventually tracked it down to being one brand new pair of trainers that started everything off, but no matter how often I "treated" them, or bathed my feet in various medicated foot baths I ended up cross infecting everything.

....

There was a thing on Watchdog about Nike making stinky trainers a while back, although I think something similar was mentioned more recently too. Anyway here's the older link from 2008: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2008/11/stinky_trainers_update.html

squeaky

RENEGADE wrote: »

Neutralising a bad odour is one thing but curing the problem is another. Shoes don't smell bad, if they did you wouldn't buy them. It's that part of the body that goes in. Even if clean upon arrival, the enclosure starts to cause problems and every one of those originates from within the person and not the shoe! Poor shoes get blamed!!

All I can say is - with those shoes/trainers, only wear them when you expect to remove them after a short time; always rotate your footwear; engage barefoot wherever you can (soft surfaces), and don't write off the air fresheners! After the spray and treatment, they can do a good job of keeping things pleasant!

Yep. Agreed with all that

But once you get caught - the solution I posted is the only one I've found that works. I have six pairs of shoes, five trainers, three slippers - rotate every day - and I go barefoot as much as possible in summer... and I still got caught.

squeaky

Wee_Bargain_Hunter wrote: »

There was a thing on Watchdog about Nike making stinky trainers a while back, although I think something similar was mentioned more recently too. Anyway here's the older link from 2008: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2008/11/stinky_trainers_update.html

There was a study done before that too which came to conclusion that the "chicken and egg question" - "Do your feet make trainers stink? Or do trainers make your feet stink?" came to the conclusion that it was trainers that are the problem.

RENEGADE_2

squeaky wrote: »

Yep. Agreed with all that

But once you get caught - the solution I posted is the only one I've found that works. I have six pairs of shoes, five trainers, three slippers - rotate every day - and I go barefoot as much as possible in summer... and I still got caught.

Sorry I failed to comprehend one detail!
In what sense did you get "caught"?

lawrie28

RENEGADE wrote: »

I keep a nice vanilla "tree" in the case where my dongle is, has kept it fresh since October 2010. .

Good to know your "Dongle" is vanilla scented!

RENEGADE_2

Sorry I forgot that this thread is dominated by females (probably)!

As such I fell foul of your vernacular. I meant the device that plugs into the laptop to get online... I suppose any descritption will generate the same comment!

So for the record, I keep the other thing clean too!

Suzie_F

Here's a little idea for you to follow on with, after trying out some of the BRILLIANT suggestions already given above :-). Those Glade or Ambi Pur plug-ins are great for keeping small areas smelling fresh, so it may be worth plugging one in near to the area where your shoes are kept. I usually have mine on a low setting (2-3) and it lasts absolutely ages!!!
I'd also like to share what I feel is the perfect solution to stop feet sweating , smelling iffy, and sliding all over the place when wearing sandals.... . It's called 'roll on deodorant'!!! The deodorant sticks are good too as you don't have to wait for it to dry in like the roll ons :-) All you do is roll it underneath your feet, toes etc and Voilla ~ you have fresh smelling feet, <cotton> socks and shoes all day long!! Some brands work better than others, but my fave has to be Arrid Extra Extra Dry Roll On (with 24hr protection) from Home Bargain @ only 59p. Hope this helps as I've been dying to share this with others :-)

RENEGADE_2

Suzie_F wrote: »

Here's a little idea for you to follow on with, after trying out some of the BRILLIANT suggestions already given above :-). Those Glade or Ambi Pur plug-ins are great for keeping small areas smelling fresh, so it may be worth plugging one in near to the area where your shoes are kept. I usually have mine on a low setting (2-3) and it lasts absolutely ages!!!
I'd also like to share what I feel is the perfect solution to stop feet sweating , smelling iffy, and sliding all over the place when wearing sandals.... . It's called 'roll on deodorant'!!! The deodorant sticks are good too as you don't have to wait for it to dry in like the roll ons :-) All you do is roll it underneath your feet, toes etc and Voilla ~ you have fresh smelling feet, <cotton> socks and shoes all day long!! Some brands work better than others, but my fave has to be Arrid Extra Extra Dry Roll On (with 24hr protection) from Home Bargain @ only 59p. Hope this helps as I've been dying to share this with others :-)

I'm sure that's a panacea ....... for girls!

I'm a man however, and a straight man at that. That means I have macho heels, bit rough. I start wearing flip flops from Spring. By Summer I avoid the cracks but the area hardens. This means that there are patches of broken skin here and there and I think it may provoke skin irritation if I were to roll anti-persparent onto the soles. I can't see it being dangerous but it will likely sting. I've used roll-ons in the central areas many times in the past (external skin only of course) and I can tell any blokes reading, that does start to burn a bit. Hand creams are quite good though.

Mind you, we are well off-topic!

The OP was asking for solutions on shoes with odours. Sounds as if the family is happy to cause the odours, not looking for solutions to keep the feet clean but just what to do to prevent fould smells from the shoes! I'm sure everyone knows "prevention is better than cure".