Fighting shoe odor

my old cycling shoes smelled sooo bad. got a new pair. whats the hot tip to keep them fresh?

I use Mycomist spray in mine every few weeks.

100% pure sunshine.

Tea tree oil every week

I use a pair of electric ultraviolet shoe heater/dryers. Just pop them in my shoes after every ride. Seems to keep the odour in check.

I haven’t had this problem, maybe because I use wool socks? I noticed one year skiing with synthetic socks how much worse they smelled. Anecdotal, but maybe worth an experiment.

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Agree. All my sports socks are wool, and they rarely smell - unless I’ve worn them about 5 times without washing :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Wool is a godtier material. I took two pairs of wool socks on a 7 day self supported ride, thinking I would wash my socks when they got funky. Never once get the need. I swear by the stuff!

Don’t pee on the bike! Somehow they’re never quite the same again!!

Stuffitts . I use them in all my shoes. help dry them out as well as control odor

Jball843,

Hilarious replies, some of which sound logical, others no more than a bandaid covering up the underlying issue, Bacterial growth. deodorizer sprays, oils, gold bond? Really! what sort of build up in the shoe do these cause over time?

Years ago I had a cycling coach, also a very good friend, share with me what she recommended to all of her athletes and I’ve been doing it ever since.

Stick your shoes and insoles into the dishwasher!

  • Open up the shoe as much as you can, place it upside down on the top rack, throw in a small amount of detergent but avoid any with Phosphates, and run it on a cycle that washes with the hottest water you can. Some dishwashers have a Saniwash or HOT setting so the unit heats up the water. If hot water scars you I’m sure normal cycle will also do the trick.

  • Remove them before the dry cycle begins. This will avoid the possibility of shoes that are glued anywhere from coming unglued…if you have shoes where the materials are glued, consider a higher quality shoe that uses actual stitching not glue.

  • When you remove them from the dishwasher, let air dry or put in front of a fan to speed up the process. If you are a TrainerRoadie, you should have one of those.

Final Note: I have done this to the same pair of SIDI shoes for over 10 years and every time they came out looking almost brand new.

Your feet will thank you, your shoes will thank you

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A few sprays of Mushroom-B-Gone seems to do the trick for most people.

You probably get a deeper clean than me but I will take my cycling shoes into the shower with me and basically do the same thing manually with a little body soap.

Give the dishwashing a try and save your body soap for your body, Ha ha!

Cheers,

Lance King
708-334-1263

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Zinc Oxide powder (non-nano). Saved a pair of expensive hiking boots that I was ready to pitch they got so bad. After a couple of hikes using the powder they were completely odorless. Used it regularly with talc thereafter and the order never came back even though I was hiking 5-6 days a week.

Such a great advice. I ahve already tried to clean my old training shoes in such a way and they do not smell. But I think that I’ll repeat this process again to be sure that they are clean enough. And know I have one more pair of shoes to train at gym. But I think it will be good to use some dishwasher cleaners with antibacterial effect to use it to wash plates later. Whatever one may say, but these are shoes and still it is not entirely hygienic to use a dishwasher for such purposes. I think that using Glisten cleaner will solve this problem. And you can use dishwasher for further shoes cleaning.

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I dry my shoes and HRM strap with a six-inch desk fan after every ride.