How to wash your shoes…

The summer 2014 has been really weird. There were times where I wore my winter coat and they were times where I wore my bathing shorts. But the summer 2014 is over. At least in most parts of Europe (Yeah, I envy you: Spain, Italy, Greece and and and…).

And with the summer slowly coming to an end, the festival season is over too. Going to music festivals is one of my favorite things to do. But seeing 10 bands a day means standing still for a damn long time. So I always grab my favorite and most comfortable pair of sneakers to make the festival life a little bit easier. Unfortunately, as I already mentioned, the weather can be tricky sometimes and jumping around on muddy meadows for a couple of days means that your sneakers will be ruined after a long weekend.

So I decided to put together this small guide on how to wash you sneakers.

There are several ways to clean your shoes. You can use normal products from the supermarket like a brush, soap or baby wipes. Then, there are professional cleaning products like Jason Markk, a premium shoe cleaner which can be found in every well sorted sneaker shop across Europe. It works wonders but can be expensive.

But I am lazy. Like really lazy. And I do have a washing machine.
I think, it’s pretty clear that certain materials like pigskin suede, real leather and other sensitive materials definitely shouldn’t be cleaned in the washing machine. But all synthetic materials like mesh or suede are perfectly fine.

So, how do you wash your shoes?

1. Take the shoe laces out (if they are really dirty you can leave them in the last two holes but I always take them out)
2. Take out the insoles (you don’t want to wash them at all. If they smell, you can try it under the sink)
3. Put them in a pillow case or a jute bag to avoid creases and scratches
4. I always put some old towels in the machine as well to avoid that the shoes bounce around too much
5. Put some detergent or washing power in the machine. Please, leave out the fabric softener, it might mess with the glue
6. Wash them with cold water at 30 or 40 degrees WITHOUT spin-drying (!!!)
7. Once the shoes are washed, take them out and dry them at a window or another dry place. If you want you can put some old newspaper or shoe trees in them.

And that’s how you wash your shoes. Simple, right?
Let us know if it worked for you and if you have any ideas on how to improve the whole washing process, don’t hesitate!

Jan