Treatment for Shoe Stench

I still climb in my Boreal Ace's (yeah 1996 but they are the best at the Voo). They are so stinky I have to warn everyone when I take them off. I have tried every trick but nothing works. None of my other shoes stink like that, even the old ones from the same era. :-)

I read that stuffing a sock full of kitty liter and baking soda into your shoes when you're not wearing them helps. Haven't tried it tho.

There is a new product out that works amazing - mcnett.com/Rank-Away-Odor-E…

I highly recommend it. Give your shoes a spray every couple of times out or after a long multipitch.

Seriously, you just kill the bacteria starting with your feet. Refer to my earlier post. I had the most funky smelling shoes/feet. Since I started using said method, I have had NO foot odor and my shoes consequently don't smell either.

My friend uruinates in his shoes when they start to smell. The smell goes away, when stinky again, repeat. Seems to work for him.

mitchy wrote:My friend uruinates in his shoes when they start to smell. The smell goes away, when stinky again, repeat. Seems to work for him.

Actually i'm pretty sure Mitchy is on to something... you should try it. Seriously.

Another fix that works pretty well - drip the blood of a monkey in a circle around your smelly shoes, crush the bones of children and sprinkle in a spiral pattern around your shoe, then ignite the surrounding earth with gasoline.

I think Dirtbag has the solution: clean your feet well beforehand and dry them out immediately afterward.

Till now I've always worn socks and not had a problem. But that will soon change with the new "performance" shoes I'll be receiving. So I've thought about doing something in addition and wonder if others have tried the following.

Would it help by taking steps to keep your feet dry? For example, spray them with an antiperspirant just before putting in your shoes and perhaps also dusting them with chalk?

Anti-fungal foot spray is a must for foot stench, especially with synthetic shoes.

Freezing temperatures don't kill bacteria or fungi, they just slow down their growth. So freezing your shoes won't help. Bacteria and fungi require moisture for growth, so the best thing is to let your shoes dry thoroughly between uses. I leave mine hanging off my pack after climbing, and I've gotten 4-5 resoles out of each pair and no stink.

But if you've let your shoes get funky, there's little you can do about it now. Cat litter and baking soda might help for the short term, but as soon as they get sweaty and moist again, they're going to start smelling.

Try a powder containing 5%+ zinc oxide. You can sometime find it in the baby aisle (used for diaper rash) or the sunscreen aisle.

I've used it on sopping wet trail runners forgotten in a hot car, work boots, etc with excellent results every time.

John Johnson wrote:Freezing temperatures don't kill bacteria or fungi, they just slow down their growth. So freezing your shoes won't help.

Agreed. Cant believe how many idiots buy into this. I wonder if they realize freezing stuff just preserves it so when you let it thaw out the bacteria is still there...

Someone musta skipped that day during science class.

I've used baking soda with good success. dump a bunch in and shake to coat right after use (still sweaty) let them sit until dry and that should kill the odor. only downside is that your feet will be coated in baking soda for a use or two.

I have another friend that queefs on said shoes and smell is tolerable for awhile.

John Marsella wrote:I bet if you have access to an autoclave, that could work too....

I thought about that too -- bacteria can't survive temperatures over 160 or so for very long, so you could try baking them for a while. But if you do that, you run the risk of melting your shoes or the glue that holds them together.

You can also try smoking them, but they're hard to keep lit.

In my experience, the cat litter method doesn't work and simply washing them doesn't work.

Obviously, there is a big difference between pet urine odor and shoe odor. But, both are very difficult to get rid of. A method that works for pet urine odor is to spray the urine spot with vinegar and let it dry. Then, you cover the area with baking soda and wet it with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and detergent. You let that dry and then vacuum up the baking soda (you could rinse it out with shoes). It works very well, better than the products they sell for it. I've been wondering if it would work for smelly shoes without damaging the shoes, but I don't have any old shoes to try it out on.

The Dread Pirate Killis wrote:Can't believe that BurtMachlan is posting negative shithead comments impugning others' intelligence. Oh wait! Yes I can! Evolvs do fine if you Woolite them. Same design, materials as Anasazis. They're not some stink magnet, they're synthetics that are cheap enough that everyone has a pair or three. Wash, let dry, repeat. Clean shoes. Man, everyone is SO much stupider than me. Wait, that's Burt's line.

Well, do you believe that putting your shoes in the freezer will kill the bacteria and make them come out smelling good?

My solution was staying away from evolve...

I have the nastiest Evolv defys, or at least I did until I soaked them in 98% rubbing alcohol overnight. Rinsed and dried and they were like a new shoe again, without all the odor. Not something I would try with a leather shoe, but works great on synthetics.

I have not tried this but I think it makes sense: if you have one of these little UV sticks for water treatment (kills bacteria), I would think that sticking it in each shoe for a few cycles might do the trick... I'd be interested to know if this works. Let me know!