I washed my Nagos

I a new climber. I started climbing about 8 months ago and my first pair of shoes were La Sportiva Nagos. As expected it didn't take long for the stink to get bad and my wife was always putting them outside. This wasn't too big of a deal, but after a few more months the shoes had gotten so slippery inside that I was melting off damn near everything. My foot was just sliding around inside the shoe. Yes, I sized them down. In fact they were two sizes less than my street shoe. No, I'm not talking about the initial stretch period that leather goes through either. I'm talking a built up funk that was as slippery as Astroglide, but not nearly as non-toxic.

Something had to be done. Everything I read online said washing leather shoes would ruin them. The people at my gym said much them same. It was either wash them and see how it works or throw them away. I decided to wash them with cold water and dish soap. I scrubbed them inside and out, but especially inside. There was a constant flow of red dye leaving the shoes. (The only thing I don't like about my Nagos is they dye your feet bright red even after months of use.) To dry I left them as wide open as I could outside overnight and away from direct sun. Then the next day, to make sure they didn't shrink too much, while they were still drying I wore them while watching Netflix. (It was a rest day for me.)

I'm stoked to say the shoes have never fit me as well as they do now and the red dye was almost eliminated. Don't be afraid to wash your shoes, just dry them slowly and wear them to finish the process.

Yup, remember the fitting trick of soaking shoes and finish drying them on your feet.

You can lessen the stench by wearing a pair of liner socks with your shoes. There might be some de minimus reduction in sensitivity and performance, but your wife will thank you.

Avoid foot powders but aerosol anti-perspirant can help.

I've washed Nagos and Mythos before, both for funk reasons (before I started clipping my shoes to the outside of my pack - other subway riders be damned) and for issues of fit. Unfortunately they tend to stretch back out pretty quickly, but if your shoes are getting old and you want them to fit like a glove for a day, its worth doing. I've never dried them on my feet before though - always just dealt with the leather being very stiff the first couple climbs. I'll have to try your method.

I've never washed my shoes before, but I used to leave them out in the sun BITD for a couple of hours which both eliminated funk and shrank them. Given that I lived in Eldo and Vegas at the time, I wouldn't leave them out all day (as I did have one pair of shoes delam from the heat), but just enough to let them dry and shrink back to orginal size. To keep from building the funk make sure to never pack them in a bag while wet and let them dry completely.

I wash my shoes once a month if I'm climbing a lot, less often when life gets in the way. I just wash them with my jeans in the washing machine and air dry them. I've been doing this for 14 years and never had any issues. The leather shoes do shrink at first but stretch right back out the first time you climb in them.

If you think about it, a pair of shoes last around 6-8 months and you don't wear socks in them. That's a lot of foot cheese.

This won't help with the slippery foot goo you were talking about, but for the odor try a pair of sneaker balls amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0029I7V…

Your shoes will smell like charcoal instead of funk. I hang my shoes on the outside of my pack at the end the day to dry them and shove these guys in. Works like a charm

other good options are cedar shoe-forms.....cedar sachets (stuff them into the shoe while they are stored or in the pack), cedar chips or blocks that are typically used for woolens. All have some antimicrobial effect.....and the shoe-forms help the shoe body keep its shape while crammed in a pack or not being worn

Great ideas. Thanks guys! I mainly posted this since everything I heard and read online said you will ruin leather shoes by washing them. I wanted there to be at least one post showing how it can be done. I'm digging the other ideas though. Sneaker balls sound cool, and cedar is brilliant!