Chacos smell + can’t get it out !

I know there was a discussion on boots + getting the smell out of those … but what about Chaco sandals? I’ve washed them, let them dry, scrubbed them, soaked and washed them with laundry detergent… nothing’s working. help!!

"mads"

The smell is inside the shoe where the strap runs, old sweat and foot gunk percolating in there. I made my wife throw hers out and got her a pair of Bedrock sandals. They were BAD 

Scrub them with a mix of baking soda and water real good, let the mixture coat everything, and then let them sit in the sun till dry. They'll have kind of a white residue which you can brush off (or it will go away after a few days of wearing them). The straps will feel a little stiffer than before but this works for me, I do it like once a year at the end of summer. 

Senor Pizza is right— the permastink with Chacos is often because of those channels running down into the shoes where the continuous strap loop goes under the footbed.  Frodeman is also right that baking soda will help— as will leaving them in a freezer (the colder the better) for several days.  But eventually mine always got back to their rotting-flesh baseline, so they finally just had to go.  If they were less durable, we might not notice because we’d replace them before they got to permastink.  But alas, those of us with particularly redolent microcommunities on our little piggies (where my people at?) are destined to destroy our Chacos eventually with our own bacterial barrage.  Good thing we have other redeeming qualities, right?  Like flowery prose.

I take mine into the shower every few weeks.  Wash with soap. Let dry completely. Then spray with anti fungal Tinactin.  Works well.