Who hasn’t come back from a hard workout and when taking off their shoes the smell was almost unbearable?
Or in the middle of a workout, you get confused because you can perceive the smell of your feet even with your shoes on.
It’s a common occurrence, but that doesn’t mean you should normalize it. Sweat is odorless and colorless; the bad smell of your shoes is due to the bacteria that metabolize sweat.
For this reason we must maintain the hygiene of our shoes in the same way we do with our body.
If we do not look for a solution, in the short term it can generate a problem of athlete’s foot, nail fungus and more serious infections.
So we’ll give you some tips to keep your shoes fresh so you can focus on your training.
The best thing to do is to prevent your shoes not smell
It’s common knowledge that wearing shoes too much and too often causes bad odor. So does wearing shoes that are too tight in hot weather. Wearing the wrong socks can cause extreme sweating and trigger bad odors that are difficult to remove from your sneakers.
To prevent shoe odor, you can vary the pairs you wear during workouts; don’t wear the same pair all the time. This will allow your shoes to air out sufficiently. You will also avoid the development of fungus between the toes. The itching is unbearable.
When you finish wearing your sneakers, remove the laces and keep them with the tongue up and in a cool place. This will keep the shoe ventilated and free of moisture.
Wear the right socks for the type of shoe, the season and the workout. Socks made of synthetic fabrics such as polyamide dry much faster than cotton socks.
So in summer it is more advisable to use this type of quick-drying fabric. Make sure among the components of the stockings have spandex for greater freedom of movement.
Easy and simple methods to make your shoes not smell
If you need to get immediate results because you skipped the preventive stage, you need to use certain ingredients that will help keep your shoes from smelling bad.
The use of baking soda is an effective remedy to eliminate the bad smell of your shoes and any space that needs it. Just sprinkle some baking soda inside the affected shoes and leave it on for a couple of hours.
You will notice that after that time, the baking soda will absorb the bad smell. You can use it as many times as you need. But remember to shake the shoes before wearing them again.
You can try washing your shoes: take out the insoles, wash them with a brush and let them air dry. You can wash the shoes with a mixture of baking soda, lemon and the detergent you normally use. Place them to dry in the open air and if it is a very sunny day, all the better.
You can use commercial sprays and powders. But usually these products disguise the odor and do not eliminate it completely.
Also, if you are a person with an ecological ethic, these products would not suit you because they usually contain ingredients that are harmful to the environment or to the skin.
Talcum powders come in plastic containers that will end up in the trash and aerosol sprays are usually highly flammable.
A new alternative to eliminate bad odor from your shoes
A new and natural alternative is the use of bamboo charcoal.
Bamboo charcoal is an innovative odor eliminator and natural deodorizer that has increased its popularity for being an environmentally friendly product, for its production does not require much energy and its uses are varied. And the best part is that its residues are compostable.
Swet Athletix created a super effective odor and moisture eliminator with this new and ecological material: ShoeFresh.
It’s simple, easy to carry and has a great design. It’s two sachets that you insert inside each shoe to eliminate odor and keep it fresh and ready to wear. They are chemical free and non-toxic.
The bamboo charcoal is activated by solar energy. You should place it in the sun for approximately 3 hours before use. Bamboo charcoal absorbs bad odors and humidity, when it is saturated, place it in the sun for 2 to 4 hours and it is ready to use again.
After a shelf life of 2 years, you can use the contents of the sachets as fertilizer for your plants. This makes it a sustainable, valuable product and a good option to neutralize shoe odor.
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What do you think of these tips? Tell us your experience to eliminate odors effectively in the comments below.