The Right Way To Clean your Running Shoes

A good pair of running shoes is like an investment. Although not high maintenance like your cashmere pieces, but they do require a little cleaning and care. Now, we aren’t asking you keep them minty fresh all the time, all you’ve got to do is try and keep the muck and sweat away as much as possible.

Tossing your shoes in the washing machine would be an easy option, but that’s something that we’d not recommend you to do. What about the dryer? You might as well melt them.

If you’re a runner whose outsoles have dirt cakes stuck in the rubber, the mesh of the shoe is filled with grime and grit and if the insides are beginning to smell all funky, it’s time to get onto the job.

Before you get started, make sure to wash different parts of the shoe separately. So remove the insoles and the laces as they need to be treated separately. 

 Take an old toothbrush that’s lying at home and give the outer soles a good hard brushing to remove all the dry dirt cakes. And for the stubborn wet dirt, grab a hose and wash off the excess from all the nooks and crannies.

Next step is to clean the upper part of the shoe. For this, you can dust off the excess dirt and grime sticking onto the mesh with an old brush. Once you are done doing that, take a bucket filled with detergent and water, make sure it’s dissolved well. Dip the sponge or a towel into the solution, remove the excess water and wipe it over the problematic stained areas.

After you’ve removed all the stains, dunk the sponge in fresh water and remove the excess soap from the upper part of the shoe.

Finally, place the shoe in a room and let it dry naturally.

Your insoles tend to absorb a lot of sweat, creating a perfect environment for germs and odour causing bacteria.
That’s one reason that they should be cleaned thoroughly and the second is to obviously save you from an embarrassing situation once your shoes are off.

All you’ve got to do is repeat the same steps as you followed for the upper part of the shoe.

Laces can be subjected to a tougher cleaning process in comparison to other parts of the shoe. In an ideal situation you could sprinkle some detergent powder over the laces add some water, thoroughly rinse off the stains and hand wash it. But if you’re too tired, you could put them in a delicates bag, toss it into the machine and run it on a normal setting.

Looking for an easier way out? Just download the Launderette app - we’ve got top rated laundries and dry cleaners onboard who’ll be happy to do your dirty job.