How To Wash Sports Running Shoes: 5 Easy DIY Tips

Running shoes are all the fashion rage these days, and, interestingly enough, white-soled running shoes are pretty darn fashionable. 

The issue is, when it comes to white-soled running shoes, it gets dirty really quickly and can be a bit of a challenge to take care of.

Also, we need to take a little more care if you want them to last longer and to get the most out of them. 

So, to get your running shoes in Jerry Seinfeld’s condition, I’m going to show you a few quick and easy cleaning tips on how to wash sports running shoes that you can bring your shoes back to looking beautiful. 

Everybody wants to know how to clean their running shoes. 

I would love to give you a one size fits all answer, but unfortunately, because not all shoes, shoe materials, and shoe manufacturers are created equal, there’s no one easy answer.

But what I can do is give you a couple of useful pointers or starting places so that you can get your shoes as clean as possible.

• See also: 12 Easy Yet Effective Ways to Remove Bad Smell From Shoes

How to Wash Sports Running Shoes With Baking Soda

Since white-soled running shoes are sexy, I’m going to show you exactly how to make sure that these look amazing all the time. 

So the way to get these absolutely clean follow these steps:

1. First, make a solution mixing of equal parts of baking soda and laundry detergent into warm water. You can also use scent-free and color free whatever you feel good about using.
2. Mix that solution together correctly in a bowl and then apply that to the stained area using a cleaning toothbrush. 
3. You don’t need too much product here, just enough to make sure you can start agitating that dirt off. 
4. Rub the stained areas a few times better with the toothbrush. 
5. Use a sponge, or cotton cloth to rinse it with a little bit of cold water, and pat it to dry. 

You should see those stains come right off. Read more on how to clean running shoes.

A Quick Little Hack to Clean Your Running Shoes

Here’s a quick little cheat for you to clean your sports shoes without water at home if, for whatever reason, you don’t have access to the actual cleaning materials I just covered.

• Get yourself a white eraser. You can pick it up at an art store or an office supply store. Don’t get a pink one or a custom shape or character.
• What you need is to just pick a white-colored eraser. What you’ll do, and this will work on leather, and this will work on rubber. 
• Just find the area that’s affected, aka a little bit dirty, and literally start erasing that stain the same way you would erase a long division homework issue that you have been having. 

I know you’re going to start carrying one of these around in your purse or your pocket. I take one everywhere in my wallet, and my life has definitely been improved ever since.

How to Clean Running Shoelaces

There’s no sense in having beautifully clean shoes if you’re going to have really raunchy laces.

So what you can do is simply pretreat the dirty areas of the laces, because God knows where these things have ended up. 

To clear your shoelaces:

• You can use a bit of laundry detergent, or a bit of dish detergent, or a little bit of stain pre-treater. Whatever you’ve got handy is fine. 
• Then just find yourself a soft bag. Again, this is why I talk about them all the time. You use them for absolutely everything. 
• Throw your laces into the soft bag. 
• Wash them as you usually would, and your laces will be good to go.

How to Clean Running Shoe Eyelets

Now, while they’re washing, what you can do is clean the little area where the laces go, those tiny holes, or say shoe eyelets. 

You can use a cleaning toothbrush with a little bit of laundry detergent and a little bit of water. Give them a quick scrub, and then sponge dry them, and you’ll be okay.

How to Clean Running Shoes Upper

If you notice that your shoes are crazy dirty because you’re one of the people that actually wear running shoes because you exercise, what you can do is let those shoes dry entirely. 

• Get yourself a cleaning toothbrush or perhaps a brush that’s a little bit bigger, and you can start dry brushing that dirt off. It’s a lot easier to deal with once it’s actually dry. So let that all fall to the ground. 
• Now make sure you’re not putting your running shoes under artificial heat. You’re literally just letting it air dry and do its thing.

How to Clean Running Shoe Insole

Now, interestingly, you can do the same exact thing to clean your running shoe sock liner or inner sole. 

• If you notice that it is a little bit on the pungent side, you can take that mixture of laundry detergent and water.
• Just scrub a cleaning toothbrush in that mixture and then start cleaning the insole. 
• Rinse it well, lay that flat to dry, and that should smell a lot better.
• And if you want to be really special, you can sprinkle a little bit of baking soda on that while it dries overnight. 

Things to Avoid When Drying Your Running Shoes

So, there are a few things that you should avoid doing when you want to dry your running shoes after washing.

• Avoid whacking them in the tumble dryer, that’s a big NO. As soon as it’s in the washing machine, the heat involved can really distort the trainers, especially the soles. The heat can really expand the soles. 
• Then there’s the radiator. I’ll be honest, I thought about this. It can seem so convenient to just chuck the trainers on the top of a scorching radiator but be careful, it’s not too hot because it will damage the trainers. 
• It can really affect the upper material if it dries out and then it crisps up. I’ve had it tear when I’ve next used the trainers.

Quick Tips To Dry Your Running Shoes

So here’s what we would suggest. 

Firstly, you want to try and dry your shoes out naturally. I understand that’s easier said than done, especially if you’re in the middle of the winter when nothing seems to dry out. 

So, here’s what you do to give a helping hand. 

1. You’ll need some newspaper, or something similar if it’s gonna soak up any moisture. 
2. Now, most shoes will allow you to take the insole out and providing there’s nothing special about the insoles, I’ve never had an issue of drying these in the radiator. 
3. Alternatively, you can wrap these inner sole in a newspaper, and actually, by taking them out and drying them entirely, it will help keep your trainers smelling a little fresher. 
4. Then using the remaining paper, your scrunch up into balls, and stuff them inside your trainers. 
5. You can leave them in the sunlight to dry in a warm place, or under the radiator.

Bonus Tips To Maintain Your Running Shoes

Now it can be very tempting to just kick your shoes off at the end of a run without untying the laces.  

But without untying the laces, you’re actually risking weakening the heal and the heel collar. Now, essentially the healing collar holds your foot in the shoe and stops it from slipping out. 

I’ve actually learned the hard way on this, and trust me, it gets really annoying when your foot does even start slipping out of the shoe, and it actually left me with a rather juicy blister on one of my heels. 

Needless to say, I ended up having to buy a new pair of running shoes a lot sooner than I should have, a costly mistake. 

Now it may have sounded like a daft subject on how to maintain your running shoes, but hopefully, a few of those tips will help you get a little more life and enjoyment out of your running shoes. 

Our Recommended Shoe Cleaner Kit:

Conclusion

We hope that this blog article on How to wash sports running shoes helped you to clean your shoe by yourself in less time. 

And we would Like to know what do you think about the knowledge you gained today, and do let us know which branded sports shoe you use, in the comment section below.

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