How To Effectively Clean Your Tennis Shoes -

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Tennis is not only about hitting the ball back and forward over the net. Or training all the time and winning tournaments. Unfortunately, sometimes as tennis players we have to do some of the dirty work such as cleaning our shoes.

Obviously, if you are a professional tennis player then you don’t have to worry about cleaning your tennis shoes. Normally your team would do it for you or you get a new tennis shoe for every tournament you play from your sponsor.

This post is more targeted to tennis players who are beginners or are not playing on the ATP and WTA tour yet.

Cleaning your tennis shoes may seem like an impossible mission when people think about it. But the reality is, it’s very easy to do.

In this post, I’m going to give you the easy way out. If you are ready let’s begin with the things needed to clean your tennis shoes.

Table of Contents

Things Needed

Baking soda
Hydrogen peroxide

Toothbrush
A cup
Small bowl

Water
Any kind of soap
Nail polish remover

Step by Steps:

Begin by removing all the laces from the tennis shoes and putting them aside.
Mix a cup of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide.
Apply the mixture to your tennis shoes to cover everything by using the toothbrush.

Once step three is completed, leave it in the sun for about 1-2 hours for it to dry.
Do the mixture again but this time around add 1/2 cup of soap that you have selected.
Apply the mixture to your tennis shoes once more. At this point, you would start to notice that all the stains are coming off.

Next, put the laces in the mixture to remove the stains.
At this point, you need to use the water to wash off the mixture from the shoe and laces.
Lastly, use a nail polish remover to wipe the shoes and laces.

FAQ

Can you use tumble dryer to dry tennis shoes?

For top recommendation, I wouldn’t suggest putting your tennis shoes in a tumble dryer. There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, it will not dry them well, and both the shoes and the dryer may suffer damage if you try.

Secondly, your tennis shoes could shrink a little. You must be careful if you are going to use a tumble dryer. I would suggest that you dry your shoes in a warm place such as air circulation or in the sun.

How do you dry tennis shoes?

One of the best and quickest ways to dry your tennis shoes is to put them in the sun. It would dry perfectly without any downside.

Some of the other ways include putting your shoes in rice, wrapping around them in a newspaper and putting them closer to a fan.

If you want to check how to do this, click here to find out more.

Can you wash sneakers or tennis shoes in the dishwasher?

The simple answer is yes but I wouldn’t recommend it because the heat can damage your tennis shoes or sneakers. Only use it when you know how to set the setting to the right temperature for your shoes.

How do you clean stinky tennis shoes?

If you apply the method used in this post you should easily be able to clean your stinky tennis shoes. If you don’t want to go through all this hassle then you can try these two methods.

Baking Soda - How To Effectively Clean Your Tennis Shoes

The first way is by using baking soda. What you have to do is pour some of the baking soda inside the shoes and leave it overnight.

During the night, the powder will soak up excess moisture while you sleep, leaving the insole clean and dry in the morning.

If you want the inside of the shoes to smell awesome then mix the baking soda with a few drops of essential oil.

The second way is by using a newspaper. Surprising enough newspaper can do a great job to eliminate shoe odour.

The way to do this is by crumpling a few pages of newspaper into each shoe and leaving it throughout the night. This would help absorb all the odour and bacteria.

If you want to take it further and make it smell nice. Sprinkle a few drops of vanilla onto the newspaper first and then put it in the shoes. In the morning it would be smelling beautiful.

Why do my tennis shoes smell so bad?

The answer is very simple and there are two answers to the question. Firstly, wearing tennis shoes without socks would lead the shoes absorbing your feet’s sweat.

On top of that, materials such as leather may not allow your feet to breathe and as a result, can trap sweat and odour.

Secondly, it could mean that you are wearing it often and the shoe is not getting enough time to dry the sweat inside. The best recommendation is to wear different tennis shoes frequent.