what's your experience washing sneakers in the washing machine?

vestmoria@linux.community to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 46 points –

cross-posted from: https://linux.community/post/1079067

after running under the rain for 30 minutes my white sneakers had a foul stench. I tried disinfectant and washing them with soap and water and lots of rubbing and sunlight to dry.

While that got rid of most of the smell, my white sneakers are now brownish, specially around the shoelaces.

I've never washed sneakers in the washing machine. Am I going to ruin them?

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Shoeshiners exist for a reason. There's a science to cleaning shoes.

Shoeshiners are for "nice" shoes that use primarily "hard" materials for the outer layer that can be, well, shined. They don't typically take care of the inner parts where more standard fabrics are nor do they do sneakers.

Sneakers you can toss in the washer and call it a day

I have tried this with little success, I always just assumed they weren't made for that.

Shoe shiners:

  1. Are exceedingly rare in the modern era, and
  2. Shine shoes. They do not clean sneakers.

I thought sneakers were shoes.

Would you try to shine sneakers?

If they were as the OP describes, yes. Or whatever the equivalent to sneakers are. I just didn't know it was vastly different or that they could go in the washer without side effects as I've always failed.