How to wash white sneakers

White sneak­ers always look styl­ish, but they get dirty very quick­ly. You need to know how to prop­er­ly wash and dry such shoes so that they last as long as pos­si­ble, retain­ing their orig­i­nal appear­ance.

Preparatory actions

Before clean­ing your sneak­ers, do the fol­low­ing:

1. Use a microfiber cloth, sponge or dry brush to remove dirt. It is advis­able to do this after each walk so that the sneak­ers stay clean for a long time.
2. Take out the insoles and laces. They should be washed sep­a­rate­ly using laun­dry soap, bleach or a spe­cial stain remover.

When clean­ing sneak­ers, do not use prod­ucts that are designed specif­i­cal­ly for plumb­ing. Such prod­ucts real­ly whiten, but they have a sharp unpleas­ant odor, and their chlo­rine-based com­po­si­tion is quite aggres­sive. Using such clean­ing prod­ucts, you increase the risk of hope­less­ly ruin­ing your sneak­ers.

Can you machine wash sneakers?

This is not always allowed. So, leather and suede sneak­ers are washed exclu­sive­ly by hand, so as not to spoil the shoes.

Before wash­ing in the machine, sneak­ers must first be knocked out. If the shoes are too dirty, dust can clog the holes in the drum.

A suit­able mode for wash­ing sneak­ers is “Del­i­cate”. In this case, the machine spins more slow­ly, which reduces the risk of defects (such as abra­sion). The tem­per­a­ture must be as low as pos­si­ble.

Togeth­er with sneak­ers, it is worth plac­ing unnec­es­sary tow­els and oth­er tight clothes in the drum. How­ev­er, addi­tion­al prod­ucts that will pre­vent the defor­ma­tion of shoes can become dirty, so you should not fill the machine with light-col­ored things.

Pour exact­ly as much pow­der into the com­part­ment as rec­om­mend­ed by the man­u­fac­tur­er. If you add too much prod­uct, the machine will not be able to rinse clean sneak­ers, which will stiff­en the shoes and lead to unsight­ly stains. Any deter­gent is suit­able for wash­ing — pow­der, gel, gran­ules, etc.

How to clean white suede sneakers by hand

If your suede sneak­ers are exposed to rain and mud, the first step is to let them dry com­plete­ly. Inside the shoes should be stuffed with news­pa­per sheets or paper tow­els.

Then you need to lift the pile and clean the dirty places using a spe­cial brush for suede care. You can get rid of stains with a sta­tionery eras­er. Next, apply a cleans­ing foam to the sur­face of the suede and leave it for a few min­utes.

The final step is to treat the pair with a soapy solu­tion with the addi­tion of ammo­nia.

Clean­ing suede sneak­ers should be done care­ful­ly. You can not wet sneak­ers through, oth­er­wise the shoes may be deformed.

Folk remedies

We offer sev­er­al folk recipes for quick bleach­ing of sneak­ers.

Atten­tion! Before using any of these meth­ods, first test it on an incon­spic­u­ous area. Oth­er­wise, there is a risk of ruin­ing the sneak­ers.

Vinegar, powder and lemon juice

Hydro­gen per­ox­ide can be used instead of lemon juice, and any pow­der is fine.

Pro­ce­dure:

1. Mix some pow­der with 1 tbsp. l. vine­gar and 1 tbsp. l. lemon juice (or per­ox­ide) so that a thick mix­ture forms.
2. Gen­tly rub the mix­ture into the con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed areas and leave it for 10 min­utes.
3. Rinse off any remain­ing prod­uct with warm run­ning water.

Toothpaste

White tooth­paste with­out any inclu­sions will do. You can also dis­solve tooth pow­der in a small amount of water, if avail­able.

Pro­ce­dure:

1. Squeeze some tooth­paste onto an unused tooth­brush.
2. Wipe dirty areas with a brush.
3. Take a sponge or damp cloth and remove any remain­ing prod­uct.

Soda

It is enough to mix soda with water, apply the mix­ture on sneak­ers and leave for up to 15 min­utes. The remains of the prod­uct are removed with a sponge or a damp cloth.

You can use only soda or add pow­der for an even more suc­cess­ful result.

Milk and starch

Stir 1 tbsp. l. starch with 1 tbsp. l. milk, apply the mix­ture on the sneak­ers and wait until it dries.

Residues are eas­i­ly removed with a sponge or damp cloth.

Micellar water

The prod­uct effec­tive­ly removes stains from white shoes. It is enough to moist­en a cot­ton pad in it and wipe the con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed places.

Vinegar and acetone

This folk method is suit­able for quick­ly clean­ing the soles of shoes.

Pro­ce­dure:

1. Stir 1 tbsp. l. vine­gar with 1 tbsp. l. ace­tone.
2. Soak a cot­ton pad in the mix­ture and wipe the soles of your sneak­ers with it.
3. Rinse your shoes under warm run­ning water.

1. Oxy­gen-based bleach­es and stain removers

In such prod­ucts, the com­po­si­tion con­tains the mark Oxi. They can also be used for fab­ric sneak­ers. Mix the select­ed prod­uct with water in a small amount and apply it to the sur­face of the shoe. After 15 min­utes, rinse off the remain­ing prod­uct with warm run­ning water.

There is anoth­er way: place the sneak­ers for 2–3 hours with stain remover or bleach, then go over the dirty places with a brush with bak­ing soda or white tooth­paste applied to it. After that, the sneak­ers need to be thor­ough­ly rinsed.

Mesh sneak­ers need the most gen­tle wash­ing. Aggres­sive means can­not be used. To pre­vent deter­gent from get­ting into the inside, stuff the washed shoes with dry wipes, news­pa­per pages, etc.

Nail polish remover

Apply the liq­uid to the sole and rinse it off under warm run­ning water after 30 min­utes. Instead of nail pol­ish remover, you can use Pemolux.

How to dry your sneakers

Shoes are dried at room tem­per­a­ture, away from radi­a­tors, fire­places and oth­er heat sources. Do not leave it in direct sun­light.

After clean­ing your suede sneak­ers, go over the sur­face with a dry cloth. Place them in a well ven­ti­lat­ed area away from heat sources. Inside, you can add wads of paper to keep the shape of the shoes.

Features and nuances

Today, there are quite a few dry clean­ers that are designed specif­i­cal­ly to care for sneak­ers. Spe­cial­ists pro­vide a full range of ser­vices for clean­ing and dry­ing shoes. Sneak­ers made of arti­fi­cial leather and syn­thet­ic mate­ri­als are the most expen­sive. If you need to clean only the sole, then the cost of ser­vices will be min­i­mal.

Some peo­ple cov­er the soles of sneak­ers with sev­er­al coats of reg­u­lar col­or­less nail pol­ish, which allows them to keep them clean for a long time.

When clean­ing sneak­ers, it is advis­able to wear durable rub­ber gloves on your hands, espe­cial­ly if you use aggres­sive deter­gents. Thus, you pro­tect the skin of your hands from their neg­a­tive effects.