stinky climbing shoe fix

Fill a pair of old socks with aromatic cedar shaving and put them in your shoes when they are not being used. Worked for me.

Only thing that has worked for me consistently is to keep the bacteria's food outta there in the first place: Dead skin cells. Scrub your feet! If you climb often you almost surely have pretty torn up skin on your feet. Get one of those foot scrubbers with the stone on one side and a metal scrubber on the other- and get all the dead skin off your feet at least once or twice a week. Makes the biggest difference of anything I've found.

That and what others have said- Never put your shoes in your bag right away.

Also, I take along a pair of ankle socks (hate wearing ankle socks) when climbing cause they are way easier to put on between climbs.... so I actually will put them on. Not a good idea to stick sweaty feet into approach shoes between climbs, then back in your climbing shoes even sweatier yet.

I keep one of these (kiwi shoe freshener) in my truck, works awesome. Turn the top, poke it inside the shoe, done. Once a week has kept all the stench away. I even let it go too long a few times, and it completely got rid of the odor in one shot.

walgreens.com/store/c/kiwi-…

The researchers noted that foot odor was due to Staphylococcus epidermidis. The paper also mentioned Bacillus subtilis. It seems that these bacteria produce isovaleric acid (3-Methylbutanoic acid) which smells like limburger cheese. They found that people with stinky feet had markedly higher concentrations of bacillus. The researchers state that “Therefore, we screened various naturally occurring substances and fragrant agents that inhibit microbial production of foot odor without disturbing the normal microbial flora of the human skin. As a result, we identified citral, citronellal, and geraniol as fragrant agents that inhibit the generation of isovaleric acid at low concentrations.”

danquo.blogspot.com/2012/07…

Easy. Just put the rinds from an orange in your shoes. Works like a charm and doesn't cost anything.

Wash your feet. Dry your feet. Repeat. Solved.

Hydrogen Peroxide has been a great, cheap solution for cleaning shoes for me. Granted I've never figured out anything to keep the smell down in Evolv or other synthetic shoes, but for leather shoes H2O2 has been killer. Just soak for 10-15 mins and scrub with a brush.

I had Shamans that were just too small, found a climber at the crag whose shoes were just too big. We swapped, and when I got home I found them to be moldy... Not foot funky, but extremely spoore exhibiting moldy.

I nabbed some HTH chlorine powder for pools, put a cup (250mL) in a cup, and put the cup and shoes in a 5 gal bucket for a month or so. Upon opening, they reeked of chlorine. I washed and dried them, and they are as good as new. Not sure if bleach would strip the color, but these didnt lose their neon orange.

I was also thinking of baking soda inside, shaken to distribute all around, then dropped in a gal of vinegar, volcano like Mt Vesuvius, would do the trick. Then wash, dry, and start the lysol cycle.

I climbed with an Aussie that had the worst shoes in the world funk wise, guaranteed. Cleared out the crag and gym. Bet that mate was stopped at the airport checkpoint, or maybe passed thru without search. Prob left a high altitudetrail that disturbed bird migratory routes.

I've used synthetic Evolvs; they reeked horrendously.
Now I'm always using leather Sportivas; no smelly problems at all.
My solution would be to buy a leather shoe.

Am I the only person whose Evolv's don't stink like death?

Spray the inside of your shoes with 90% Isopropyl Alcohol (rubbing alcohol). It kills bacteria and fungus, evaporates quickly at room temperature and is inexpensive.

If your shoes are smelly it's because you have fungus or bacteria on your feet. Fix your feet and your shoes will stop smelling.

I just got a new pair of Evolvs and was warned by the salesperson at REI that they stink. But he also said that that was his only complaint. I figured with a one year return policy, it was worth a shot.

Anyway I love the shoes and they did smell a bit after the first time wearing them. Solution? I filled two old socks with equal parts cornstarch and baking soda, with a few drops of tea tree and peppermint essential oils. Not only did my shoes smell awesome before my second time wearing them, they still smelled good afterwards. AND they made my feet all tingly and energized feeling. And also they kind of made my whole car, where I keep them, smell good.

I realize this is a pretty girly solution but it worked great. Dudes, you can buy essential oils on Amazon.

Cedar shoe trees. Put them in your shoes after you get home from climbing. Cedar absorbs moisture and naturally kills bacteria (google it). There's the bonus of helping your shoes retain their original shape. Used them for years and shoes smell, well, like cedar. No way I'm putting expensive La Sportiva shoes through the wash.

Crushin' Prussian wrote:Spray the inside of your shoes with 90% Isopropyl Alcohol (rubbing alcohol). It kills bacteria and fungus, evaporates quickly at room temperature and is inexpensive.

I use isopropyl alcohol, too. I've heard that 70% is the sweet spot.

I'm told that 50% is not strong enough (it's labeled NOT USP) and 90% evaporates too quickly to kill stuff. Something to do with the water content slowing evaporation enough so that the alcohol has enough time to penetrate cell membrane. Or something like that.

Either way, I remember a 20 minute wet contact is required to kill stuff when home brewing. And a conversation with my doctor that the alcohol swab swipe before an injection doesn't do much except mechanical action of wiping things out of the field.

Not true sticking feet spray bought at Boulder running company works. Cured my evolves they never smell anymore and the spray also kills bacteria. If it works on evolve it works period. To top it off these evolves went to tonsi in Thailand!

I tried this and while it got rid of the harsh smell, it replaced it with a very harsh musky vinegar scent that I can’t seem to fully get rid of. 

I know you can freeze stinky ski boot liners in the freezer to kill some bacteria/stank. You can probably do the the same with climbing shoes....just toss them in overnight and see if they smell better in the morning. 

Socks.  Change thickness of socks to increase tightness and performance.  Switch to nasty sockless shoes if you're actually falling on a pitch due to a shoe not sticking.  That happens about mid 12 when you start edging on micro flakes.