Anyone know how to get rid of it? It’s in my new sneakers, on my feet, and lingers in the air… and it’s unbearable. I’m a really cute girl! Really! And the rest of me smells good!!
Talk about embarrassing: One time we were having a guest stay overnight; I came home, sniffed, and said to my wife, “Goddamn it, one of the cats shit somewhere!” Only it was our guest’s feet.
I’ve always used a dusting of baking soda in my sneakers to help. Seems to neutralize most of the smell.
Also, not wearing your sneakers every day helps. Give them a break for a few days now and again, to completely dry out. Always wear them with clean socks; that helps with absorbing the sweat from your feet.
I can help.
I used to have foot odor problems when I was younger in my teens and early twenties. The problem was solved by spending money on additional shoes. 99% of the time the origin of the problem is not your personal foot BO being so nasty, but in using one pair of shoes too often and not letting them dry out. The moisture allows bacteria colonies to form that get progressively worse and more imbedded into the materials of the shoe over time and “infect” other shoes via your feet, to the point that even after drying some shoes hold onto the smell and nothing can be done to de-stinkify them.
Also, shoes made out of synthetic materials, like athletic shoes etc, are much worse at cultivating and holding the bacteria that generates the odor. Washing your feet every night before bed with warm/hot water and soap will also help. In my experience foot powder and foot/shoe de-odorizers are mostly useless once the problem begins, you’ve got the stop it from occuring in the first place.
1: Start fresh - get new shoes to the extent you can afford them. Never re-wear socks that haven’t been washed.
2: Shoes should be allowed at least 3-4 days between wearings to dry out. If you need additional pairs get them. If you start cultivating bacteria in one “favorite” pair it can spread to other shoes. Stop the problem from happening in the first place. Have a pair for each day of the week.
3: Wash your feet every night with hot/warm water and an anti-bacterial soap. Try to wash your feet when changing shoes if possible. At home going barefoot (indoors) for a period of time allows your feet to breath and discourages bacterial growth.
4: Wear shoes that “breath”. Real leather shoes don’t hold
onto bacteria the way synthetic materials do.
Never wear any kind of shoes without socks unless you can put them in the washer. Do not wear socks made of synthetic fiber. Thicker socks, contrary to what you may think, let feet breathe better. I wear thick woollen socks year round and I have never had a problem with feet smelling. Just wash feet and socks daily and you should not have a problem. While not wearing the same shoes on consecutive days so they can dry out is good advice, I have never had to do this to avoid odor.
Another thing I have done with shoes which cannot be washed and smell is spray them inside with a solution of bleach. Let them dry out before you use them (obviously).
Get one of those “crystal” deodorants and apply it to your feet every morning. Recently, I was in a leg/ankle brace for six weeks, and after the first few days the rubber padding in it started to smell gamey. I started applying the crystal deodorant, which I normally use every morning on my armpits, and the problem was solved.
I’ve had that problem for years! Always embarrassing when I kick my shoes off with a girlfriend unless I doused my feet first with something like cologne, including my shoes!
I tried everything! I even covered my clean feet with absorbing junior, poured cheap cologne over them, washed my shoes and sneakers out with alcohol, tossed sneakers in the wash machine, aired them out for days in the sun, even walked in them in the ocean for an hour or so.
I bought sprays, powders and odor eaters. The odor eaters gave up quickly. So did charcoal inserts. I read where foot and shoe odor comes from bacteria deposited from our feet into the material of shoes and they caused the main stink. Especially when our feet got sweaty.
I scrubbed my feet with assorted soaps. I thought about microwaving my sneakers to kill the bacteria, but my room mate of the time threatened to rip my head from my shoulders if I did that in our only microwave, that he loved to cook in.
I sprayed Lysol in them. Washed them in an industrial washer with hot water. Even new sneakers did not smell new with me after a few wearings. I wore odor suppressant socks, that cost much and did little. I scrubbed my feet with Lava, The Hand Soap and got sore feet for my efforts. I sponged my feet with rubbing alcohol, scented a minty fresh and after a couple of hours, the ‘fresh part’ went away.
Finally, I found a foot powder that works!!!
It comes in a squeezable bottle, yellow, shaped, appropriately enough, like one of those toilet bowl cleaners. You spray it in your shoes! It WORKS!!
It is Dr. Scholl’s Odor Destroyers Shoe Shot powder, found at most stores which have a shoe department in them. It keeps the tootsies dry for hours, kills germs in the shoe material and on your feet! I worked outside most of the day, in the sun, in the dirt, with casual sneakers and when I went inside, kicked off my sneakers, my feet were a bit damp, but virtually aroma free! For normal use, the stuff keeps them completely odor free.
However, if you wear socks, the powder gets on them, but it’s worth it!!
Two words: leather shoes.
I only wear shoes made of leather. I can wear the same pair every day indefinitely, and there is no smell whatsoever. However, after only an hour or two in synthetic shoes… PHEW!
And if you’re cute now, you’ll be dangerously cute wearing Doc Martens! 
Agreed, absolutely;
I used to wear rubber-soled canvas deck shoes because I had bad foot odour - I reasoned that my feet would be able to ‘breathe’ more in the canvas shoes, but it got so bad that the smell would almost knock me over when I took them off and it was very embarrassing.
Then I changed jobs and I had to wear steel toecapped leather boots, I thought ‘here comes trouble’, but after a few days of wearing the boots, the foot odour disappeared completely.
I now never buy any footwear except leather and I’ve never had any trouble since.
One of the major chemical components of foot odor is a volatile organic acid. If you convert the acid to its less volatile sodium salt by soaking the shoe in a solution of baking soda, the smell will be greatly reduced.
Crystals, powders etc. don’t work very well because the foot acid soaks through the shoe into places where only a liquid can reach.
I had a girlfriend who was very nice in all respects except she had foot and body odor and I can tell you there is nothing to turn you off a person like this. Make it a rule to never wear artificial fiber next to your body (it will smell PDQ), wear only cotton or wool underwear and socks, and wash them daily.