Anybody here have smelly feet, or know somebody who had smelly feet and found a method to ditch the smell ?
I’m not talking about the faintly odorous scent of feet that have been sweating a little, and cooped up in non-breathable shoes all day. I’m talking about the putrid stink that some people seem to manufacture with glee, unaware that to any other nose, they smell worse than a thousand roadkills, mixed with pus-filled sores and other unspeakable horrors.
So, what has worked for you ? I’m willing to try almost anything.
I had a mate whose feet were guaranteed to clear the house when he took his shoes off. I had him soak his feet in really strong tea for about half an hour and it worked… Why?? Perhaps the tannic acids, but don’t know for sure. This also works for athletes foot BTW.
Recipe:
Big bucket
20 or so bags of tea (or loose leaf)
Hot water
Brew up a huge bucket of tea - very strong. When it cools, remove the bags and soak your feet.
First, check for things like fungul infections. If they are present medicate them. I think more people have foot infections than realize it, and most of the nastiest foot odor comes from them.
If not, wash offending feet thoroughly, scrubbing softly with a brush suitable for the purpose.
Dry thoroughly.
Do without shoes, socks, slippers, etc for 2-3 days (that’s barefoot) washing once a day.
If that doesn’t work, repeat, but throw out all the old socks and shoes and start over with new ones. A bit drastic, but if it’s really bad sweaty foot odor you may have to.
Broomstick thanks for the advice, but we are definitely beyond that stage. We’ve tried brand new shoes and brand new sock, after a period of several weeks of no shoes at all (we were on holidays) and twice-daily washes.
After this didn’t work, we tried the docs and they just shrugged and said some people have ultra sweaty feet (i.e, excess sweat glands) and there isn’t much they can do… That’s why I’m looking for anything that may work.
Washte I’ll give the teabags a go, thanks.
Any more suggestions ? His dad’s feet were awful, too and apparently stopped at the age of around 35, but I’m not going to be able to last that long !
For me, it’s the difference between offending everyone (including myself) within the surrounding five suburbs after about five minutes of wearing synthetic shoes (joggers, etc), or taking off my leather shoes after an 18 hour day and being able to put my nose in them and smell nothing but the shoes’ own leather smell.
I used to have this problem. Not anymore. The answer that worked for me was :-
Regular thorough cleaning.
Clean socks
Switching between different pairs of shoes/sneakers etc.
AND
foot powder applied after washing and drying. Also put some powder inside socks and shoes. I do this even though I don’t have smellies because I know that if I stop using the powder for a couple of days then it’s nose holding time.
The smell comes from perspiration building up in the shoes and ripening over time. The key, in my view, is to keep the shoes as dry as possible. This seems to be the goal of several of the suggestions already given. Thus I agree with the suggestions to use leather shoes rather than synthetic rubber types (TheLoadedDog), and to start over with new shoes and sox once they begin turning rancid (Broomstick). Also look into Broomstick’s suggestion about a foot disease and maybe use a bacteria-killing spray.
A few things that I find to work are the following: 1. Wear acrylic sox rather than cotton or wool; they seem to not hold the moisture as long. 2. Use a blow-dryer (like for your hair) to completely dry the feet after a shower, so as not to put wet feet into the shoes where they will then stay damp all day. 3. Always use Extra Strength Shoe Inserts to keep the shoes dry and kill bacteria. Change the inserts regularly; your nose will tell you when it’s time 4. Alternate between at least two pair of shoes, so that you’re not wearing the same pair day after day; this gives the shoes time to dry out before they’re used again.
Good luck, and if all else fails buy nose plugs until he turns 35 like his father (maybe that’s the answer).
Cecil did a short column about odor-eating socks. To add a bit to what YiBaiYuan mentioned, the odor comes from the by-products of the bacteria who grow around certain pores. Barring a skin disease, you need to suppress growth of the bacteria colonies, such as killing them (e.g., soap, tea, or alcohol), or creating a harsh environment for them (e.g., drying them out).
I bought a pair of shoes fairly recently (sort of Birkenstock look-alikes but cheap) and within two wearings, the shoe stunk sooooo badly that I couldn’t wear them. I left them outside in the sunshine for a few weeks, sprayed them with Febreeze, chucked them in the washing machine, but NOTHING worked.
Now normally I am the owner of very sweet-feet…never having had foot-odour in my life (mainly as a result of wearing Blundies, Rossi’s and RM Williams’) so this shocked the life out of me.
In the end, I ripped out the insole, and, VOILA, no more smell! The padding was made of some nasty little synthetic stuff that was possessive about bad smells…it wouldn’t let them go no matter what. So, get rid of IT and you get rid of THEM EVIL WAFTINGS. I guess you could replace the insoles with charcoally things, but I didn’t need to do that!
