My son is 14 years old. Over the past year or so, he has had incredibly smelly feet. He showers every morning. He wears gym shoes all the time - always with socks. But by the time he comes home from school and takes his shoes off, they are absolutely rancid. And if he gets the shoes wet, they are a lost cause. We just tossed out his second pair of shoes that he has not worn out or outgrown, but just because we couldn’t stand to have them in our house.
Do any of you have any suggestions as to what we can do about this? His shoes are too expensive to keep replacing. Is this just a phase teenage boys go through? Any opinions on the effectiveness of powders or insoles?
I used to have this problem too. What took care of it for me was wiping my feet with rubbing alcohol every day to kill all of the germs, then I let the shoes dry out by not wearing them for several days.
Since the rubbing alcohol worked so well at getting rid of the stink coming from my feet, when I noticed an odor coming from my balls I thought it would be a good idea to dump a bunch of rubbing alcohol on my scrotum. BIG MISTAKE!!
My husband bought a pair of very nice used leather oxfords once when we were on vacation and the pair he’d brought developed some problem. They were great shoes, except that the previous owner apparently excreted sewage gas through his feet.
We tried many products on them, but the only one that actually worked was a tea tree oil spray we got in a drugstore in London (on a different vacation). If he applied it before and after every wearing, no significant funk. But when the bottle ran out back in the US, the funk came back, and he finally threw out the shoes. If they’d been mine, I would have fooled around with my own tea tree oil solution in alcohol and maybe some glycerine or witch hazel or something.
Have you tried treating his feet with anti-fungal stuff? When I’ve had brief bouts of funky feet the alcohol treatment Surreal described worked, but it never worked for my mother (hers are so bad that if she slips off her shoes under the dinner table, I can tell within 30 seconds). She got temporary funk relief from athete’s foot creams, even though her feet never itched. But she wasn’t willing to give up any of her funked up but fancy size 9.5 AA/AAA shoes, so it always came back. Whatever treatment he does to his feet, he’s gonna have to do it after gym class or any sports he does, too.
I’d also try baking soda in the shoes. I’ve seen little activated charcoal sachet balls at athletic stores but never tried them. You may need a multi-pronged approach. You may need to treat your kid’s feet, then give him a new unfunkified pair of shoes, so the shoes don’t re-inoculate his feet and vice versa like my mom’s did. He may need to have two pairs to wear in rotation, so that each pair has a chance to fully dry out in between. Any foot sweat left in there is just foot funk fuel. Ooo! Maybe you could get one of those boot-dryers to put them on as soon as he takes them off.
I’m betting the three key things are
kill whatever fungal or bacterial beastie makes the funk
change the chemistry of his Foot Environment so that the beasties aren’t tempted back – baking soda would help with this.
keep moisture out of there for the same reason.
Good luck! Maybe you can get him in Chuck Taylors instead of whichever Nike line is hottest these days until you get it figured out.
Gold Bond powder (or equilvalent) works well at absorbing foot moisture. Also try switching him to lighter-colored shoes. I’d have to turn myself into the EPA as an environmental hazard if I go back to wearing dark-colored sneakers.