Why shoes smell
Last night, Ken’s mum had to take his stinky shoes outside for the night! They smelled so bad that his room started to stink like his shoes! Ken is a teenager and he plays sports. He doesn’t sweat more than his colleagues, but when he takes his sneakers off after playing, his socks are soaked with sweat and the odour is unbearable. Sometimes she wondered ‘if his feet were rotting?’ yikes!
In most cases, the cause of shoe odour can be traced to the feet of the wearer rather than the shoes. Feet really takes a lot of punishment, usually captured and encased in some footwear and because of the captivity, the poor feet sweat.
The odour is generated when bacteria break down the sweat molecules inside the shoes. Even the most carefully clean people can suffer from foot odour or smelly feet odour.
Tips to treat Stinky feet
1. Allow your feet to breathe
Expose your feet to fresh air and dryness, this will help to reduce the growth of bacteria and treat the problem.
2. Wash and scrub your feet
Wash and scrub your feet regularly and properly, using soap and sponge. Take care to scrub the soles of your feet, wash your toes and in between your toes too. You can also use mild antiseptic soap as this will help to disinfect and stop the growth of bacteria.
3. Treat foot infections
Apply fungal foot creams to curb foot bacteria like athlete’s feet. Foot infections should be treated quickly to prevent them from growing into a full-blown fungus that needs medical treatment.
4. Wear clean socks
Always wear clean socks when wearing your shoes, many teens wear their shoes without socks because they are too lazy to wash them. If you wear your shoes without socks, then the sweat goes right into the fibres of the shoes and rots there! Please wash your socks, the odour is worse when feet, socks and shoes smell!
5. Wear light socks, change shoes and clean your shoes
Don’t wear socks that are too thick to allow air to circulate well around your feet. Don’t wear a particular shoe too often. In instances, where this rule can’t be followed e.g. school shoes, ensure you air the shoes after wearing them in other not to build up sweat and odour. Occasionally splash some of your favourite cologne inside your shoe and on your feet.
6. Disinfect shoes with Isopropyl Alcohol
It is advisable you use Isopropyl Alcohol on damped cotton wool to clean the inner part of your shoes, especially when they stink. Isopropyl Alcohol is potent enough to kill any growing bacteria building up in hidden parts of your shoes.
7. Visit a podiatrist if the condition persists
Finally, if the above steps fail, visit a podiatrist or your Doctor for intensive examinations.
I hope these tips helped.
For children to learn more about good hygiene and good grooming, you can read my children’s book titled ‘Aide the Dirty Boy’. A story that teaches about good hygiene and good grooming.
Aide was a dirty and lazy boy. His dirtiness and bad habits, earned him the reputation as the dirtiest boy in his class, to his dismay. He succeeded in hiding his dirtiest from his busy mother, but couldn’t escape the eagle eyes of Miss Evans, his class teacher; who reprimanded him, but taught him about the importance of good hygiene.
