UKH

What's the best way to reduce the smell of my rock shoes? They're starting to hum!

Add one sachet of baking soda to the inside of each shoe, shake, add some water, shake again, wait for > 1h, chuck into washing machine, possibly in a cotton bag or tied into a towel to prevent them banging around. 30deg should be enough to get rid of the stench without destroying your shoes. 

Worked wonders for my tight shoes. Nowadays my toes are so worn out that I mainly use my comfy all day shoe, even when climbing indoors. Since I wear these with socks there is no more need for the full biohazard treatment.

CB

1. Wash your feet

2. Wash your rock shoes in the washing machine at 30degrees with non-bio washing powder and  disinfectant. I used to use a capful of Dettol or TCP but with the advent of laundry disinfectants, the rest of the family's washing no longer gets that chlorinated phenol smell which lingers in the drum for several cycles.

3. Remember to take your rock shoes out of your bag when you get home and leave them somewhere warm and dry where they can dry out, the smell-producing bacteria can only live in humid conditions. I put mine next to, but not on top of the boiler.

I used to just shake some talc in mine, after climbing. Seemed to do the trick well enough...

Both pairs of shoes are leather, are they ok in the washing machine still?

Should be OK, I regularly wash my LS Katanas.

CB

You'll need to give them a wash I think.

Once you've got them clean and not smelling of death, put a few drops of clove oil in them. 

When you've finished climbing, make sure you don't leave them in a bag or anything to go mouldy again. Put them somewhere they will dry well and put a sock-full of cat-litter in each to absorb the moisture. 

The smell is caused by the bacteria so it's important to remember not to create an environment for it to thrive (warm and sweaty). 

I've tried freezing them in a bag before but any smell just came back as soon as they defrosted. 

Wash them, dry them, never leave them in a plastic bag, fill them with (fresh) cat litter, preferably the wood pellet stuff.

It's a two part problem: getting rid of the smell and stopping it coming back.

Washing will get rid of the smell.

Wearing thin socks really helps with stopping it coming back.  The next best thing is making sure the shoes dry out as fast as possible after wearing them i.e. well ventilated or some artificial drying agent.

Need to do something that's for sure, my porch stinks!

I detest cloves! I'll look into other essential oils though, good idea.

Wear bamboo socks, and fresh ones every time. Much easier to wash socks than shoes....

After washing spray the insides with athletes foot powder.

The washing machine treatment also help friction by getting rid of stone particles that have become embedded inn the rubber.

You may also need to look at your feet. You probably have a fungal infection or suchlike that's causing the ping in the first place.

There's no sign of any fungal infection at the moment. I had a really nasty one from some rock shoes about 15 years ago which I don't want again!

Socks!

Just keep using them as normal. By some weird quirk of nature, rock shoes seem to go "beyond the stink phase" after a few months. I have 2 pairs - one I got a few months ago and one much older pair which I've relegated to the climbing wall. The former pair honk far worse and it's always been like that for me. I have no idea why this is - there must be some kind of logical explanation!