Last Updated on October 4, 2026 by Umar Farooq
Dry-brush the whole shoe before any water touches it. Then treat a sneaker as four separate jobs: the upper, the midsole and outsole, the laces, and the insoles. Warm water, a little liquid detergent, a soft brush and a cloth will do all four. Air dry for at least twelve hours, away from every heat source in the house, because heat is what attacks the glue.
A sneaker is not a garment. It is a laminated assembly of fabric, foam, rubber and adhesive, and those four materials want completely different treatment. That is why the shoe you put through one undifferentiated wash comes out clean-ish, slightly deformed, and smelling faintly of wet foam for a week. Treat it as four jobs instead and almost nothing goes wrong — a brush, a bowl of warm water and about fifteen minutes.
Brush them dry before any water goes near them
This is the step people skip, and it is the one that decides how the rest goes. Nike’s own cleaning sequence opens with it: “Remove loose dirt from the outsole, midsole and uppers using a dry, soft-bristled shoe brush” (how to clean your shoes in 6 easy steps). No shoe brush at hand is not an obstacle — Nike’s own fallback is a spare toothbrush.
The strong version of this, and the one position worth holding on the whole page: never wet a dirty shoe. Dry dust sitting on top of a canvas weave lifts off with a brush in about forty seconds. The same dust hit with water becomes a thin mud that you then push into the weave with every subsequent stroke, and that is the grey haze people are left with after a “proper clean”. Dry-brushing is not a preliminary. On a normally dirty shoe it is most of the result.
Do it outside, or over a bin. Caked mud gets left to dry completely first: wet mud spreads, dry mud flakes.
How to wash sneakers by hand, part by part
Once the loose dirt is gone, make up one cleaning solution and work through the four parts with it. Nike suggests “warm water with a small amount of mild laundry detergent or dish soap”, and warns that concentrated dish soap “can cause discoloration or strip out natural oils in the material”, so dilute it well. The order matters slightly: laces and insoles come out first, because they wash better away from the shoe and they hold most of the smell.
- Pull the laces out and soak them. Arm & Hammer’s method is a bowl of warm water with a tablespoon of liquid detergent, then “Let them soak for 15-30 minutes, swishing around a few times” (how to wash tennis shoes, sneakers and shoelaces). Rinse and hang. Their one exclusion is worth noting: “Do not machine wash leather or suede shoelaces.”
- Take the insoles out and clean them separately. This is where the smell lives, and leaving them in means they never dry. Arm & Hammer’s dry method is to bury them in bicarbonate overnight, then brush and rinse. Either way they come out of the shoe.
- Work the upper with a soft brush and the solution, then blot. Nike’s instruction is to “use a dry microfiber towel or soft cloth to blot and lift as much soapy moisture and dirt from the surface as possible”, and specifically to avoid drying by rubbing, which spreads whatever dirt is left. Blotting also stops the upper getting any wetter than it has to.
- Scrub the midsole and outsole properly. This is the one part of a sneaker that you cannot really hurt. Rubber does not absorb, does not felt and does not fade — give it the firm brush and the time, because a white midsole is what makes a shoe read as clean from two metres away.
- Rinse the brush, not the shoe. Running a sneaker under a tap soaks the foam midsole and the board underneath the insole, and that is the water that takes two days to leave. Wipe the suds off with a damp cloth instead.
For a grass or mud mark that survives all of that, the material-by-material treatment is on how to get grass stains out of white shoes.
Upper materials, and where Nike and the leather trade flatly disagree
Canvas, mesh and knit uppers are the easy case. They tolerate water and mild detergent, and the only real caution is to brush along the weave rather than across it, so dirt is not worked sideways into the structure. Leather is different but not difficult: a barely damp cloth rather than a wet one, and recondition it afterwards, because detergent lifts the oils that keep it supple.
Suede is where the advice splits, and it is worth seeing the split rather than being handed one answer. Nike suggests that for stubborn marks you “use a cloth dipped in white vinegar to scrub the fabric in alternating directions.” Harley-Davidson, writing about the same material from the leather side, says the opposite in a single line: “Never treat these types of leather with water or conventional cleaners” (how to clean a leather jacket).
Both are real sources with real expertise and they genuinely do not agree. The safe reading is the narrow one: a suede brush and a suede eraser are dry tools and carry no risk, so exhaust those first. If you then put a damp cloth on suede, test a hidden patch, and accept you are backing the side of the argument that may be wrong.
The machine is an option, not the first one
The shoe maker’s own position here is clear enough to quote: “Nike does not recommend washing shoes in the washing machine.” Their reasoning covers both ends of it — “Delicate shoe materials can be damaged in the washer” and “it’s possible to damage your washing machine by washing bulky items like sneakers.”
That second half has a page of its own: can you wash shoes in the washing machine covers which shoes may go in, the mesh bag, and what a loose shoe does to a drum and a door. Everything here is the alternative, and for a normally dirty pair it is quicker than running a cycle.
Twelve hours, and the midsole is the last part to dry
A sneaker that feels dry is usually not dry. The upper gives up its water quickly and the foam under the insole does not, which is why shoes worn too early come back smelling worse than before they were cleaned.
Nike’s figure for the newspaper method is to “Wait about 12 hours”, with the honest caveat that “depending on the level of moisture, it may take more or less time” (the best way to dry shoes). Their faster alternative is a floor fan with the shoes hooked onto the grill — a couple of hours, and no heat in it anywhere.
Keep them off every heat source. Nike’s wording on why is the clearest available: “High heat can also damage the glue used to construct your athletic shoes, which can deform your shoes or cause them to come apart.” Not the fabric — the glue. Radiators, hair dryers, ovens and sunny car dashboards all qualify, and so does the tumble dryer unless you have a rack: can you put shoes in the dryer.
Stuff them loosely with paper to hold the shape, dry insoles and laces separately in open air, and give the lot a full day.
FAQ
How often should you wash sneakers?
Nike’s suggestion is “every two weeks or whenever they start to look dirty.” A dry brush weekly and a proper clean monthly keeps most shoes ahead of the dirt, which is far less work than rescuing them later.
Can you wash running shoes and trainers the same way?
Yes. Running shoes, trainers and lifestyle sneakers are built the same way, so the four-part method covers all of them. Mesh uppers dry faster than canvas but tear more easily, so use the softer brush.
Can you put sneakers in the washing machine?
Some, carefully. Canvas and mesh usually survive; leather, suede, wool and anything decorated do not. The cycle, the bag and the risk to the machine are on the page linked above.
What is the best thing to clean white sneakers with?
Warm water, mild liquid detergent and a soft brush for the upper, a firmer brush for the rubber midsole. Nike also offers a paste of equal parts bicarbonate and water for light-coloured shoes.
How do you get the smell out of sneakers?
The smell lives in the insole and the laces, not the upper. Remove both, wash them separately, and dry everything fully — damp foam regenerates the odour within a day.
Can I dry sneakers with a hair dryer to speed it up?
No. Heat softens the adhesive holding the sole to the upper, which is the one sneaker failure that cannot be undone. Use a fan on no heat instead.
A brush, a bowl and a day to dry
Nothing here needs a specialist product: a soft brush, a stiffer one for the rubber, a cloth, warm water, liquid detergent. The only strict rules are to brush before you wet, and to keep heat away from the glue.
One thing worth knowing before you spend an evening on a pair. Nike puts the working life of a running shoe at “every 300 to 500 miles.” Cleaning does not reset that number — it means the last hundred miles look better than they otherwise would.
