Smelly boots?

[RealPreppersWearPurple]

I've had my new work boots for about 3 months now.
The funk has begun.
What do you guys do with your boots to get rid of that delicious smell? I aired em outside for about 3 days and it didn't do much.

[nell67]

Gotta keep you boots and your feet,clean and dry,foot powder works for me,dr.Shoals is best IMH,but if I run out of it,any talc based powder will work .

[crashdive123]

+1 on what Nell said. Clean feet, clean socks, Dr Shoals on the feet, Dr Shoals in the boots.

[kyratshooter]

My wife used to swear by Fabreeze.

Her boys lettered in about 4 sports each and she had to deal with foot stink, locker room stink, sweat stink and the cat. She used to spray it right into the boots/sneekers/soccer shoes...

Fabreeze would even work on the cat stink!

[RealPreppersWearPurple]

I do keep em clean. Today for example, I wore em from 630 am to 130 am
Not much I can do about that
I'll get foot powder tomorrow. Thank you

[Rick]

The reason your boots stink is because your feet sweat causing bacteria to grow. Besides the above, take a look at the socks you are wearing. Synthetics cause the feet to sweat more and reduce ventilation. Wear a natural material such as cotton or wool. I like Smart Wool socks but there are a lot of name brands out there.

Foot powders work because they help prevent bacterial growth. You might try regular baking soda instead of a more expensive foot powder although a foot powder will have something like zinc oxide to help reduce sweating. If you prefer to use a foot powder then try Gold Bond.

Finally, if you have hairy feet you might try trimming the hair. Hairy toes and insteps provide additional surface area for bacteria to grow so removing the hair reduces the surface area.

[hunter63]

Back in the factory days, my boots would get covered with oil and grease on the outside, so the insides would get sweat-ed up real good.......Funky....

I would save the dissident pack form incoming materials crates, and stuff them in those boots and leave for a week.....did a nice job or drying them out.
Rotating those boots with another pair, allowing them to dry, along with the powder work very well.

Had a lead bath heat treating furnace at 1000 degrees, so would place the dissident packs on the side to dry out.

[edr730]

I'll go with Rick on this. Synthetic's are terrrible for odor anywhere on your body that sweats. Baking soda is a wonder drug for smelly feet.

[BENESSE]

Back when we used to rent ski boots they all stank to high heaven (God only knows how many people wore them before us) including our feet and socks after each wear. Then someone in one of those places told us to spray Lysol inside them before and after we got done wearing them for the day. It did wonders. Now we use Lysol on our own ski boots once we take them off for the day.
Never ever smelled anything again.

[natertot]

As mentioned above, smell is caused by bacteria. One thing that I have done with some success, but takes a few days without your shoes, is freezing them. Place them in a large zip-loc kind of bag and push all the air out then seal it. Next, but them in a deep freezer for 2-3 days. The freezing kills the bacteria and the smell.

[intothenew]

It may simply be a prejudice on my part, but I will not use powders, creams, sprays, etc in any boot with a membrane such as gore-tex. Those are my hunting and hiking boots. I don't want to add any foreign scent to my hunting boots, and worry of "clogging" the pores of the membrane on both. I'm in the wool sock camp, change them when need be. You may consider a boot drier, or at least try some newspaper stuffing, especially if they are a membrane boot. Newspaper will draw an amazing amount of moisture.


I have been on the road the past few days and listened to a lot of radio. By coincidence, Doc Zorba addressed this very subject yesterday. He recommended cotton socks, certainly clean feet, and to try antiperspirant on your feet. If the antiperspirant helped, he recommended a product called Drysol.