Yeah VFFs are funky...but sometimes not in the good way

[zebrapaperclip]

I went to dinner tonight and pretty much spent the entire time browsing this thread on my BlackBerry, which made me break down and finally join the forum :p

I actually stopped wearing my Sprints entirely because of the funk. I probably went a good six months of not wearing them at all, until last week when I pulled them out of the closet to wear for a day. Had to take them off, couldn't even be in the car with them, they smelled so awful. Monday, I broke down and stopped in Runners High 'n Tri in Arlington Heights (just outside of Chicago) and bought another pair of Sprints (I missed wearing my VFF!!) On Wednesday, I got the email from this forum saying Travel Country had Bikilas in stock and literally purchased them within a minute.

SO MY POINT IS, I have 2 BRAND SPANKIN NEW PAIRS OF VFF and I don't want them to end up like my first with the funk. It would be great to figure a daily/weekly regimen to keep them from smelling, something that could be done at night and then have them be wearable in the morning. If I could have Funkless V5F, the world would be a better place.

So, what have I learned works (supposedly) from reading 12+ pages of funk?

• Gold Bond Powder
• Vinegar
• Simple Green
• Odoban
• Amaze detergent booster + coffee beans
• Bac-Out Stain & Odor Eliminator
• Tea Tree Oil
• Nature's Miracle (pet product)
• Oxyclean
• Clorox Greenworks
• Efferdent
• Wear them in the shower
• Tide Totalcare
• Wash your feet
• Scrub with a toothbrush

If this list is completely wrong, let me know. Or if there is something to add, I'd be happy to do that too. It's more or less something a collective list of possible options to try on the VFF that are beyond help. (like my original sprints  )

Tonight, I soaked and scrubbed my original Sprints, in the sink by hand in hopes of salvaging them, but I'm afraid when they are fully dry, they will smell just as bad as they did before. I used super hot water, Tide (the boyfriend doesn't stock any kind of cleaning products), and a toothbrush. After soaking and scrubbing, I rinsed, squeezed dry as much as possible, threw them in the dryer for about 15 minutes on low, and now am using old rags to soak out some of water. Cross your fingers, hope they smell less in the morning!

*edit: No socks for me, and my feet sweat quite a bit. Used to dance. Every seen or smelled dancer's feet? If you know what I'm taking about, you're probably cringing right now.

[Rana]

There's also a few products that de-stink your feet, like crystal deodorants, and then there's some UK based product... (I don't remember what it's called).

For what it's worth, I find that using the Band-Aid blister stick gives one's VFFs a pleasant citrusy scent. 

[morgan_4785]

im dating a dancer. and her feet..... 

[johnmjoy]

Goofy question: has anyone tried running VFFs (especially Treks, which I'm paranoid about wrecking) thru a Sani Sport machine?  (Yeah, I know, not exactly the cheapest way to go, but...)

[quilzas]

I think part of what gets the funk depends on what's causing the funk.

My boyfriend has found that washing his Sprints in vinegar really helps.  Though it hasn't gotten rid of all of the funk, but it's much much better.  He has super sweaty feet, though, which doesn't help.

I've never had much for funk issues with my Sprints.  I would handwash them in Woolite and scrub them with a toothbrush after they had soaked for a while. That usually takes care of it.  And it usually took something like some skanky water/muck/mire to get them smelly in the first place.

[Anderson]

I went to dinner tonight and pretty much spent the entire time browsing this thread on my BlackBerry, which made me break down and finally join the forum :p
...

So, what have I learned works (supposedly) from reading 12+ pages of funk?

• Gold Bond Powder
• Vinegar
• Simple Green
• Odoban
• Amaze detergent booster + coffee beans
• Bac-Out Stain & Odor Eliminator
• Tea Tree Oil
• Nature's Miracle (pet product)
• Oxyclean
• Clorox Greenworks
• Efferdent
• Wear them in the shower
• Tide Totalcare
• Wash your feet
• Scrub with a toothbrush

Tonight, I soaked and scrubbed my original Sprints, in the sink by hand in hopes of salvaging them, but I'm afraid when they are fully dry, they will smell just as bad as they did before. I used super hot water, Tide (the boyfriend doesn't stock any kind of cleaning products), and a toothbrush. After soaking and scrubbing, I rinsed, squeezed dry as much as possible, threw them in the dryer for about 15 minutes on low, and now am using old rags to soak out some of water. Cross your fingers, hope they smell less in the morning!

First of all, if you read this whole thread while out to dinner, I hope you went alone...otherwise I pity your date! 
I'm glad you went ahead and made that list, though.  After reading through the whole thing myself (won't say where from *coughWORKcough*) I was thinking it was high time someone sum things up!  I should have started with the last page and let you save me the long version.

So how did your original Sprints turn out?  I would hope that in all the above advice, SOMEthing might salvage them.  My thinking is that whatever ends up working for that pair is going to be the winning solution!

[zebrapaperclip]

First of all, if you read this whole thread while out to dinner, I hope you went alone...otherwise I pity your date! 
I'm glad you went ahead and made that list, though.  After reading through the whole thing myself (won't say where from *coughWORKcough*) I was thinking it was high time someone sum things up!  I should have started with the last page and let you save me the long version.

So how did your original Sprints turn out?  I would hope that in all the above advice, SOMEthing might salvage them.  My thinking is that whatever ends up working for that pair is going to be the winning solution!

Dinner was with my boyfriend and some of his family, a very informal event, so no worries

As for the Sprints, after drying they smelled like Tide! No stink! However... after for wearing them for two days straight, no running, I can smell it again. Not horrible, but noticeable. The next plan of attack is when I get home tonight, soak both original sprints, and black sprints (new as of last week, pair I'm wear right now) in Efferdent tabs. I'm only hesitant to do this because I won't have a dry pair of VFF to wear tomorrow :p Even though my Bikilas came today (don't have them in hand yet), I'm 99% sure those are getting sent back because of the W's version showing up at my house in a couple days. Guess I'll settle for "real" shoes...

[Kryx]

I got the funk with my first pair of classics! And I don't even have sweaty/smelly feat normally besides my VFFs.

I used green works - didn't work so far. I washed them w/ tide - didn't work. I used Peroxide tonight - we'll see on this one. I think the solution is preventative so I'm looking into gold bond. I wanted to share with everyone - be warned about gold bond. It contains Talcum which is a known carcinogen. Instead I'm going to try the Talc free version here.

[successawaits]

This is an interesting topic, i think that we should appreciate the fact that in most cases we are using the shoe as an exterior sock, which means direct contact. I found to avoid smells foot hygiene is the key, i have a simple routine i use and ever since i have never had smelly trainers.

1 scrub your feet in the morning when you shower with your normal body gel and body scrubber , if your are bare footing into vibrams after a day in shoes then carry wet wipes and clean throughly! nothing perfumed.

2 dry your feet

3 apply body shop foot lemon and grass lotion to your feet, with a good application

4 let dry do not walk around

5 straight into clean (freshly washed socks) or VFFs

6 I have yet to have a pair of smelly shoes

Good ole body shop, im such a metrosexual lol

[gryllus]

Anyone else experienced smell onset after/induced by wash?
Until the wash, my VFFs were OK smellwise, but I managed to get them so muddy (and wet anyway) that I simply had to wash. I hand-washed them in the sink, with the aid of an old tootbrush, using some (even supposedly antibacterial) hair shampoo which was idly sitting in the bathroom because it made my head itch. An incredible amount of mud/dirt came out, the footbeds were yellow almost like new, so far, so good. Unfortunately, the weather is relatively warm but very humid now, so they took over 12 hours to dry ... and next morning I smelled the first bit of funk. Not the dreaded "homeless guy´s feet" funk, rather something like a "forgotten wet rag in a plastic bag" funk. I sprayed a bit of Schoeller´s shoe deodorant into them and hope it still may go away...

[Rana]

You may have to rewash them - sounds like you got a bit of mildew or something similar going in them, and you want to stop that before it gets worse.

Next time, turn a fan on them while they're drying.  It doesn't have to be hot air; just the movement of air alone will help.  (This is how I dry clothes when it gets humid.)

[gryllus]

Thanks, Rana,

I hesitated to wash them again so soon, but got thoroughly soaked by rain during my morning run today (by the way, running on a forest trail in an almost monsoon-like rain is fun), so I tossed all the wet/sweaty/muddy things into the washer, including the VFFs. Now they seem to be rid of the mildewy odor at least for the moment, just faintly smelling of laundry detergent. Since we have the first almost sunny day in weeks, the VFFs are currently sitting on a sunny windowsill, toes up, to prevent residual mositure from collecting there; hopefully drying will be faster than the fungus this time.
As for the fan idea ...maybe good, but not a suffuicient reason to buy a fan (never owned any, and never needed ... until now :-).

[morgan_4785]

I hesitated to wash them again so soon, but got thoroughly soaked by rain during my morning run today (by the way, running on a forest trail in an almost monsoon-like rain is fun),

ah, i love muddy trail runs in the rain!

[Kryx]

Update:

The body powder is helping with the smell quite a bit. Though now I have powder in my shoes all the time. I got the version with aloe so my feet aren't dry, but if you use the normal version too much I assume it would dry your feet out.

Again I wanna just remind people to beware of talc - it is in most body powders and is a carcinogen.

[tequiladoc]

Been in my KSO's for 2 months. Tried most of the suggestions for " defunking" with little success. Inspired by discussions with regards to the potential bacterial and fungal component to the funk I began to use Lysol Spray. Kills 99.9 percent of bugs in just 30 seconds. It is easy to spray into the "fingers" and I soak my KSO's both inside and out. Yesterday I did 20k through the cow pasture highlands and not all the soft sticky stuff was mud. I rinsed them thoroughly, sprayed with Lysol and then dry over the furnace vents. Clean,dry and fresh smelling by morning. $3.99 per can.