The Definitive Guide to Cleaning Vibram Five Fingers a.k.a. How to Get the Smell out of your Vibrams!

By Britt on May 20, 2010 | In guides | 31 feedbacks »

A massive load of Vibram Five Fingers (Plus some Injinji socks!) ready to be thrown in the washing machine. All models of Vibram Five Fingers are machine-washable (though should only be left out to air dry).
A massive load of Vibram Five Fingers (Plus some Injinji socks!) ready to be thrown in the washing machine. All models of Vibram Five Fingers are machine-washable (though should only be left out to air dry).

Vibram Five Fingers can stink. Indeed, "VFF stank" — the "Vibram Five Fingers of Funk" — is such a pervasive problem that VFF fans so afflicted with smelly Vibram Five Fingers are often left wondering, "Are those strangers looking at me because I'm wearing five-toed shoes or because my five-toed shoes reek?"

The funkiness of Five Fingers (and how to eliminate it) was one of the first discussions on the Birthdayshoes.com forum back in June 2009, a thread that has since grown to thirteen pages of "solutions," soaks, pre-washes, and other inventive means of getting the odor out of everyone's favorite five-toed foot gloves.

In an effort to consolidate all the methodology under one roof, and with the understanding that these methods fall within the realm of self-experimentation, below you'll find a veritable compendium of information about how to clean your Vibram Five Fingers.

 
The [definitive guide] to cleaning Vibram Five Fingers is not simply about throwing VFFs in the washing machine. It's a smattering of cleaning solutions for those with enstenched odor in their beloved Vibram Five Fingers as tested by the fan community.

Vibram Five Fingers are Machine Washable and Pre-treated to Fight Bacteria

Before jumping in, the definitive guide to cleaning Vibram Five Fingers wouldn't be complete without covering the basics:

  1. Vibram Five Fingers are treated with "Aegis," an "anti-microbial structure" that basically lances bacteria—like a sword—seriously! (How Aegis works video here). Though impaling little bacteria is a high-tech solution to keeping VFF sanitized, it seems the technology may wear out over time (Perhaps the bacteria dies but the odor remains! Who knows.).
  2. Every Vibram Five Fingers model (Classic, Sprint, KSO, Flow, Bikila) is machine-washable, including the kangaroo leather varieties (Trek, Moc, Performa, Performa Jane). Remember: it is explicitly not recommended that you put your Five Fingers in the dryer (let them air dry).

On the Origins of the infamous Vibram Five Fingers stink

Most folks wear their VFFs without any socks to preserve the barefoot feel and VFFs typically have permeable fabrics that allow things from the outside to get inside. As a result, after a few weeks of sweating and stomping through the mud, VFFs may acquire an odor that is tough to shake. Forum member, allawayr, gave a more scientific explanation of the process:

I think the problem is that a lot of gunk builds up inside the toe pockets. Even if you kill the bacteria (brevibacteria, propionibacteria), the sulfurous and odoriferous compounds they produce are still going to be there (methanethiol - think blue cheese - and propionic acid - think Swiss cheese). So, even if you kill the bacteria, you leave the smell.

Also, every time you put your foot into VFFs, you essentially re-inoculate your VFFs with these bacteria.

It's worth noting here that stinky feet are a by-product of wrapping your feet in dark, sometimes dank environments — footwear. Though there are other "critter risks" that result for being barefoot all the time, feet exposed to the air don't typically stay moist as they do in shoes — and Vibrams are, after all, still shoes.

Prevention is the Cure? Clean (or treated) Feet.

If you're putting balmy, sweat-soaked, or dirty feet into your Vibram Five Fingers, you could be setting yourself up for immediate failure (and an onset of VFF stink!). For this reason, many advocate the preventative measure of always starting out with freshly cleaned feet. As Derek / Zeitheld put it, "So maybe, the solution isn't washing our shoes, it's washing our feet."

Grunt - If I am going to put them on after a long day of wearing boots or normal shoes, I first swipe my feet with one of those pre-moistened antibacterial towelettes. I make sure to get in between the toes and around the nails and then let my feet dry for a couple of seconds. The process takes about a minute and seems to work well so far.

rutibegga - My favorite shoe/foot odor combat tool is tea tree oil. My partner has some WAY funky-smelling feet, so I purchased a bottle of the [tea tree oil] and had her wipe it on her feet before putting shoes on every day. No more funk.

Cleanthes - I've found something that seems to completely stop the smell in my VFFs: PediTech. This spray is supposed to kill the bacteria that cause smell, and it's really worked for me. You spray it on your feet, rather than in the shoes, and after an initial week of treating them every day, it only takes one spray a week to keep the effect. I've been using it for four days. It's getting hot here, and although my feet sweat, there's no smell at all now.

Though keeping your feet clean and bacteria-free in the first place should help stave off the onset of stink, for many it's still only a matter of time — and when that stink sets in ...

"Apply directly to your Vibram Five Fingers" — Treat and Defeat the VFF-stank!

Assuming your Vibram Five Fingers have gotten funky, it goes without saying that the first course of action is to simply wash your VFFs and if you know you have smell-prone feet, you might consider washing your Vibrams often.

That said, if you find your Vibram Five Fingers becoming smelly almost immediately after a wash, that's a sign you need to up the ante on your cleaning protocol — you may need to take additional measures. To that end, VFF fans members use a bevy of sprays, powders, and soaks to kill the stink and keep the funky smells at bay:

Bango Skank - [spray] Kiwi Fresh Force. This stuff is pretty much the awesome. I use it everyday before I put them on and every night after I take them off. It's basically an upside down aerosol can that you insert into the shoe and press down on and it will spray excellence far into your VFF's nether reaches. They sell it at Target and Walgreens.

balsam0 - [spray] This is what I do. Wash once a week and if they smell bad enough Febreze them when not in use. I typically do this before I go to sleep at night. It isn't 100% effective but it seems to keep the smell to a minimum.

ElGiganteJake - [spray] ZorbX is awesome. I spray them down and let them air dry once a week. Greatest invention ever.

JerryD - [powder] I have been using regular corn starch baby powder in both pairs of my VFFs for the past week and I really like the difference it makes. The powder really helps to minimize the sweaty feeling in the toe area of the shoes and has also cut down on some of the funk.

koffeekev - [spray, powder] everyday I hose out the VFF's I am wearing and use a product called Green Works by Clorox. I have it diluted in a spray bottle so I just spray the insole and outer material and scrub everything with my fingers, rinse and hang them on the clothesline...then later...I've started to use a light coating of Gold Bond powder and it seems to be tackling the problem very well.

MikeSims - [soak] My favorite solution as of right now is SimpleGreen Pro3 with fungicide. I got it at Home Depot. It's heavy duty stuff so be sure to dilute per the directions. Shoes smell good, odor stays gone MUCH longer. I soak for only about an hour or so and then sun dry/air dry.

On the Efferdent Soak Solution

A specialized soak that has gotten some attention is Efferdent tablets — like those you'd use to clean your dentures! Apparently, the anti-bacterial effervescence of Efferdent tablets works wonders on Vibram Five Fingers!

Efferdent and VFFs!InBetweenMyToes - [soak|Efferdent] Vibram recommended Efferdent tablets on their FaceBook page. Unfortunately, they didn't provide specific instructions, and from some of the comments left, there are differing results. I gave it a try Sunday night and detailed my experience here. Although it seemed to do the trick, I will likely [throw] in an extra tablet during my next soak.

xz123 - [soak|Efferdent] Soak them in vinegar for 15 minutes, rinse, soak them in water with several effervescent denture tablets for 15 minutes, rinse, wash them with normal washing stuff, rinse, stuff with paper, let them dry. It's still not perfect (a few days in warm weather sans socks and they get quite smelly again), but sufficient for now.

AlexMontilla - [soak|Efferdent] I can vouch for efferdent tablets! I follow the instructions, except I drop one tablet inside each shoe. After air drying in the sun, there is no more funk! I throw them in the wash whenever I wash my clothes, & use efferdent cleanings in between washes.

innocuous - [soak|Efferdent] Last night, I tried efferdent for the first time. I let them soak in warm water for 1 hour. Thereafter, I put them in the washer on spin for 5 mins to accelerate the drying. When I removed them from the washer, they smelled great. The best since my first week in them. I'm now a convert to efferdent.

Cleaning Methodology — Pre-Washing, Hand Washing

Some Funky Five Fingers wearers use combine pre-washes and soaks with machine- or hand-washing and rinsing:

Tina - [Pre-wash spray] I sprayed mine with Oxi Clean (with hydrogen peroxide), let them sit for about half an hour, then put them in the wash. The smell comes right out.

tfitz2001 - [Pre-wash soak] Half a cup of vinegar to the gallon of hot water is what I soak my KSOs in once per week. An hour in that and then a normal hand wash is all that they need to stay unfunky.

rva98014 - [Pre-wash soak] This weekend I tried using "Bac-Out" by Biokleen, a natural enzyme-based deodorizer. I soaked the KSOs in a small tray containing a mixture of water & Bac-Out for 30 minutes ... I don't recall the exact proportions but my guess would be about 70/30 water to Bac-Out. Then I rinsed them with fresh water and put them in front of a fan to air-dry. They ended up smelling much better.

dwd5150 - [Pre-wash soak, Post-wash Coffee Beans!]First I soak the footbeds with Amaze detergent booster/stain remover (I bought it at London Drugs) as per directions on the box. After that I wash them in the machine as per usual, and then hang outside on the line to dry. After they are dry, I fill up the footbeds with...wait for it...coffee beans! May sound crazy, but it works for me!

Zombee88 - [Pre-wash spray] I've been also trying to find a cure for stinky Vibrams, I own a pair of flows, and I use them 5 times a week, for the gym. At first the smell could easily go away with regular washing, but after a while, it got worse and worse, I did a little bit of scouting around online and I did find a product called NATURE'S MIRACLE. I wanted to first try this, before actually trying the Oxi Clean products. So I went out to PETCO, (but I believe any pet store will have them) and got it. Came back home and got the stinky flows onto the sink, Sprayed ... the inside, and also the outside material. I let them sit for 30 mins then threw them in the washer. Hung them outside to dry, and as of early this morning the smell is gone.

RichardLillard1 - [Pre-wash scrub] I think the best way I've found is with the homemade oxiclean. Because I am making it myself, on the spot, I can adjust the amount of each of the two components for whatever I need it for. In this case, I use a good amount of baking soda and just enough hydrogen peroxide to make a sort of wet sand-feeling paste. This is a great scrubbing agent and gets the dirt and grime out of the soles very easily. I typically scrub, then let them soak in the oxi-solution for a bit, then rinse with extremely hot water.

And for a truly epic combination of pre-washing, soaking, and spraying, check Rex_Kwon_Do's strategy:

Rex_Kwon_Do - [Pre-wash scrub, soak (Efferdent), spray] I have started mixing a paste of baking soda and peroxide that I scrub throughout my KSOs with a used tooth brush. I then soak them in warm water over night with generic denture cleaner. Since it's generic, I use two tablets per VFF, and the results are good. In between washings, I use Febreze as needed.

Other ways to clean your Vibram Five Fingers

If the above methods don't work for you, consider these one-off solutions:

rutibegga - When they get gunky inside, I just take them into the shower and wash them out with Dr. Bronner's (again, tea tree oil in the soap.)

iain - Wash mine weekly with Ecover hand wash, it does the job. I do take the time to give them a good scrub in the inside of the toes. But it takes ages for my KSOs to dry. Normally a day and a half which means I don't have VFFs to wear Sad I have had them dry in a very warm airing cupboard a few times and it still takes at least overnight.

Charles T - I've done 3 summers in KSO's and have only used Dr Bronner's Tea tree oil soap to soak and hand wash them like once per week with very, very minimal smell, unlike when I treated them with some odor eater spray crap that funked them up for a while and seemed to leave a coating on my foot until I could wash all of it out.

IRunTrails - I have a similar problem with the technical fabrics found in a lot of running clothes. I've been using Penguin Apparel Care's Sport Wash detergent. It's supposed to restore the wicking properties of the fabrics (don't know if it does or doesn't really) and it also gets rid of the funky odors. I just wash my VFFs with the rest of my running gear and that takes care of much, if not all of the smell. I let them air dry after a normal trip through the washer.

McLoki - Washed my kso's and classics today in Tide Totalcare. It cleaned fine, but no better than regular Tide in my opinion. It did do an EXCELLENT job on the smell though. Even if we choose to stop using it on our clothes, I will continue to get a small bottle of it just to clean my VFF's. Its just that good.

morgan_4875 - I wear mine in the shower when they get smelly or dirty. and now i have no more stink and they still look new. oh, and ive had em for over two yrs with excessive use.

Tools

What industrious cleaning guide would be complete without some application of cleaning tools? The most obvious tool for scrubbing your Vibram Five Fingers would be an old toothbrush (just make sure you don't get it confused with your new toothbrush!). That said, if you really need some scrubbing power, you might have to go electric:

ap19 - To clean the toe pockets, I've found that using an electric toothbrush (the rotary kind with the small, interchangeable heads) works brilliant - just turn it on and let it do the work and means i can get more dirt out from the toes (especially if dirt has seeped through from the outside) to keep them feeling & smelling fresh.

Didn't Work! Smell-Removal Failures

Of course, not all cleaning methods seem to work — even some of the "tried and true" approaches mentioned above. Here are a few sad tales of Vibram Five Fingers funk removal failure:

RobbieD - I have just tried Mirazyme on my KSO's, Followed the instructions - NO Change - Still Smell Skanky!

desaulniers - Dr. Scholl's Odor Destroyers Foot & Sneaker Spray Powder is no match for spending a day running around and breaking a sweat in my VFFs.

MikeSims - I've done the diluted vinegar trick and it was a short term solution.

tfitz2001 - I did use bleach for a bit in the beginning. A capful per gallon. But I noticed that the fabric was getting stiffer, so I stopped soon after starting that regiment.

iamcam - I just embrace the funk!

kakez - Oh well. I [washed] my VFFs in the sink and well it didn't really work. I mean.. I just washed them in the sink for a second time the other day with a mixture of one wash with laundry detergent, one wash with dr. bronners peppermint, and another wash with laundry detergent.. Now they smell like feet and peppermint, and while the feet smell isn't quite as STANK as before, it's not an aroma I'm proud of, and actually makes me sometimes avoid wearing them because of it.

Hawkeye - I tried the efferedent denture tabs to clean my vffs and while the funk is gone and doesn't smell, it turned the rubber sole of my black classics kind of blueish-gray in places. It's not too noticeable, but it's definitely a mottled/splotchy ghosting. So maybe don't try efferedent with the listerine like I did. I only had it soaking for a couple of hours, which also might have been a factor. I'll probably still use it though. I did notice that the slimey gray stuff was still on/in the yellow footbed, but it didn't smell. I might follow up the efferedent with a quick scrub from a toothbrush to get the slime out.

innocuous - For the past few months, I've been soaking in vinegar for 30 mins, which did a good job, but left a vinegar smell, which I think actually masked the funk (as opposed to kill it).

So there you have it, a crowd-sourced rundown on how to get the stink out of a well worn pair of Vibram Five Fingers. No doubt there are other cleaning and odor-removal methods out there at large in the Vibram fan community, so if you have a particularly effective way to de-stink your VFFs that you'd be willing to share with the community, please share it below in the comments!

Many Thanks to the following forum members, in order of appearance (more or less):

JerryD, allawayr, ZeitHeld, Grunt, rutibegga, Zyzzyx, Cleanthes, Rex_Kwon_Do, koffeekev, MikeSims, Bango Skank, balsam0, ElGiganteJake, inbetweenmytoes, xz123, AlexMontilla, innocuous, Tina, tfitz2001, rva98014, dwd5150, Zombee88, RichardLillard1,jcarneytx, toastergirl, dardo, iain, Charles T, IRunTrails, McLoki, morgan_4785,ap19, RobbieD,desaulniers, iamcam, Hawkeye

a quick note before you go —

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« Athletic Director and Primal Lifestyle Devotee Rockin' his KSOs in Southeast AsiaAn Interview with Irish Mountain Running Champion Moire O’Sullivan »
Comment from: Paleo Dan [Visitor] Email · http://paleodan.com
No mention of Stuffitts (http://stuffitts.com)? They have been great at keeping the odor of my KSOs under control. I used to have to wash them weekly in order for them to be wearable in public. I've been using Stuffitts for a couple of months now. While they don't smell of roses, they definitely don't have funk.

Or, for the DIYers out there, make your own Stuffitts clones: get some aromatic cedar shavings (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001LQXEAA/ref=nosim/paleodan-20 or your local pet store). Stuff it into some thin socks or stockings. Bam! Instant Funk-B-Gone.
05/20/10 @ 09:05
Comment from: Brittany [Visitor] · http://crazysexylife.blogspot.com
Thanks SO much for this list of solutions! I am going to add another one that has cured the problem for me.

I cloth diaper my baby, and wash the diapers, and regular clothes, with a detergent called "Rockin Green". I simply do a soak in really hot water and 2-3 Tbs of detergent for 4 hrs. Then I throw them in the washing machine. My KSOs always come out smelling NEW.
05/20/10 @ 09:08
Comment from: j [Visitor]
An alternative is to change one's diet. I actually stopped eating animal products, started taking colder showers and washing my feet with organic soaps and my feet not only after a couple weeks stopped sweating even close to as much but they also stopped smelling. In fact, most of any body oder I had stopped. Just a note on that. A bit more extreme than using cleaners and such, but nonetheless effective.
05/20/10 @ 09:35
Comment from: Steven McG [Visitor]
One thing i have found to be really effective that isn't mentioned above is drying the VFFs in direct sunlight.

My feet are smelly at the best of times and combined with wearing them through an Australian summer last year, all my VFFs were developing a smell so bad i had to leave them outside when i took them off. Previously i had just been putting them in a washing machine at 40C with detergent weekly, but after a few months the smell would return hours after washing and drying them.

After it became obvious that other people were noticing the smell too, i looked on the forum here and started experimenting with pre-soaking in oxyclean or vinegar and scrubbing with a toothbrush. This improved things a bit, but the smell still returned after a couple of days wear. Then one week i noticed that one of my Sprints was stinking and the other was still fine. This seemed very strange and it took me a while to work out that one had been left to dry in shade and the other was left in direct sunlight. Over the next few weeks i experimented drying my Classics, Sprints and KSOs out on my balcony with one shoe in shade and one in direct sunlight. Sure enough the one dried in direct sunlight didn't smell nearly as bad as the one dried in shade.

My cleaning regime is as follows:
1. Wet the footbed and give it a light scrub with a toothbrush.
2. Machine wash at 40C with detergent.
3. Leave outside (or next to a window) with the footbed facing the sun until they dry.

With the above cleaning method, they still don't smell by the end of the week and by leaving them in direct sunlight when i'm not wearing them, it can be extended to 2 weeks between cleans.


Some caveats:
Obviously this is not useful for Flows or KSO Treks (as the uppers are impermeable to light), but it does seem to work fine for regular KSOs.
It also doesn't help if - like me - you live somewhere that clear skies aren't common for most of the year, though it does still seem to help a little even with high level cloud.
I'm not sure what the exposure to UV will do to the upper fabric over time, though i suppose it isn't any worse than wearing them outside in sunlight. It is also probably less damaging than repeated exposure to acid (vinegar) or peroxide (oxyclean) etc.
There seem to be a few products for sanitising shoes with UV lamps, which might be effective in lieu of sunshine.
05/20/10 @ 09:36
Comment from: Anderson [Visitor]
Thanks for putting this post together, Britt! I recently slogged my way through that thread on fighting the stank, trying to pull from the flood the tips that would help me when the time comes. This was a nice piece of work distilling the key points into a much more structured package. Kudos.

@Steven McG - that's interesting input on sunlight. Being in Florida, that could really simplify things for me!
05/20/10 @ 10:26
Comment from: Lynn [Visitor]
I don't have a pair of FiveFingers just yet because I am waiting for the KSO Treks for women to be released. But, I have been following this website to help me when I do get my first pair.

My question and comment regarding the "stink" in the shoes, why aren't people using the product that most SCUBA divers use to get the smell out of their wetsuits? Being a diver for many years, I would use Sink the Stink on my wetsuit and it works really well.

Once I get my first pair of FiveFingers I plan on trying this product because I don't want to have the same issues with smell that everyone else is having. (But, that might not be an option...lol)

Another quick question, if people don't have smelly feet, does the problem still exist?
05/20/10 @ 11:11
Comment from: Jeff [Visitor]
To get rid of truly heinous odor, sprinkle baking soda all over the tops and interior of the vibrams (I've used this on KSOs and Classics). Then drop them in a small bucket and fill it to the top of the shoe with vinegar (NOT diluted) so that they are completely submerged. Soak at least 8 hours. Wash per usual instructions.
I have particularly smelly feet and this method gives me at least 2-3 months of running in the Texas heat before I start to notice the odor again. No need to spend money on special cleaners or harsh chemicals, in my opinion.
05/20/10 @ 12:55
Comment from: aaron [Visitor]
I haven't waded through the 13 pages of suggestions, but some of them are really interesting and ingenious. Here's my two cents on the topic: I use Sport Wash. It is like WIN detergent. Both were designed specifically to clean and protect tech fabrics. I wash all of my running gear with Sport Wash right in the washing machine and everything always comes out smelling nice and clean, including my VFFs. You can get Sport Wash or WIN at most running stores or on Amazon.com. They are both about $9 for a bottle that does about 20 loads of running clothes.
05/20/10 @ 13:04
Comment from: Zyzzyx [Visitor]
I've been lucky enough to be one of the folks not affected by the funk. But then, my daily use is split between two pairs of Treks (brn/blk) and I'm always wearing wool Injinji socks. (it stays cool in the office, and looks closer to 'normal' with socks)

I'm certain a big part of my avoiding the funk is not wearing the same Vibrams everyday; sometimes two days in a row, maybe three. Also, the wool socks are a big part as well. Before I changed over to Vibrams I wore boots. Full leather boots with no mesh for breathing. Again, I always wore wool socks (Smartwool!), and no stink then either.

As it warms up though, I'm wearing my Classics and KSOs at home, without socks. Good chance I'll be revisiting this post.
05/20/10 @ 14:44
Comment from: Jeff [Visitor]
I've been using a pair of classics to work in everyday for the past two years and a little of the other year and a half that I've had them. Oh and my job is landscaping! They get filthy by the end of the week. All I do is scrub the footbed with hot water and a dishwashing brush and in the toes with a toothbrush. Then just hang em on my fan to dry. I used to wash em in the washer but this way is quicker and way more effective! No Stank!
05/20/10 @ 16:17
Comment from: somedude [Visitor]
I think iamcam had it right, "just embrace the funk!" LOL
05/20/10 @ 17:57
Comment from: Misguided [Visitor]
Well I saw a picture of Gold Bonds foot LOTION for feet treatment, however, Gold Bonds (or any foot powder for that matter) works wonders for ridding the stank and keeping them that way. My Classics were getting the funk bad since I wear them all day everyday with a wash once a week. But since using the foot powder (a light dusting on the soles and between the toes) the funk has vanished from my Classics. Now they have a neutral smell (think smell after new shoe smell disappeared, but no funk arrived), and it has stayed this way for the past month.

Simply,
Misguided
05/20/10 @ 18:50
Comment from: Rana [Visitor] Email · http://palimpsest.typepad.com/frogsandravens
This is a truly epic post. Thanks!
05/20/10 @ 18:55
Comment from: Charles [Visitor]
It's important to dry them out quickly after you wash them or whenever they get wet.
I use a fan or direct sun.
Tea Tree oil drops between the toes works well also.
05/20/10 @ 18:57
Comment from: Chris [Visitor]
I had a Mirazyme failure too. I think all the soak did was allow the bacteria to spread. And now the footbed seems to be slicker when wet and stickier to my foot than it was pre-Mirazyme. Not recommended.
05/20/10 @ 23:15
Comment from: Realdane [Visitor]
For smelly, cracked feet use Toejuice (toejuice.com). I know, it sounds weird but it works really well on cracked heels and also helps your feet stay, well, un-smelly.
05/20/10 @ 23:38
Comment from: BodyBuilderMikeVFF [Visitor]
I use GoldBond, a little on the tops and bottoms of my feet and a squirt into my VFF, smell comes out instantly. I throw them in the wash every 2 weeks. Give it a shot, it def works for me!
05/21/10 @ 14:39
Comment from: Chris [Visitor] · http://thephoenixagents.com
Very useful post - thank you!

I have 2 pairs of KSOs, worn almost exclusively for regular life & fitnesss. I've never had smelly feet before, but after a couple months these things stink as bad as everybody has described.

I've been putting them in the sink to soak for an hour or so with some dishwashing soap (the wash dishes by hand kind) and then drying in front of a fan. They stay stink-free for a few wears or until my next run, then it's back in the sink!
05/21/10 @ 18:26
Comment from: Michelle [Visitor] · http://lunasealife.wordpress.com
Ha! I JUST posted a blog about my cleaning research and what has worked for me! I came over here to share it. :)

Good luck, everyone!

http://lunasealife.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/the-vibram-stank-the-fivefinger-funk/
05/21/10 @ 20:51
Comment from: Tom [Visitor] Email
I keep a spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol near the door and spray the shoes every now and then. No smell and I have worn them everyday since I bought them.
05/21/10 @ 21:15
Comment from: Ian Wendt [Visitor] Email · http://specialcircumstancesinc.blogspot.com
The Penguin brand Sport Wash is the same product as the Atsko brand SportWash you can buy for less than 5 dollars at Wal-Mart. It works great for cleaning my Fivefingers and all my other technical and casual fabrics. Highly recommended.
05/22/10 @ 03:58
Comment from: jeff [Visitor]
The real solution is to use WIN detergent. It is formulated to work on all these high tech fibers. NIKE recommends it, and so does Under Armor. The other stuff doesn't work for me. WIN is the only thing that worked. They just mask odor. WIN actually takes it out.
05/22/10 @ 09:58
Comment from: peter [Visitor]
What is this obsession folks have with keeping their FF's fragrant? They're F'n shoes. Shoes stink, fancy-minimalist or not.
05/22/10 @ 13:46
Comment from: Mike [Visitor]
While my black KSOs typically get a bad funk after a couple days, my KSO Treks hardly seem to pick up any smell. I barely need to wash them.
05/22/10 @ 15:43
Comment from: Patrick [Visitor] · http://www.awesomebymystandards.com
I have been fascinated with getting the smell out of the shoes. I have been testing everything even remotely related to soaps and cleaning - my apartment looks like a lab...
Have tried a lot of these techniques, but also have a few other tips.
Start caring and cleaning before the smell comes to new VFFs. Stay away from machine washing - use hands and your soap of choice.
05/24/10 @ 16:08
Comment from: Josué [Visitor] Email · http://myachillesrupture.com
This is a great post and very timely for me since I'm increasing my wear times with my VFF Classics and this will allow me to successfully slay the STANK! :p

I'm going to tweet this, Justin.
05/24/10 @ 18:38
Comment from: mando [Visitor]
You should mention that wearing them with socks eliminates the problem - it did for me anyway. If I had known this before I would have bought songs long ago and saved a lot of hassle.
05/25/10 @ 09:24
Comment from: eightbit [Visitor]
I've tried a few different methods, and some do help, but to be honest- I've found that spraying them with AXE body spray before I put them on, and after I take them off not only makes them not smell bad, but makes them smell awesome. This doesn't kill bacteria, but a lot of times the bacteria is already dead, and that causes the smell (microscopic decay). Just try it- keep it cleaned like normal, but just add this zest of nice smell whenever.
06/02/10 @ 15:22
Comment from: Chris Butterworth [Visitor] · http://thephoenixagents.com
update from my last comment..

We're another month into summer (110 today in Phoenix), and I've had to up the ante on my cleaning routine.

I've been doing a quick soak-wash with dish soap (as described above), then I soak them pretty good in a vinegar-water solution for about an hour before fan or sun drying.

Also, I now take them off in the garage before entering the house & spray them down heavily with fabreeze. (along with my feet!)

All this work buys me 2-4 wearings before they need another wash. Pretty high-maintenance shoes if you ask me; I wish there was a better solution, cuz the shoes themselves are the best...
06/28/10 @ 19:41
Comment from: Brian Stewart [Visitor] Email
I've been running in Vibrams now for almost a year. Cleaning is as simple as just adding a 1/4 cup of baking soda to the washing machine along with your favorite detergent. Works every time! I just ran a half marathon and the footbeds were covered in funk. I put them through a cycle with the baking soda and they were like new again.
08/17/10 @ 15:18
Comment from: Darryl Edwards [Visitor] · http://www.thefitnessexplorer.com
I am working on a natural method to clean my Five Finger flows, which due to the neoprene really do smell regardless of washing them weekly in a washing machine...

I am experimenting with baking soda, cider vinegar etc.

Will let you know how I get on!

-Darryl
08/21/10 @ 17:54

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