How to Dry Running Shoes Without Ruining Them, Whether it’s raining on race day or your rainy long run has been rained upon, wet shoes are a part of life for runners. And that is why some athletes never order pizza with pineapple on it. (Look for proofreading improvements in the rewrite.)
What you don’t want is for your shoes to stay wet. We know this to be especially true when you’re getting ready for your next workout.
How do you get your running shoes to dry quickly? In this article, we provide some useful advice.
If you’ve already put your damp feet in your shoes and you’re glad they’ll be dry soon, we suggest you fetch them now! While the dryer might seem like a wise decision to get them dried quickly, we wouldn’t suggest it. Many have attempted this before and we were left without any footwear to wear as a result.
If you’re training outside during the cold, wet months, and your sneakers become wet on a daily basis, it’s best to be prepared by wearing inserts or other comfortable shoes inside of your sneakers to keep them from getting ruined.
If not, then you may need to go to the shoe store in order to replace them because they might not perform their best anymore.
How To Dry Running Shoes The Right Way
Here are three tricks you can try to get your shoes ready for tomorrow—or at least the day after. So slip on some of your favorite footwear and check out these handy tips from Jo Malone London:
Trick #1: The Newspaper
How to dry wet running shoes without newspaper, The simplest and most cost efficient solution can be found in your local grocery store. Newsprint paper is made from recycled waste and pulped wood, which makes it bio-degradable.
Step 1: Before you can clean your sneakers, they first need to be moisture free – especially if they are leather shoes since you don’t want to risk burning the product. How to dry running shoes overnight, To achieve this, start by removing excess water by either patting them with a towel or running them under cold water from the tap.
Step 2: Remove the laces and the insoles. Then, open up the shoe.
Step 3: Ball up and stuff the newspaper inside the shoes along with the cookies. Conceal any inked areas of newspaper to avoid them bleeding onto your shoes.
Step 4: Place the shoes in a dry, well-ventilated area inside you home. You may also place them near a space heater or a fan.
Step 5: Check the shoes every hour or so and replace the wet newspaper.
Step 6: To dry the outsides, you can also wrap a few sheets around the shoes. Use a rubber band to secure them.
Newspaper is great for absorbing water, but it’s also good at absorbing smells so it can be a good idea to put some newspaper in with your wet shoes when they are sweaty and not just from rain. It’s a great way to keep them fresh whenever you aren’t wearing them, especially since newspaper is relatively cheap.
Trick #2: The Fridge
A helpful household item that will allow you to get your shoes back on the road is your refrigerator. Not inside of it, but by the vents at the front of most refrigerators. When your appliance is on, a steady stream of warm and dry air blows out from these spaces between each day’s cooling cycle.
Alternatively, if you do not like the idea of your shoes being in front of the fridge, you can place them behind the fridge. Most refrigerators come equipped with a fan. This is there to remove moisture from inside the fridge.
So, get your wet running shoes. Remove the insoles and place them on their sides with the opening facing a vent of a fridge, then place your shoes in front of a circular fan. Go take a shower, have a hot meal, then go to sleep and when you wake up, hang your running shoes in front of the fan to dry quickly.
Trick #3: The Fan
Besides the fridge, there are numerous household appliances that prove quite useful.How to dry wet shoes without them smelling, A fan is one of them, and this inexpensive tool is not only great for quickly cooling down a room but also for providing some much-needed air circulation when people are inside an enclosed space wearing their shoes. Here’s how to put it to use:
Step 1: Similar to the advice we laid out in our article on how to clean leather furniture, here we’re reminded of the importance of rinsing them out thoroughly if at all possible. When it comes down to cleaning shoes, the key is that the cleaner itself should not get absorbed into any porous areas of your footwear because this will prevent them from effectively drying.
Step 2: Remove laces and insoles or orthotics. These can usually be dried in the dryer.
Step 3: Open the mouth of your shoes as wide as possible.
Step 4: Set the fan up somewhere safe, stable, and out of the way.
Step 5: Then, use wire or a coat hanger to create a hook. Cut a piece along its length around 6 inches and then bend it into an S-shape.
Step 6: Attach the hook on the upper front grill of the fan. Make sure they’re a few inches apart. If you have an oscillating fan, make sure it’s switched off.
Step 7: Hang your shoes with the tongues facing away from the fan, bending them open as if you were trying to wear them.
Step 8: Put some towels underneath in case there are drips. But just in case, make sure the shoes you’re wearing aren’t dripping wet.
Step 9: Leave your shoes near the fan and hanging from the shower rail. That should help your shoes dry a lot faster than if you were to just leave them on the floor or stuffed into a cupboard.
Things You Should Not Do To Dry Your Shoes With:
Of course, a regular blow dryer will suffice if you don’t have access to an actual drier. It’s better than nothing.
- Do not use the hair dryer to dry your shoes.
Besides taking time and energy, the heat may make issues even worse. Materials and adhesives used in shoes can be damaged or ruined by exposure to high temperatures. Leaving an area with high levels of moisture around a machine that produces heat is also highly dangerous.
- Do not put your shoes in direct sunlight.
If you want to speed up that shoe-wetting process, but also wear your shoes down faster in the process, place them directly on a heating vent. The warm air will help evaporate the water more quickly and efficiently than if you were to simply let your shoes air dry outside under a tree or covered area.
Summary
Now you have three good methods of dry running shoes. Some are significantly faster than the others, and some are more convenient than the rest.
We recommend putting them on their sides, facing the vent of the refrigerator. It’s stress-free, as no setup or monitoring is required – just leave them there overnight. If you’re lucky, then the shoes are ready to be worn the next day, when we know the weather will be better.
