Hi!

I picked up a cheap-ass pair of used climbing shoes as a 'gift' for a buddy who "just might try some bouldering to see if he likes it"

Anyways they smell AWFUL. Any tips for killing the funk and ridding the nastiness without ruining the shoe? His feet are pretty smelly too, so I don't need 100% effectiveness

MikeTX wrote:which ones did you get?

some sort of evolv's $5 at REI garage sale. I have some spare shoes, but this dude wears a 12 1/2 so a good fine, rankness aside.

evolv's just get much nastier than any other brand rock shoe imho. sorry, but burn them.

rpc wrote:evolv's just get much nastier than any other brand rock shoe imho. sorry, but burn them.

weird

erykmynn wrote:

rpc wrote:evolv's just get much nastier than any other brand rock shoe imho. sorry, but burn them.

weird

Is it an all-synthetic shoe? Those seem to get nasty faster than leather shoes. On the other hand if they're synthetic you can probably hand wash them without any problems. One thing you might try on them is Mirazyme. I once had to move a dead and rotting seal off a beach and the smell that got on my neoprene gloves and drysuit was unbelievably bad. Mirazyme got rid of it.

Lysol aerosols kill funk in wrestling shoes. At least it worked for a bunch of my teammates. I've always been a fan of the leave-the-nasties-out-in-the-sun-for-a-day-or-two strategy.

Putting them in a plastic bag and in a freezer might help... Should at least kill some of the smell..

Boil them and make soup.

JHH60 wrote:

erykmynn wrote:

rpc wrote:evolv's just get much nastier than any other brand rock shoe imho. sorry, but burn them.

weird

Is it an all-synthetic shoe? Those seem to get nasty faster than leather shoes. On the other hand if they're synthetic you can probably hand wash them without any problems. One thing you might try on them is Mirazyme. I once had to move a dead and rotting seal off a beach and the smell that got on my neoprene gloves and drysuit was unbelievably bad. Mirazyme got rid of it.

It's a leather shoe. Mirazyme is pretty great, but everyone's always out of stock. Anyone know a reliable Bay Area vendor.

I like the Freezer idea. should be a good first step, since it's non chemical.

The Freezer trick works well untill they thaw out then the funk will return, a trick that will work is Rubbing alchol with an herbal extract ie lavender or simmilar, just dont use Rosemerry extract as it will just hilight the funk and take it to a whole new level of funk

I hate to say it but I don't think anything (again, short of a bon-fire) will work. I'm basing this on about 4 or 5 pairs that are in retirement & making my garage smell like a morgue. I tried to mitigate the situtation from the beginning with some of the pairs by stuffing various moisture absorbing media into them right after use (no it's not personal hygiene either...other makes I wear were not [as] nasty), air drying them etc.. etc... - hopeless. Finally gave up on them & went with mad rocks.

I have a pair of Mad Rock Phoenix that are by far the the worst smelling shoes I have ever owned. I leave them outside between use but it does no good.

I don't know how much this applies to climbing shoes, but I've had hiking shoes that had "one bad day" where they got "the funk", and nothing ever completely killed it. 2nd pair of the exact same shoe never had that problem at all.

My personal climbing shoes, I make it a point to ALWAYS air them out rather than stuff them in a bag. Occasional Lysol fumigation. so far so good.

Interesting the Evolv's seem to be universally reviled as smelly. Wonder how our gym manages to use Evolvs as the rentals. yuck

Why would you subject your buddy to a used pair of stinky shoes!? Do you actually like him!!?

Evolv smells bad. I love mine when climbing, hate them when I have to take them off. Only way I have "some" success is soap them with the Mirazyme and then wash them into a washer. Not sure if the rubbers will get damaged permanently, but so far I've been lucky!