Yes, you can wash most sneakers in a washing machine, and for canvas and mesh trainers it is the easiest way to get them properly clean. But the machine is also how people destroy shoes: a hot wash and a fast spin will unglue a sole, warp a midsole and turn a white trainer permanently yellow.
The difference between a clean shoe and a ruined one is about six decisions, and none of them are difficult. This guide covers which shoes are safe, how to prepare them, the exact settings to use, how to dry them, and what to do with the pairs that must never go near a drum.
Can You Put Shoes in the Washing Machine?
For most athletic shoes, yes. The materials that make up a canvas sneaker or a mesh running shoe are the same sorts of fabric your clothes are made from, and they survive a cold gentle wash without trouble.
What does not survive is heat and violence. Hot water softens the adhesives holding the upper to the sole. A fast spin cycle slams the shoe against the drum hundreds of times. Those two things cause nearly every washing machine shoe disaster, and both are settings you control.
Which Shoes Are Safe and Which Are Not
Usually Safe
- Canvas sneakers. Converse, Vans and similar. The most machine friendly shoes there are.
- Mesh and knit trainers. Most gym and everyday athletic shoes.
- Nylon and polyester uppers. Synthetic fabric handles water well.
- Cotton and canvas espadrilles without a jute sole.
- Most kids shoes, which is fortunate, because they need it most.
Risky, and Usually Not Worth It
- Running shoes with engineered foam midsoles. They will often come out looking fine, and repeated washing breaks down the foam and the adhesives. Several brands advise against it in their own care instructions. Hand clean the upper instead and you keep the cushioning.
- Shoes with glued rather than stitched soles. Look at the join. If you can see stitching, it is more forgiving.
- Memory foam insoles. Take them out. They compress and do not recover.
Never
- Leather of any kind. Water strips the oils, then it dries stiff and cracks.
- Suede and nubuck. Water marks them permanently.
- Silk, satin and anything embellished. Beads, sequins and glued crystals come off.
- Dress shoes and anything with a leather sole or a shank.
- Boots with a steel toe or a waterproof membrane.
- Anything with electronics, including light up kids shoes.
- Shoes already coming apart. A wash finishes the job.
If you are unsure, look inside the tongue for a care label, and check the brand website before you commit. Two minutes of reading is cheaper than a pair of shoes.
What You Need
- A mesh laundry bag, or a pillowcase tied shut.
- Two to four old towels.
- Liquid laundry detergent.
- An old toothbrush or a soft brush.
- Paper towels or plain paper for drying.
No specialist product is required. A standard liquid detergent, used sparingly, does the job. The American Cleaning Institute has a useful rundown of how detergents actually work if you want to understand why less is more here.
Before the Wash: Five Minutes That Decide the Result
- Take out the laces and the insoles. Both wash better separately, and insoles left in stay wet for days. Laces loose in the drum tangle around everything, so they go in the bag too.
- Knock off the loose dirt outside. Bang the soles together, then brush the tread. Dried mud in a washing machine turns to silt and ends up in the filter.
- Dig the stones out of the tread. An old toothbrush or a key works. Loose grit scratches the drum.
- Pre treat the bad marks. A drop of detergent worked in with a brush, left for ten minutes. The machine will not lift a set in stain on its own.
- Check the soles are attached. Press at the toe and the heel. If anything lifts or flexes away, wash by hand instead.
How to Wash Shoes in a Washing Machine, Step by Step
- Put the shoes in a mesh bag. Laces and insoles in a second bag or the same one. This is the single most useful thing you can do: it stops the shoes battering the drum and stops the drum battering them.
- Add two to four old towels. They cushion the load, absorb the impact and stop the drum going badly out of balance. Use old ones, because the shoes may transfer dye.
- Use liquid detergent, about half what you would use for a normal load. Powder does not always dissolve fully in a cold wash and leaves white residue in the fabric.
- No bleach and no fabric softener. Bleach weakens the fibres and yellows white rubber. Softener leaves a coating that attracts dirt and reduces grip.
- Select a cold wash. 30C, which is 86F, or lower. Never warm, never hot.
- Select the delicate or gentle cycle. Shorter, slower, less agitation.
- Set the spin speed to the lowest available, or turn the spin off completely. If you change only one setting from your usual wash, make it this one. High speed spinning is what cracks midsoles and pulls soles loose.
- Run it, then take the shoes out straight away. Leaving damp shoes sitting in a drum is how they start to smell.
The Settings That Actually Matter
Temperature: Cold
Shoe adhesives soften with heat. A warm wash will not always destroy a shoe, and it brings you much closer to it, and it sets protein stains such as blood and sweat rather than removing them. Cold water cleans fabric perfectly well with a modern detergent.
Cycle: Delicate or Gentle
The gentle cycle moves the drum less and for less time. If your machine has a specific sportswear or trainers programme, use that instead, because it is built for exactly this.
Spin: As Low As It Goes
A shoe weighs very little and is an awkward shape, so at 1,200 revolutions per minute it is thrown around hard. This is the setting that does the real damage, and it is the one most people never change. Low spin leaves the shoes wetter, which does not matter because they need to air dry for a day anyway.
Detergent: Liquid, and Not Much
Too much detergent is the usual cause of stiff, chalky looking fabric after a wash. It does not rinse out of a thick canvas upper. Half a normal dose is plenty.
Laces and Insoles
Laces go in the bag with the shoes and come out fine. If they are badly discoloured, soak them in warm water with a little detergent for half an hour first, then let the machine do the rest.
Insoles are better washed by hand. Scrub both sides with a brush and soapy water, rinse, and press them between a towel. Machine washing compresses foam insoles and they rarely come back to their original thickness. Dry them separately and completely, because a damp insole put back into a dry shoe is the main source of smell.
Drying: Where Most Shoes Are Actually Ruined
Do not put shoes in a tumble dryer. Not on low, not for ten minutes. Dryer heat is well past the point where shoe adhesives soften, and the tumbling deforms the shape while the glue is weak. This destroys more shoes than the wash cycle ever does.
- Stuff them with paper towels or plain white paper. This holds the shape and pulls moisture out of the lining. Avoid newspaper, which transfers ink into light coloured fabric.
- Replace the paper after a few hours once it is soaked through.
- Stand them somewhere with moving air, indoors, at room temperature. A fan pointed at them cuts the time roughly in half.
- Keep them away from radiators, heaters and direct sun. Heat is the problem whatever the source, and sunlight is what turns white midsoles yellow.
- Allow 24 hours, and longer for thick soles. Put the insoles back only when both are bone dry.
Top Loader or Front Loader
A front loader is better for shoes. It tumbles rather than agitates, and the gentle cycle is genuinely gentle.
A top loader with a central agitator post is harder on them, because the shoes get pushed against the agitator for the whole cycle. If that is what you have, use the mesh bag, add more towels, choose the shortest delicate cycle and the lowest spin, and accept that canvas will cope better than anything structured. Top loaders without an agitator, with an impeller plate instead, sit between the two.
How to Hand Wash the Shoes That Cannot Go In
- Brush off the dry dirt first, then take out laces and insoles as before.
- Mix a little liquid detergent into cool water.
- Work on the upper with a soft brush or cloth, small circles, no soaking. For leather use a barely damp cloth and a dedicated leather cleaner, never a soaked one.
- Clean the midsole and the outsole separately, where you can scrub harder. A magic eraser sponge works well on white rubber.
- Wipe off the detergent with a clean damp cloth rather than rinsing under a tap.
- Dry exactly as above, stuffed, at room temperature, out of the sun.
For suede, skip water entirely. Use a suede brush and a suede eraser, and treat marks with a dedicated suede cleaner.
What Goes Wrong, and Why
- The sole comes loose. Water that was too hot, a spin that was too fast, or a shoe that was already failing. Cold and low spin prevent nearly all of it.
- White parts turn yellow. Usually drying in direct sun, sometimes bleach, sometimes detergent residue oxidising in the rubber. Dry indoors and rinse well.
- The fabric feels stiff and chalky. Too much detergent, not enough rinsing.
- They still smell. The insoles were not dried through, or they went back in damp.
- The shoes lost their shape. Dried without being stuffed, or dried with heat.
- The machine banged throughout. Not enough towels, so the load was unbalanced.
How Often Should You Do This?
Every one to two months for shoes in regular use, and less for anything you wear occasionally. Washing is mildly hard on a shoe every time, so the aim is to do it when they need it rather than on a schedule. Between washes, a brush and a damp cloth on the uppers and a rotation of two pairs will keep them in better condition than frequent washing ever will. Letting a pair dry out fully for a day between wears does more for smell than anything you can do in a machine.
Particular Kinds of Shoes
White Sneakers
The upper is the easy part. What people actually care about is the white rubber midsole, and a machine wash barely touches it. Scrub the midsole separately before or after the wash with a magic eraser sponge or a paste of baking soda and a little water, then rinse it off properly. Any residue left on white rubber will yellow it later.
Crocs and Foam Clogs
EVA foam and warm water are a bad combination: heat makes clogs shrink and curl, and it does not reverse. Wash them by hand in cold water with a brush, or use a cold gentle cycle with the spin off if you must. Dry them flat, indoors, away from any heat source.
Hiking Shoes and Boots
Keep these out of the machine. Most have a waterproof membrane, a stiffened shank or a glued rand, and detergent clogs the membrane so the shoe stops breathing. Brush off the mud, rinse the outsole under a tap, wipe the upper with a damp cloth, and use a cleaner made for technical footwear.
Skate Shoes
Usually suede or a suede panel, which rules the machine out. Brush the suede dry, use a suede eraser on scuffs, and clean the canvas panels by hand so the suede stays dry.
Kids School Shoes
Fabric trainers are fine and will need washing often. Leather school shoes are not: wipe them and polish them instead. Check for light up soles first, because a wash kills the electronics and can leave a battery sitting in a wet shoe.
Slippers
Fabric slippers with a stitched sole usually survive a cold gentle wash. Anything with a glued rubber sole, a memory foam footbed or real sheepskin should be hand cleaned, because the foam compresses and the sheepskin mats.
Getting the Smell Out
Smell is bacteria living on the sweat absorbed into the insole and the lining, so a wash that does not reach those two places will not fix it. This is why shoes often come out of the machine clean and still smelling after a day of wear.
- Treat the insole as the main culprit. Scrub both sides by hand, rinse thoroughly and dry it completely and separately. If an insole is old and the smell keeps coming back, replace it. They are cheap.
- Dry everything fully before the shoes go back together. Damp is what lets the bacteria return, and a shoe that feels dry on the outside can still be wet inside the sole unit.
- Use baking soda between wears, not during the wash. A spoonful left in each shoe overnight, then tipped out, absorbs moisture and neutralises odour.
- Rotate two pairs. A shoe needs roughly a day to dry out from normal wear. Wearing the same pair every day never gives it that, and no amount of washing compensates.
- Wear socks that move moisture, wool or a synthetic blend rather than cotton, which holds sweat against the foot.
If the smell survives all of that, it is usually in the midsole foam itself, which cannot be cleaned. At that point the shoes have done their time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you put sneakers in the washing machine?
Most canvas, mesh and synthetic sneakers can go in. Use a mesh bag, a cold wash, the gentle cycle and the lowest spin setting, and add a few old towels to cushion the load. Leather, suede and embellished shoes should not.
Can you wash trainers in a machine?
Yes, for fabric trainers. Running shoes with engineered foam midsoles are the exception worth making, because repeated washing breaks the foam and the adhesives down. Clean those by hand.
What temperature should you wash shoes at?
Cold. 30C, which is 86F, or lower. Heat softens the adhesive holding the sole to the upper, and it sets sweat and protein stains instead of lifting them.
What cycle should you use to wash shoes?
The delicate or gentle cycle, with the spin speed set as low as it will go. If your machine has a sportswear or trainers programme, use that.
Do you need a mesh bag to wash shoes?
It is the most useful thing in the process. It stops the shoes hammering the drum, keeps laces from tangling, and holds everything together. A pillowcase tied shut works just as well.
Can you tumble dry shoes?
No. Dryer heat is well past the temperature at which shoe adhesives soften, and the tumbling deforms the shoe while the glue is weak. Air dry at room temperature for about 24 hours instead.
How long do shoes take to dry after washing?
About 24 hours at room temperature with paper stuffed inside, and longer for thick soled shoes. A fan pointed at them roughly halves it. Put the insoles back only when everything is completely dry.
Can you wash leather shoes in a washing machine?
No. Water strips the natural oils out of leather, and it dries stiff and cracks. Wipe leather with a barely damp cloth and use a cleaner and conditioner made for it.
Can you wash shoes with clothes?
Better not to. Shoes carry dirt and bacteria from outside, they can transfer dye, and clothes do not cushion a load the way towels do. Old towels are the right companion for a shoe wash.
Why did my white shoes turn yellow after washing?
Usually drying in direct sunlight, which oxidises white rubber. Bleach and leftover detergent in the fabric do the same thing. Rinse thoroughly and dry indoors, out of the sun.
Get the preparation and the settings right and a washing machine is the quickest way to make an old pair of trainers look presentable again. Get the drying wrong and none of the rest matters. There is more footwear writing in the news and insights section, including what the law actually says about going barefoot in public.