Baking soda in shoes does two separate jobs. Sprinkled dry inside a shoe and left overnight, it helps with smell. Mixed into a paste, it scrubs dirt off light-coloured canvas and rubber. It goes into dry shoes, not wet ones, it does not stop the smell coming back on its own, and it should not be mixed with vinegar, because the two cancel each other out.
Several recipes below come from Nike's and UGG's care guides. SneakerSalt is not affiliated with either.
How to put baking soda in shoes for smell
- Start with dry shoes. That is the usual advice, and it makes sense: Nike notes that damp shoes encourage bacteria, and powder does nothing about the damp. If they are wet, dry them first.
- Take the insoles out if they lift out. Sprinkle a little on the top of each insole and a little into the empty shoe, so the footbed underneath gets some too.
- Use a couple of teaspoons per shoe. UGG's version, written for its sheepskin boots, is 2 teaspoons of baking soda mixed with 2 teaspoons of corn flour, left in overnight. It is the only measured recipe we found, and a sensible amount for a sneaker too.
- Leave it. Texas A&M's guidance says several hours; the American Cleaning Institute says a day or more. Overnight sits comfortably between the two.
- Get it all out. Tip the shoe upside down and tap it, then run a vacuum nozzle around the inside. Brush the insoles off before they go back in.
Put the shoes on only once the powder is out. Loose baking soda ends up in your socks and, in a knit shoe, in the weave.
Sachets, pouches and the coffee filter trick
If tipping out powder every morning sounds tedious, wrap it. The common home version is a spoonful tied into an old sock, or folded into a coffee filter and taped shut, pushed into each shoe overnight and kept for reuse. Ready-made baking soda pouches and balls for shoes work on the same idea; read the packet to see what else is in them, since some add fragrance.
Does baking soda in shoes really work?
It helps, within limits. The American Cleaning Institute calls baking soda a natural deodorizer, and Texas A&M says an open container of it "may help" keep stored items fresh. Neither source claims it kills anything.
To see why it can only help, look at where the smell comes from. The NHS puts smelly feet down to "a build-up of sweat and bacteria on your feet" and to fungal infections such as athlete's foot. VAAM, a German microbiology society, traces much of the odour to bacteria that give off a sulphur compound, methanethiol, as they break down proteins. Baking soda sits on top of that process. The things that change it are drying and rest:
- Let shoes dry out completely before wearing them again, and do not wear the same pair two days running. Both are NHS advice.
- If the smell survives cleaning and drying, replace the insoles. That is Nike's advice.
- If you suspect athlete's foot is part of it, that is one for a pharmacist rather than a shoe cleaner.
Our insoles and odour guide has the full routine, of which baking soda is one small part.
How to clean shoes with baking soda
As a cleaner, baking soda is used as a paste on the outside of the shoe. Nike gives two recipes:
| Paste | Ratio | Use it on |
|---|---|---|
| Baking soda and water | Equal parts | White or light-coloured shoes |
| Baking soda and 3% hydrogen peroxide | Two parts soda to one part peroxide | White canvas, left 30 minutes before rinsing |
- Dry brush the shoe so you are not grinding loose grit in with the paste.
- Mix the paste to the consistency of toothpaste, small batch.
- Work it in with a soft brush, small circles on canvas and on rubber soles.
- Leave it. The peroxide version sits for 30 minutes.
- Rinse or wipe it all off. Dried paste leaves a white crust in the weave.
- Air-dry at room temperature. Nike adds that you can dry the peroxide version in the sun. UGG, Allbirds and the American Cleaning Institute say keep shoes out of direct sun, and Texas A&M notes that sunlight can itself yellow some white fabrics. We would skip the sun.
Peroxide can bleach dyes, so keep that version to white shoes and test a hidden spot first. For coloured shoes, use the plain water paste and test it inside the tongue before going near the toe.
Do not soak shoes in a baking soda solution. Makers from Vans to Timberland warn against soaking, and a soaked shoe has the glue and drying problems a paste avoids. Our canvas shoes guide covers the wetter methods for when the paste is not enough.
By material
| Material | Baking soda? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Canvas | Yes, as a paste | Nike's two recipes above. |
| Rubber soles | Yes, as a paste | Scrub with a brush and rinse. |
| Smooth leather | Inside only, sparingly | Nike does give a leather recipe (1 tablespoon of baking soda, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, a cup of water), but our white leather guide counts baking soda pastes as abrasive on the coated finish, so don't scrub leather with it. Repeated dry powder inside leather shoes is commonly said to dry the leather. |
| Suede and nubuck | Inside only | Powder lodges in the nap. If it gets on the outside, brush it out once dry. |
| Knit and mesh | Inside only, wrapped | Nike cleans knit with a mild soapy solution, not paste. Loose powder is hard to shift from the weave. |
Baking soda and vinegar cancel each other out
The fizz looks like cleaning. It is the two ingredients neutralising each other. Baking soda is a base, vinegar is an acid, and when they meet they react into carbon dioxide (the bubbles), water and sodium acetate, a mild salt. Once the fizzing stops, what is on your shoe is mostly salty water.
Nobody has tested whether the mix cleans worse than either one alone, and Nike's leather recipe does combine them in a cup of water. But the bubbles are not doing any scrubbing, and the acid and the base are spent on each other rather than on the dirt. If you want vinegar's help, for salt marks for example, use it on its own.
What baking soda won't fix
- Old yellow soles. A yellowish film of dirt scrubs off. Rubber that has oxidised over years has changed chemically, and no paste reverses that. The yellowed soles guide explains how to tell the two apart.
- A wet shoe. The advice is to use it in dry shoes. Paper and moving air are what dry a wet one.
- The cause of the smell. Shoes that never get a full day to dry out will keep smelling, powder or not.
Where our foam fits
Not in the smell part. SneakerSalt Shoe Cleaning Foam is a cleaner, not a deodorizer, and we would rather you used baking soda and drying for that job. Where it does save time is the paste job on the outside: two pumps, ten seconds, a dry cloth, with no mixing, no 30-minute wait, no rinse and nothing to dry. It is rated excellent on canvas, mesh and knit, white leather and rubber midsoles, and it lifts dirt-yellowing but not oxidised yellowing.
Questions people actually ask
How long can I leave baking soda in my shoes?
Several hours to a day or more is the range the sources give. After that, tip it out and let the empty shoe air.
Is baking soda safe in shoes?
Used dry and tipped out afterwards, it is what the American Cleaning Institute suggests. Go easy with leather, where repeated powder is commonly said to dry it out, and wrap it for knit and suede so it does not lodge in the fibres.
Does Dawn dish soap and baking soda clean shoes?
Both appear in Nike's methods, but separately: diluted dish soap for the general clean, baking soda pastes for whites. We found no source that tests them mixed, so we would use them one at a time.
What is the best powder for shoe odor?
Plain baking soda, or UGG's baking soda and corn flour mix, does the job at home. Pharmacists also sell foot powders and foot deodorants. None of them replaces letting the shoes dry fully between wears.
Keep the baking soda for the inside, and do the outside in a minute: SneakerSalt Shoe Cleaning Foam, $24, free shipping, with a brush and cloth, and a refund within 30 days if it doesn't clean your shoe.
