To clean Brooks shoes, brush the caked mud off the soles, take out the insoles and laces, and gently hand wash the uppers in warm water with a mild soap, without submerging or soaking the shoe. Stuff them with a dry washcloth or paper towels and let them air dry. Brooks is blunt about the alternative: "do not, we repeat, do not machine wash or dry your shoes".
This works for Brooks running and walking shoes, the Ghost, Glycerin and Adrenaline included. If you came here for "Brooks tennis shoes", it is the same pair: in American English, tennis shoes often just means athletic sneakers. SneakerSalt is not affiliated with Brooks.
What Brooks says to do
Brooks's support page sets out a short sequence:
- Brush the caked-on mud off the bottoms.
- Remove the insoles.
- Gently hand wash the uppers in warm water with mild soap, and do not submerge or soak the shoes.
- Stuff them with a dry washcloth or paper towels and let them air dry.
Brooks Australia's running blog adds two details: take the laces out, and clean the uppers with a damp cloth or brush before rinsing them with warm water. Rinsing the upper is fine. Dunking the whole shoe is not.
One old source says otherwise. A 2008 post on a Brooks community blog said soaking the shoes in a sink worked well. The current support pages say not to soak, and the current pages are the ones to follow.
What you are cleaning on a Brooks
Take the Ghost 16, Brooks's main everyday line, as the example. It has an engineered air mesh upper, a DNA LOFT v3 midsole (a nitrogen-infused, EVA-based foam) and a RoadTack rubber outsole. The mesh is what takes most of the cleaning. The midsole shows scuffs and the grey line along its top edge. The outsole collects grit and caked mud.
A Glycerin or an Adrenaline may use different materials, so read the tongue label. If it says mesh or knit, the method below applies unchanged.
How to clean Brooks running shoes at home
- Let mud dry, then brush the soles. Brooks starts with the bottoms. Dry mud cracks off; wet mud smears into the mesh.
- Insoles and laces out. Both get cleaned separately.
- Mix a little mild soap into warm water. A bowl is enough. You are dipping a cloth or soft brush, not the shoe.
- Work over the upper gently. Small strokes with the damp brush or cloth, toe box and eyestay first, because they take the most dirt. Keep water away from the inside as far as you can.
- Rinse the upper with a clean, damp cloth. This lifts the soap back out of the mesh.
- Wipe the midsole and outsole. Same soapy cloth, then a clean one.
- Stuff and air dry. Dry washcloth or paper towels inside, room temperature, away from radiators. Swap the stuffing when it gets damp.
A full hand clean is about fifteen minutes of work. The drying is what takes time.
The shortcut for everyday dirt
Most weeks a Brooks does not need the bowl at all. A no-rinse foam handles the upper and the midsole in a minute: two pumps across the dirty area, wait ten seconds so the foam can lift the grime, then wipe with any dry cloth. That is what we make. SneakerSalt Shoe Cleaning Foam is rated Excellent on mesh, and on an EVA-based midsole like DNA LOFT it lifts surface grime. Because nothing is rinsed, nothing soaks in, which fits Brooks's no-soaking rule well. You get a brush and a cloth with the bottle, and laces are rated Good, so do those while you are at it.
The RoadTack rubber outsole is rated Excellent too; brush the grit out of the tread first. The honest limit: no cleaner, ours included, fixes a midsole that has been scraped rather than dirtied.
Black, white and walking pairs
Black Brooks: use as little soap as you can and wipe it out well with the damp cloth. Our foam has no dyes and no bleach, and it has not lifted dye on anything we have tested.
White mesh Brooks: the same method, more often. Two light passes on grey patches work better than one hard scrub. Yellowing that survives a proper clean is a change in the material, not dirt; our yellowed soles guide explains the difference.
Walking shoes: if the upper is mesh, follow the method above. If it is leather, check the label for what Brooks recommends for that pair. Our foam counts smooth leather as leather; white is rated Excellent, and on a coloured pair test an inside panel first.
Smelly Brooks: the inside
Smell lives in the insole and the lining, not the mesh. Take the insoles out and scrub them with mild soap and water, then let them dry completely before they go back. A spoonful of baking soda inside each shoe, left for a day and shaken out, helps with what remains. Rotating two pairs, which Brooks itself suggests, gives each one a full day to dry out, and dry shoes smell less. Our insoles and odour guide has the full routine. The foam cleans the surface grime that holds smell; it is not a deodoriser.
What to leave alone
- The washing machine, hand-wash setting included. Brooks's gear page notes that many washers have one and recommends you just say no. Brooks Australia adds that the spin cycle can degrade the material.
- The dryer and the radiator. Brooks rules out both.
- Soaking. In a sink, a bucket or the bath.
- Bleach. The general rule for mesh, Nike's included, is to keep bleach off it.
- A stiff brush on the mesh. Save it for the outsole.
The general case for sneakers and washers is in our washing machine guide.
Questions people actually ask
Can I use a magic eraser on Brooks shoes?
On the midsole and outsole, with light pressure and after testing a small spot. Not on the mesh: a melamine sponge works by abrasion.
What is the best cleaner for running shoes?
Mild soap in warm water is what Brooks itself tells you to use, and it works. A no-rinse foam does the same job on the upper without the drying time. Skip anything harsh.
How do I clean white mesh Brooks sneakers?
Dry brush, then the soap-and-damp-cloth method or foam, in light passes, and dry them out of the sun. Change to a clean part of the cloth often so you are not wiping grey back on.
Can Brooks shoes be washed?
By hand, yes, which is exactly what Brooks describes. In a machine, no.
For the weeks between proper hand washes: SneakerSalt Shoe Cleaning Foam, $24, free shipping, with the brush and cloth in the box, and a refund if it doesn't clean your Brooks.
