Laces clean best off the shoe: a bowl of warm water with a squirt of mild detergent, ten minutes of soaking, a rub between your fingers, a rinse, and an overnight dry. If they are grey through, thin in the middle, or the plastic tips have split, replace them. New laces cost little and do more for a tired pair than anything else you can do in five minutes.
Take them off. Really.
Laces are the one part of a sneaker that is happy to be soaked, because there is no glue, foam or leather to damage. Cleaning them on the shoe means either leaving the tongue and eyestay filthy under them, or getting the upper wetter than it should be. Pull them out, take a photo if the lacing pattern is anything unusual, and treat the shoe and the laces as two separate jobs.
The exception is a quick refresh between proper cleans: two pumps of foam along the laces while they are on the shoe, ten seconds, a wipe with a dry cloth. Our materials table rates laces "Good" for this rather than "Excellent", because a wipe reaches the surface of a woven lace but not the grime worked into the core. Fine for a touch-up. Not a deep clean.
Method one: hand wash in a bowl
- Warm water, not hot. A cereal bowl or a sink with the plug in. Hot water can shrink cotton laces and soften the aglets.
- A small squirt of mild detergent. Laundry liquid or dish soap, either is fine. No bleach; it yellows polyester and weakens cotton.
- Soak for ten to fifteen minutes. Longer does no harm.
- Rub the laces between your fingers or against each other, working along the length. An old toothbrush helps on flat cotton laces. Pay attention to the middle third, which is what touches the ground when they come undone.
- Rinse under the tap until the water runs clear and the laces no longer feel slippery.
- Squeeze, do not wring. Lay them flat on a towel or hang them over a hanger. Overnight, away from heat.
Baking soda is a fair addition for smell: a spoonful in the soak water. It does not whiten laces much on its own, whatever the internet says, but it does help with odour.
Method two: the washing machine, in a bag
Laces, unlike sneakers, go through the washing machine fine. Put them in a mesh laundry bag or a pillowcase knotted at the top so they do not wrap around the drum, wash them with a normal load on a cool or warm cycle, and hang to dry. Do not put them in the tumble dryer; aglets go soft and cotton laces shrink. If you were wondering about the shoes themselves, that is a longer answer.
By lace type
| Lace | Best method | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Flat cotton (most casual sneakers) | Bowl soak or machine bag | Shrinks slightly in hot water. Greys permanently after enough wears. |
| Round or oval polyester (running shoes) | Bowl soak; foam wipe for touch-ups | Bleach yellows it. Otherwise tough. |
| Thick rope laces | Bowl soak, long | Hold a lot of water. Give them two days to dry fully. |
| Waxed cotton | Dry cloth wipe only | Soaking strips the wax. Replace rather than wash. |
| Leather laces | Damp cloth wipe, then dry | Never soak. Treat like a leather upper. |
| Elastic or bungee laces | Foam wipe on the shoe | Soaking degrades the elastic over time. |
| Reflective laces | Gentle bowl soak, no brush | Scrubbing scratches the reflective coating. |
When to replace instead
A clean lace and a new lace are not the same thing, and there is a point where washing stops being worth it.
- The aglets have split or fallen off. Once the tip frays, the lace is hard to thread and keeps fraying. Tape is a temporary fix at best.
- They are still grey after a wash. Cotton picks up colour permanently after enough foot traffic. If a proper soak leaves them grey, they are done.
- They have gone stiff or thin in the middle. That is fibre wearing through. They will snap, usually when you are in a hurry.
- The shoe is clean and the laces are not. Freshly cleaned uppers with tired laces look worse than the pair did before, because now the contrast shows.
Buy the same length as the originals: measure the old ones, or count the eyelets and check the product page. Flat cotton in white or black covers most sneakers. Keep a spare pair in the drawer; it is the cheapest upgrade a shoe can get.
Where laces fit in the routine
A sensible rhythm: foam and wipe the shoes every few wears, laces included, on the shoe; every month or so, laces out, soak them, and do the tongue and eyestay properly while they are off. How often to clean sneakers lays out the schedule. Cleaning the shoe without touching the laces is one of the more common sneaker cleaning mistakes: the eye goes straight to the dirty lace. If you are cleaning the uppers with SneakerSalt, that is also the moment to give the laces a pass, since the foam is already out and the shoe is already in your hand. On white canvas shoes, where laces are half the look, the canvas guide covers the whole pair.
Questions people actually ask
Can I bleach white laces?
You can, and many people do, but it tends to yellow polyester and weaken cotton over time, and the result is often a slightly off-white that looks worse next to a clean shoe. A long soak in detergent gets most of the way there without the side effects. New laces get the rest of the way.
How do I clean laces without taking them off?
Foam along the lace, wait ten seconds, wipe with a dry cloth, then flip the lace and do the underside. It lifts surface dirt and is fine between proper cleans. It will not get grime out of the core of the weave; for that they need a soak.
Why are my laces grey even after washing?
The fibre has taken on colour permanently from abrasion and foot traffic, not just surface dirt. No cleaner reverses that. Replace them.
Clean the pair in sixty seconds: SneakerSalt Shoe Cleaning Foam, $24, free shipping, keep the bottle if it doesn't work.
