To wash Vivaia shoes, first make sure your style is one of the washable ones. If it is, take out the insoles (and the laces, on sneakers), put the shoes in a mesh wash bag and run a cold, delicate cycle with a gentle detergent. Then dry them flat in the shade. Never put them in the dryer.
Vivaia's washable range covers most of its flats and loafers and nearly all of its sneakers. It doesn't cover heels, sandals or most boots. SneakerSalt is not affiliated with Vivaia.
Which Vivaia shoes are washable?
Vivaia's current care guides divide the range roughly like this:
Can go in the machine:
- Most flats
- Most loafers
- All sneakers except the Casey
- The Urban Boots, the only boots on the list
Keep out of the machine:
- Heels and sandals
- Every boot apart from the Urban Boots
- The Luciana, Francesca, Liana and Eloise loafers
- The Casey sneaker
- Any pair with studs, sequins, beads or embroidery
"Most" is doing real work in that first list, so check the product page for your exact pair before it goes in. That includes styles like the Margot, which we found no specific instructions for. An older Vivaia blog post claimed every pair could be machine and hand washed; the current guides are narrower and are the ones to follow.
Vivaia's wash, step by step
| Stage | What Vivaia says |
|---|---|
| Before | Insoles out. On sneakers, laces out too. |
| Bag | A laundry or mesh wash bag, with the shoes washed on their own. Vivaia sells its own mesh wash bag for shoes. |
| Water | Cold. One guide allows cold or lukewarm below 30°C; the other says cold. Cold satisfies both. |
| Cycle | Gentle or delicate. |
| Detergent | Gentle. |
| Drying | Air dry flat, in the shade, away from direct sun and heat. Never machine dry. |
For knit styles, Vivaia's care guide adds one more step: stuff them with paper or a towel while they dry. Easing the toe and heel back into shape while the knit is still damp is common advice, so the pair dries in shape.
The dryer ban isn't a Vivaia quirk. Nike, for one, warns that excess heat can damage knit shoes. Our washing machine guide explains what a drum does to sneakers that aren't built for it.
Shoes that stay out of the machine
For heels, sandals, most boots, the four excluded loafers and anything embellished, spot cleaning is the method. Vivaia's About Us page says some styles are wipe-clean with its own cleaning kit; beyond that, we found no detailed hand method from Vivaia for these styles, so go by the product page.
- Knit uppers: spot clean the knit itself (the foam below suits it) and keep clear of studs, sequins, beads and embroidery.
- Leather or suede: we found no Vivaia care for either. Follow the product page.
- Satin: also no Vivaia care that we could find, and satin isn't a material we've tested, so follow the product page there too.
Spot cleaning between washes
Because the washable styles have Vivaia's machine method, the foam's job here is the small stuff between washes: a muddy splash on the heel, a grey line across the toe. SneakerSalt Shoe Cleaning Foam gets our top rating on knit, mesh, rubber and EVA soles, and a good rating on laces. Pump it onto the mark, give it ten seconds, then press a dry cloth on and lift. The box includes a brush and a cloth, and there's more on the fabric itself in our mesh and knit guide.
Three Vivaia materials aren't on our tested list, so we don't recommend the foam on them:
- the hemp version of the Aria flats;
- the Re-Nylon on the Lexi;
- the water-repellent knit on the Milo. We can't tell you whether washing or cleaning keeps that finish working, and Vivaia's pages we found don't say either.
How often to wash Vivaia shoes
We found no schedule from Vivaia. It does say, in its own post about machine-washable shoes, that some shoes sold as washable come out of the machine warped and faded. We'd read that as a reason to save the full wash for real dirt and to spot clean everything else.
Smelly Vivaia shoes and insoles
The Aria flats come with an herbal insole made with Artemisia argyi. Vivaia's washing guide has you take insoles out before the shoes go in; we found nothing that says the insoles go in the drum, so we'd keep them out. For smell, let the pair dry fully between wears, leave a spoonful of baking soda in each shoe overnight and tip it out in the morning, and rotate pairs if you wear them daily. The foam lifts the surface grime that holds smell, but it doesn't treat smell itself. More on smell and removable insoles is in our insoles and odour guide.
Questions people actually ask
How do I clean a Vivaia Mary Jane?
The Cecily Mary Jane is recycled knit on a rubber outsole. Check its product page to see whether it's machine washable; if it is, follow the steps above. Small marks on the knit come off with a spot clean either way.
Why did my white canvas shoes turn yellow after washing?
On fabric, yellowing after a wash can come from too little detergent or too much, and sunlight can yellow some white fabrics. Measure the detergent and dry the pair in the shade, which is what Vivaia asks anyway.
How do I wash Vivaia boots?
Vivaia's care guide leaves every boot except the Urban Boots out of the machine. The Urban Boots are recycled knit on a sugarcane-based EVA and rubber outsole; confirm on their product page, then wash them like the rest. Spot clean the others.
For the marks between washes: SneakerSalt Shoe Cleaning Foam, $24 with free shipping, plus a brush and a cloth, and your money back within 30 days if it doesn't clean your pair.
