How often should you wash your sneakers? The hygiene case for a regular clean.

By Catherine Spiteri in Jun 16, 2026

If you have ever opened a teenager’s door and met the sneakers before you saw the room, you already understand why washing shoes matters. The smell is not a character flaw. It is bacteria, doing what bacteria do, in a warm damp shoe. The good news is that the fix is a routine, not a heroic deep clean.

In short. Wash regularly worn sneakers about every two weeks, and sooner if they smell or look dirty. Shoes pick up bacteria and fungi from floors and from sweat, and a warm, damp shoe is where odour-causing microbes grow. A regular cold, delicate machine wash in a protective bag keeps them cleaner and helps them last.

Masking the smell does not remove the cause. Airing helps, powder helps, but the bacteria and the sweat they feed on are still in the shoe. Washing is what resets it. The question is how often, and the answer is more often than most people manage, because the wash feels too risky to repeat.

Start with the smell

Sneaker odour is biology. Feet sweat, the sweat soaks into the shoe, and bacteria and fungi feed on it in the dark, warm, humid space inside. The by-products of that feeding are what you smell. A teenager’s shoes smell worse because active feet sweat more and the same pair gets worn every day, with no time to dry out between wears. Nothing has gone wrong. The conditions are simply perfect for microbes.

How often, really?

For regularly worn sneakers, about once every two weeks is the practical answer, and sooner whenever they smell, look dirty, or come home wet or muddy from sport. Between washes, the most useful habit costs nothing: the American Podiatric Medical Association advises against wearing the same pair two days in a row, so each pair gets a full day to dry out. Rotating two pairs does more for shoe hygiene than almost anything else.

Athletic-shoe specialists land in the same place. Christof De Schaepmeester of ASICS FrontRunner puts it plainly: “I clean my running shoes almost weekly. Gear that you maintain well is more sustainable, which means you will enjoy your favourite shoes longer.” (Source: ASICS, how to clean your running shoes). The routine is the point. A protective bag is what makes the routine sustainable.

Join the Waitlist. getmudroom.com.au

What is actually living in your shoes

The numbers are worse than most people expect. In a study by University of Arizona microbiologist Charles Gerba, shoes carried an average of 421,000 units of bacteria on the outside and 2,887 on the inside, with coliform bacteria found on 96 percent of the outer soles, as reported by the Cleaning Industry Research Institute. The same study found bacteria transferred from shoes to clean floors between 90 and 99 percent of the time. Your shoes are, in effect, a sample of every floor you walked on.

Inside the shoe, the concern shifts to fungi. The fungus behind athlete’s foot lives happily in warm, damp footwear and re-infects clean feet from inside the shoe, which is why Harvard Health treats the shoe as part of the problem, not just the foot. Research on whether you can fully sanitise athletes’ shoes found it is genuinely difficult, in a study published via the National Institutes of Health, which is the case for washing regularly rather than waiting for a problem to clear up on its own.

Washing, spot-cleaning and airing

A fortnightly wash is the reset. Between washes, three small habits keep the shoe in better shape: rotate pairs so each one dries fully, pull the insoles out to air after a sweaty day, and use a little bicarbonate of soda overnight to absorb moisture and odour. These manage the smell. The wash removes what causes it.

A fortnightly sneaker wash that works

1. Knock the loose dirt off outside, and brush the worst from the soles and uppers.

2. Take out the laces and insoles and wash them separately. The insoles hold most of the odour.

3. Insert a shoe tree into each shoe to hold its shape, then place one shoe in each outer compartment of the bag.

4. Wash on cold water, a delicate or gentle cycle, spin 600 to 800rpm, with a mild detergent and no bleach. Add a couple of towels to balance the load.

5. Air dry with the shoe trees in and paper at the toe, out of direct heat. Never the dryer. Dry the insoles and laces in the sun, where the UV helps sanitise them.

6. Between wears, rotate to a second pair, and sprinkle a little bicarbonate of soda inside overnight to keep them fresh.

Where the bag fits

The machine washes the shoes. The bag protects them, and protects the machine, while it happens.

The Shoe Wash Kit is a three-compartment bag plus a pair of adjustable shoe trees. The trees hold each shoe in shape through the wash and the air-dry that follows. One outer compartment takes each shoe so the pair never touches mid-cycle, and a centre compartment holds the laces and insoles. More than 3,000 soft chenille fingers line the inside and hold each shoe off the drum wall, and a 3D mesh panel at each end lets the water move through. On the Chalk Kit there is no dye anywhere in the bag, so there is nothing to transfer onto your white runners. It is tested to ISO 105-C06 grade 4 colour fastness and stress tested to 50 cycles at 60°C and 1400rpm, which is the durability test, not a usage instruction. Recommended use is a cold wash, on a delicate or gentle cycle, with the spin set to 600 to 800rpm, air dry only. Designed for canvas, mesh and synthetic shoes. Not designed for leather or suede.

The routine at a glance

Routine	What it does	How often
Machine wash in a bag	Removes sweat, bacteria and odour at the source	About every 2 weeks
Rotate two pairs	Lets each shoe dry, starves the microbes	Every day
Air the insoles	Cuts moisture and smell between washes	After sweaty wear
Bicarbonate of soda overnight	Absorbs moisture and odour	As needed
Wash after sport or rain	Stops mud and damp setting in	Each time

Join the Waitlist. getmudroom.com.au

About Mudroom Co

Mudroom Co is a small Australian premium brand making home care tools for active families. We build for the way people actually use their homes, not the way the catalogue says they do. We launch in July 2026 with one product, the Shoe Wash Kit: a three-compartment bag plus a pair of adjustable shoe trees, built chalk cream inside and out, with a eucalyptus zip, piping and tag the only colour you see. It is tested to ISO 105-C06 grade 4 colour fastness and stress tested to 50 cycles at 60°C and 1400rpm. We are based in Melbourne and we sell direct. The machine washes the shoes. The bag protects them. That is the whole brand in one line.

Frequently asked questions

How often should you wash sneakers?

About every two weeks for regularly worn pairs, and sooner if they smell, look dirty or come home wet. Daily runners, gym shoes and kids’ sport shoes need it more often than occasional-wear shoes.

Why do your teenager’s sneakers smell so bad?

Active feet sweat a lot, and wearing the same pair every day never lets it dry out. Bacteria and fungi feed on the trapped sweat and produce the smell. Rotating two pairs and a regular wash fixes it at the source.

Can you get rid of shoe smell without washing?

You can reduce it. Airing, rotating pairs and bicarbonate of soda all help, but they manage the smell rather than remove its cause. The sweat and microbes stay in the shoe until it is washed.

Does washing actually kill the bacteria and fungus?

A wash removes most of the sweat, bacteria and surface fungi that cause odour. Fully sanitising footwear is hard, which is why a regular wash plus letting shoes dry fully between wears works better than any single treatment.

What temperature should you wash sneakers at?

Cold water on a delicate or gentle cycle, with the spin at 600 to 800rpm, a mild detergent and no bleach. Cold protects the glue and the colours, and a lower spin is kinder to the shoe than a hot, hard wash.

Can dirty shoes cause foot infections?

The fungus behind athlete’s foot lives in warm, damp shoes and can re-infect clean feet from inside the shoe. Washing sneakers regularly, rotating pairs and letting them dry fully all lower that risk.

How often should gym and sports shoes be washed?

More often than everyday sneakers, roughly weekly with heavy use, and after any session that leaves them soaked or muddy. The more a shoe sweats, the more often it needs a wash and a full dry.

In short

In short. Wash regularly worn sneakers about every two weeks, and sooner if they smell. Shoes carry real bacteria and fungi from floors and sweat, and the smell is the by-product. Rotate two pairs, air the insoles, and reset it all with a cold, delicate machine wash in a protective bag.

Join the Waitlist. getmudroom.com.au

About the author

Catherine Spiteri is the founder of Mudroom Co. With two teenage kids, an overflowing mudroom and a washing machine running twice a day, she noticed how few quality tools existed to make busy home life easier, and to protect the things we use every day so they last.

She started Mudroom Co because, while the tools existed, she could not find any made properly for the lives people actually lead. She has thirty years in development and construction, working with global corporates on projects of every scale and complexity, and now applies that skillset to household products with proper manufacturing and quality control behind them. Mudroom Co is based in Melbourne, Australia.