Cleaning Tennis Shoes

Yes! Another post about cleaning.  So I'm one of those weirdos who is planning on wearing Converse Chuck Taylors to her wedding.  I've had the Chucks I'm going to wear for a while now so, of course, they've gotten a little scuffed over the years.  Also, my fiance likes to have a pair of nice while K-Swiss type tennis shoes, but he started wearing them to cut the grass and they have now been put through the ringer.  They were disgusting and they had to be cleaned.

At first, I was going to get an old toothbrush wet and dip it in baking soda and use the mixture to scrub the shoes.  THEN I realized that toothpaste is primarily baking soda and I had a bunch of little trial sized toothpastes from the dentist's office.  I got a plastic cup and filled it half way with water, I put some newspaper on the coffee table and I got to work.

Dirty shoes

Supplies

At first I put the toothpaste on the toothbrush and scrubbed it, but then I just started putting the toothpaste directly on the shoe and scrubbing.  It helps if you wet the toothbrush a couple of times without reapplying the toothpaste -- that way you get a lot of bubbles.The bottom edges of the shoes were really bad so I put toothpaste all over them and let it sit for a while.  You'll also need a wet wipe or some wet paper towel to clean off the excess toothpaste and you'll need to wash the dirt off of your toothbrush when you're done.

The shoes were cleaner, but they will never look new again.  I'm still pretty happy with the results.

Clean shoe on the left, dirty shoe on the right

Dirty on the top, clean on the bottom

As an added bonus, your shoes will smell minty fresh. :-)