Best way to kill bacteria inside my skates?

[doublechili 0]

Burn the skates you have & buy new ones.

But seriously,

I've tried Sani Sport - good job - not 100 on odor though they claim to kill bacteria.

EsportaSystem (esporta.com) seems to be the real deal. We give 'em whole bags - everything, down to gloves smell amazing.

If you can't find a dealer who offers the esporta I would advise against pure isopropyl alcohol. It's a solvent and there are adhesives holding your skate together - alcohol will accellerate the breakdown of your skate. If you want to try washing/sanitizing them, I would try washing them with simple green or lanolin shaving cream(they say it works) or whatever soap/shaving creme you prefer then let them dry outside with the laces & tongue pulled/opened and let the inside be exposed to sunlight. After they dry then maybe a lysol antibacterial spray or an alcohol/water mix but dont saturate them. You can probably kill most of the bad bacteria but the smell might not be eliminated entirely.

When you do get new skates, always pull the footbeds after you skate and get them out of your bag to dry.

[oldtrainerguy28 478]

Burn the skates you have & buy new ones.

But seriously,

I've tried Sani Sport - good job - not 100 on odor though they claim to kill bacteria.

EsportaSystem (esporta.com) seems to be the real deal. We give 'em whole bags - everything, down to gloves smell amazing.

If you can't find a dealer who offers the esporta I would advise against pure isopropyl alcohol. It's a solvent and there are adhesives holding your skate together - alcohol will accellerate the breakdown of your skate. If you want to try washing/sanitizing them, I would try washing them with simple green or lanolin shaving cream(they say it works) or whatever soap/shaving creme you prefer then let them dry outside with the laces & tongue pulled/opened and let the inside be exposed to sunlight. After they dry then maybe a lysol antibacterial spray or an alcohol/water mix but dont saturate them. You can probably kill most of the bad bacteria but the smell might not be eliminated entirely.

When you do get new skates, always pull the footbeds after you skate and get them out of your bag to dry.

Didnt Esporta get sued for something???

Try a thing called Back Chek......made here in Canada and kills any Bacteria.

No side affects and no skin irritation at all. After a few treatments the smell goes away a little.

[jimmy 194]

Try drying them well using a Dry-Guy skate/glove dryer. Air is blown inside and that stops bacteria growth. Keep in mind, when you air dry, the bacteria that's there goes dormant and that keep the smells at bay, but the bacteria is still there so eventually the colony gets so big the foul odors will occur. Using a spray bacteriacide like OT, Funk Free, etc will work very well, in combination with air, and this is probably the best preventative maint one can do.

The sprays/shaving creams, etc don't kill what's inside, only what's on the surface. In order to get deep inside you must use another method. Sani-Sport is the best (in my opinion) because it's cheap, and the ozone gas can penetrate deep inside equipment. Yes, I'm biased because I own one of these machines, but in my 4.5 yrs of using it I can say it works excellent and kills all the bacteria. Ozone is the second most powerful sterelent, only UV kills more bacteria. If you google "ozone", you'll find a wealth of information. Anyway, Esporta and the antibacterial detergents they use works too, but with water washing you risk damaging your equipment, and it also increases wear and tear and breakdown of your equipment. Not to mention that the equipment never fully dries as water gets trapped inside between plastics and layers of foams. This moisture becomes a haven for future bacteria growth. So you get the colony returning pretty quickly.

So if you want to save money and keep the smells down, power air dry in combo with bacteriacides.

[All Torhs Team 0]

I'm playing 6 times a week so my skates are seriously soaked in sweat. Its flat out disgusting putting my feet in there. So if I use one of these solutions, I dont have to wait a day or something to use them?

[BK 0]

I'm playing 6 times a week so my skates are seriously soaked in sweat. Its flat out disgusting putting my feet in there. So if I use one of these solutions, I dont have to wait a day or something to use them?

do you wear socks?

At your point where there is actual "slime" on the inside, you may be too far gone. I would look at professional cleaning.

After a game, pull your skates out and let them air out. I have practice 4 times a week with a game or two on the weekends. My skates NEVER have gotten that bad because I take them out of my bag when I get home and let the air out. If they are really bad, I may put them in front of a fan with it blowing into the skate.

I sweat like its none of my own business. I cant wear plastic visors because the sweat flys off my face and onto the visor (not that it matters, its so fogged up anyways). My sweat soaks through my gear and through my jersey. My feet are no exception to this. From doing this, my skates are actually quite nice on the inside. They dont smell at all and the clarino still feels like its supposed to. No slime, No smell, No nasty skates.

[NuggyBuggy 0]

I'm playing 6 times a week so my skates are seriously soaked in sweat. Its flat out disgusting putting my feet in there. So if I use one of these solutions, I dont have to wait a day or something to use them?

When I use a boot dryer my skates are dry within an hour or two at most.

[BK 0]

I'm playing 6 times a week so my skates are seriously soaked in sweat. Its flat out disgusting putting my feet in there. So if I use one of these solutions, I dont have to wait a day or something to use them?

When I use a boot dryer my skates are dry within an hour or two at most.

I just use a normal fan.. works great. A skate dryer would be VERY nice for away games. I tried putting my gear on the air conditioner at a hotel last year and I honest to god got a call from the front desk saying that people are waking past my door and gagging :D

[ssgtbb 0]

I have washed my footbeds and that seems to cure the smell of the foot beds, but doesn't seem to kill the crap growing on the bottom of the insole. I use bleach for that, However I can't throw my skate in the Wash and nothign seems to stop the stink from the boot. It seems worse then the insole. My wife wont even let me ride with the skates in the car. I have to put them in a palstic bag when transporting them with her in the car.

I will try the evergreen mix and see how that turns out. Will the peroxide break the skates down? I have seen what t can do to healthy skin. It will eat away healthy skin once all the bad stuf is gone. How ill that affect my skates. I love my skates and can't seem to find another pair to buy as a back up pair. I don't wanna jack them up.

[hockeymom 2]

Oh my... I am sooooo glad I don't sharpen skates for a living. How do they stand all these stinky skates?

[biff44 0]

Take it to sports wash. It kills the bacteria and does not screw up the skates too badly.

[biff44 0]

You know, there is something calleda "sanitary sock" that baseball players use. It is so thin that it is like not wearing any sock, but will not cause as much funky stuff to grow.

[mack 44]

What the hell did people do back in the old days to prevent/cure this then? I don't remember much talk about bacteria/mold and all that crap as a kid obviously, but I can't seem to think it was as big a deal as it is now. Going into my first house the issues involved with this crap is insane.

[Chadd 916]

You know, there is something calleda "sanitary sock" that baseball players use. It is so thin that it is like not wearing any sock, but will not cause as much funky stuff to grow.

That's what I use. They're cheap, thin and work well for me.

[althoma1 575]

Equipment Deodorizer on ebay

I came across this searching on google...I'd be hesitant to use it though as it sounds like it eliminates the smelly bacteria by allowing stronger bacteria that doesn't smell feed on it. Maybe I just don't understand the science:

NATURE'S WAY IS THE BEST WAY

The best way to eliminate urine and other odors and stains is the natural way. Using bacteria to remove odors and stains may take a little longer, but the odors and stains are completely eliminated. Bacteria actually grow and produce more enzymes (similar to the enzymes in our stomachs). They break the urine or stain down small enough for the bacteria to eat and digest, then turn the food into water and carbon dioxide. UNIQUE Athletic Equipment Odor and Stain Eater enhances this natural process hundreds of times, so the odor and stains are gone in hours.

I would be hesitant to put on equipment I know I sprayed bacteria on...although I know not all bacteria inside the body (that's the problem with antibiotics - they kill good and bad bacteria in the body), don't know if the same is true externally. Anyone have any thoughts on that product?

A couple years back I bought some used rollerblades and sprayed them with a can of Odour Eator that contained Arm and Hammer Baking Soda after washing the footbeds. That seemed to work. A cheaper home version could be mixing some water and baking soda and spraying that on equipment (although I don't know if it was the baking soda alone that helped with the smell or other ingredients) or sprinkling baking soda in your skates, leaving them over night like that and then dumping the baking soda out...might be worth a shot.

[All Torhs Team 0]

I'm playing 6 times a week so my skates are seriously soaked in sweat. Its flat out disgusting putting my feet in there. So if I use one of these solutions, I dont have to wait a day or something to use them?

do you wear socks?

At your point where there is actual "slime" on the inside, you may be too far gone. I would look at professional cleaning.

After a game, pull your skates out and let them air out. I have practice 4 times a week with a game or two on the weekends. My skates NEVER have gotten that bad because I take them out of my bag when I get home and let the air out. If they are really bad, I may put them in front of a fan with it blowing into the skate.

I sweat like its none of my own business. I cant wear plastic visors because the sweat flys off my face and onto the visor (not that it matters, its so fogged up anyways). My sweat soaks through my gear and through my jersey. My feet are no exception to this. From doing this, my skates are actually quite nice on the inside. They dont smell at all and the clarino still feels like its supposed to. No slime, No smell, No nasty skates.

No socks for me.

And now that makes me not want to put on my skates tonight lol. Knowing that it is un heard of. When I lace up my skates, sweat literally pores out of the laces. No joke. It is grose, my hands are always wet from lacing it all up.

I do air it out once in a while, thats like once every 3 weeks......

with no fan or any of that special stuff you guys have been talkin about, just let it sit out on the padio.

[jimmy 194]

What the hell did people do back in the old days to prevent/cure this then? I don't remember much talk about bacteria/mold and all that crap as a kid obviously, but I can't seem to think it was as big a deal as it is now. Going into my first house the issues involved with this crap is insane.

Back in the old days, we just didn't skate as much as we do now. When I joined organized youth hockey at age 8, we played once a week and if you made the A or B team, you played one more time. Now-a-days, kids are playing 4-6 or more times a week and even beer leagers have increased from once a week. Most guys I know play minimum 3 times. As a result of increased play, equipment just doesn't have the time to dry. It needs assistance. I swear by the Dryguy boot/glove dryer. In mid winter it's a frostbite saver, plus nothing better than dry odor free, slime free gloves and skates. I don't want to turn this into a Shockdoctor bag thread, but it will dry and deodorize. My prediction, product of the year.

[gtoddh 0]

Burn the skates you have & buy new ones.

When you do get new skates, always pull the footbeds after you skate and get them out of your bag to dry.

My Vapor XXX skates are only 3 mos old and they smell worse than any of my other skates ever did after their entire life. I think it's because of the "hydrophobic" liner. None of my other skates had that.

The LHS uses some kind of spray on them when they sharpen them. It helps a bit. I need to find out what they use and get some.

[powerball 0]

I'm playing 6 times a week so my skates are seriously soaked in sweat. Its flat out disgusting putting my feet in there. So if I use one of these solutions, I dont have to wait a day or something to use them?

do you wear socks?

At your point where there is actual "slime" on the inside, you may be too far gone. I would look at professional cleaning.

After a game, pull your skates out and let them air out. I have practice 4 times a week with a game or two on the weekends. My skates NEVER have gotten that bad because I take them out of my bag when I get home and let the air out. If they are really bad, I may put them in front of a fan with it blowing into the skate.

I sweat like its none of my own business. I cant wear plastic visors because the sweat flys off my face and onto the visor (not that it matters, its so fogged up anyways). My sweat soaks through my gear and through my jersey. My feet are no exception to this. From doing this, my skates are actually quite nice on the inside. They dont smell at all and the clarino still feels like its supposed to. No slime, No smell, No nasty skates.

No socks for me.

And now that makes me not want to put on my skates tonight lol. Knowing that it is un heard of. When I lace up my skates, sweat literally pores out of the laces. No joke. It is grose, my hands are always wet from lacing it all up.

I do air it out once in a while, thats like once every 3 weeks......

with no fan or any of that special stuff you guys have been talkin about, just let it sit out on the padio.

Yup, mine got to the 'slimy' stage. No socks either. Don't you love sticking your bare feet into damp skates the next day? The insoles have that 'footprint', of course, but the skate lining has that ickiness to it, haha. Anyways, as for the rivets, does anybody 'seal' them to prevent rust?

So I'm wondering whether this is bad for your feet, never mind your skates???

Anyone else have 'gross skate' stories??

[--notorious 0]

hey if you want it done professionally go to sportswash.My friend got it done and it smells like new B) .

[--notorious 0]

oh yea i was thinking what about like dr.shcolls odour eaters or something like that powder??

[habookus 1]

personally i think the best way to kill the bacteria is this spray called OT. its kills most bacteria and smells pretty good. i always remove my insoles and spray the inside of my boot and the insoles, i find it works pretty well. as for SaniSport, i sent my gloves and and shin pads there and they came back smelling like candy. the dude who works there also said it kills 99% of the bacteria.