Having had my 3 pairs of VFF’s a few months now, I have come to one conclusion. Machine washing alone does NOT get all of the stink out, especially when it come to my Bikilas.
Following my own advice I hopped up on birthdayshoes.com, my Bible for everything VFF. I tried first one of the suggestions of leaving oxyclean soaking on the shoes for 30 minutes before putting in them in the washer. This worked for a while, at lease with my treksports and sprints, but my Bikilas were still getting really ripe.
I decided to be brave and try one of the most ridiculous sounding suggestions on the site, soaking my VFFs in efferdent, a denture cleaner. I got a big old cat little tub and filled it up most of the way with warm water. I put a tablet inside each shoe and let it soak for about 30 minutes. After soaking (yes they smelled minty fresh by the way) I popped them in the washing machine. To my surprise, when they came out they were stank free!!!!
I highly recommend this method to anyone who has had some ripe smelling Vibrams!
fivefingersmarathongirl
Posted by sohnsaengnim on June 17, 2011 at 10:59 pm
Just stumbled upon the blog via tags. The best way I’ve ever killed the smell is by washing them in hot soapy water, and then drying them outside in the hot direct sun. The smell seemed to have, for the most part, disappeared.
Posted by fivefingersmarathongirl on June 19, 2011 at 1:04 pm
interesting … may have to give handwashing a try! thanks!
Posted by Wendy on June 21, 2011 at 3:14 am
Socks solves the problem too
I was sitting next to a friend on a train (traveling from one run to the next) and he took off his Flows. OMG it nearly cleared the train car!
Posted by fivefingersmarathongirl on June 21, 2011 at 2:48 pm
yes, i am def interested in getting some injinji socks!