How to keep Your WRESTLING EQUIPMENT (WRESTLING SHOES) Clean

A step by step guide to increasing the life span of your wrestling shoes for more than 3 years

Wrestlers love their Wrestling Equipment more than anything; including kneepads, kick pads, gloves, headgears, mats Wrestling Shoes, etc. I have seen players keeping their equipment very carefully, protecting them from the hands of children as also from the damage of unexpected weather. And the shoes are one of the gadgets that get dirty soon; the players must keep their shoes clean. This article is going to make it clear to you that how you can keep your wrestling shoes clean.

To give a quick answer to the question, the following are the ways through which you can take care of your wrestling shoes:

1. Washing your shoes- you might have this perception in your mind that if I wash my shoes they are going to lose the strength and the grace they have. We have a surprise for you that it is not true, and you are going to see that later in the blog.
2. Keep the smell away from your shoes- your fellow shoes might have given you a stinking smell while practicing, or even your shoes might stink. Yes, it is the reason why most players change their shoes soon. And now, you do not need to buy a new one because this tip is going to keep your shoes fresh forever.
3. Disinfect your shoes- keeping your shoes disinfect is different from washing them. You might be wondering how? You will be convinced by the end of this article and we are sure you will disinfect your shoes after you see, what harms it may cause.

Why wash my Wrestling Shoes?

The answer is very straightforward that keeping shoes is important to keep the diseases away from yourself and your surroundings. Along with this, there are other reasons we want to state here to make it clear that keeping your shoes clean is very crucial.

• If you do not keep your shoes clean and if you put your dirty shoes on the training mat; this is going to make your mat dirty. Then along with your shoes, you will have to wash your wrestling mat too.
• One of the purposes of washing your shoes regularly is to keep communicable diseases away from you. If you do not wash disinfect your shoes on time and as a result, if you get infected by the fungal infection it is going to last long, maybe months to years. It may even affect your career.
• One of the purposes of washing your shoes is to keep the smell away from shoes. In your wrestling equipment. The tool which gets most of the sweat is the shoes. This smell not only disturbs you but also your team players.
• Above all things, keeping yourself and your wrestling equipment clean and tidy is a sign of your discipline and sportsmanship.  

So are you convinced? By now, I am sure we have succeeded to convince you that washing, disinfecting your shoes is of prime importance for your health.

Let us see the ways to keep them clean:

1.    Disinfecting my wrestling equipment:

You can disinfect your shoes using a mild disinfectant like 5% alcohol; in case you do not have alcohol available you can also use the solution of lemon juice or simple vinegar.

How to do it?

• Take a spray bottle you use to iron your clothes.
• Fill it with disinfectant lemon juice or vinegar.
• Add an equal amount of water and shake it well.
• Now sprinkle the solution on all of the shoes from the upper portion to the soles.
• Keep this bottle where you keep your shoe and disinfect your shoes each day twice, once when you go for practicing and one when you come back.
• After disinfecting your shoes do not forget to keep their soles dry. For this purpose, you can use a small door towel. After wearing the shoes simply put one-two step on the towel and you are ready to go.

Pro Benefit: One of the extra benefits is that the disinfection is also going to keep the COVID-19 away from your house. Your shoes will not be the culprit of spreading the coronavirus or any other germ. In fact, you should disinfect all of your Wrestling Kick Pad.

2.    Washing my Shoes:

Yes, you need to wash your shoes from time to time. The question arises “How often I should wash my shoes”. So the answer is not how often they get dirty. The point is sweat is also causing your shoes to get bad, you need to remove the sweat from affecting you with different diseases. So, you should wash your shoes once a month or at least once in 3 months.

Can I wash my shoes in the washing machine?

The sweat answer to this is that yes you can. You might have seen that tag on the shoes saying do not wash in the machine and might be thinking that the writer is guiding me wrong. Good companies make wrestling shoes very tough and strong, detergents do not affect their life if you wash them appropriately.

 At the same time you need to keep the following points in consideration:

• Wash them with cold water or mildly hot water.
• Give the washing machine a gentle turn
• Do not wash for more than 3 minutes
• Do not wash more than once a month.

      Can I use the detergent?

Yes, you can use any detergent, it is wise to use less quantity of detergent.

• Add some detergent to the shoes.
• Take a wet brush and rinse the shoes ( top especially) with the brush in a circular fashion.
• You can pour some more water to make foam.
• After washing clean it with water.
• You can air-dry the shoes or you can dry them in the washing machine.

How to dry the shoes in the machine?

You can simply dry your wet shoes in the machine there is no problem with that. Remember to keep the air mildly hot and with a gentle turn. After mild dry, you can put your shoes out for air-dry as we do with clothes.

3.    Conclusion:

Washing wrestling shoes gently, disinfecting them regularly, and keeping the smell away are going to increase the life span of your shoes. You can wash them in the washing machine and disinfect them with any mild disinfectant like lemon, following the method discussed above.