There are those things you’ve never heard of, but when you stumble upon them, you think; that could be something for me. The Shoefresh shoe freshener, and dryer, is one of those things. So I put it to the test.
But before I tell you, let’s get one thing quickly out of the way. I bought this thing myself. I didn’t get it, and I’m not paid to say something nice about it. It’s just that I like gadgets, and I have sweaty feet, so I decided to give this shoe freshener a try.
See, I don’t sweat a lot. That’s one of my problems running when it’s very warm. I know, sweat is in our society often seen as a dirty thing, but it’s great. I mean it’s the way the body is able to cool down. It’s also one of the reasons we humans can keep on running for hours and hours. Lots of animals get overheated quickly and will just drop down. I learned that from the book Born to Run, which I just finished.
Yet, if I sweat, it’s mostly my feet. I think I’m like a dog. Dogs sweat on their paws when they run. Nothing wrong with that. It’s just that my shoes after a while get a, let’s call it, special smell. So I was wondering if I could get rid of that with a shoe freshener.
And I’m not the only runner in this house. Sara started running at the beginning of October as well. She is way better at sweating than I am. Then again, she’s a Pitta. That’s the sweaty type.
Sorry, I’ve promised you to explain what a Pitta is, and I haven’t done it yet. Don’t worry, soon I will teach you a bit of basic Ayurveda (Indian medicine), which will help you as a runner. Just for now, Pitta is an Ayurvedic stereotype and it’s a sweaty one. Which is good, because it means she can get rid of her heat. And believe me, as a Pitta that’s something you want.
The second reason I bought the shoe freshener is that it’s a dryer at the same time. We’re trail runners. We love to run over those little small, soggy tracks through the forest. From Spring onwards they are covered and surrounded by high grass. A couple of minutes into a trail run and my shoes are soaked.
I don’t mind running with wet shoes. It’s part of the fun. But I don’t like putting on shoes that are still wet. Besides, I don’t think it’s very healthy to put on shoes that have been wet for days. I mean we lived in a house in Spain that was always humid. Our white walls slowly turned black, because of mould.
So does the shoe freshener do the job? As a dryer, yes. Kind of. It gets Sara’s shoes nice and dry. She is a size 37 (US 7). My shoes are partly dry after being on the Shoefresh. The heel of the shoe stays wet. I’ve got size 47,5 (US 13). There is no air blowing where my heel is hanging on the machine.
As for the smell, let’s say I wouldn’t put my nose in neither my shoes, nor Sara’s shoes for fun. You don’t smell them walking into the hallway where they are standing. If you put them on, there’s also no perfume coming your way, but up close…. No thank you.
As for fungus; we can’t spot any. And I’ve run almost 500 kilometers on my Brooks Caldera 6, and almost 300 on my Brooks Cascadia; including 19 kilometers through the bog during the Three Mealls Trail run in Kinlochleven, Scotland.
So to recapitulate, we’re happy with it. It does an okay job as a dryer, and a little less okay job as a freshener, but good enough to keep using it.
