How to Stop Your Climbing Shoes Smelling: A Climber's Guide

If you've ever unzipped your climbing bag on a warm day and been hit by a smell that makes you question your life choices, you're not alone. Climbing shoes are, by design, some of the worst-ventilated footwear on the planet — and that's exactly what makes them so smelly, so fast.

The good news: the smell isn't inevitable, and you don't need to bin a perfectly good pair of shoes to fix it. Here's what actually works, and a few popular "fixes" that don't.

Why Do Climbing Shoes Smell So Bad?

Climbing shoes are worn without socks, fit tightly against warm skin, and are made from synthetic or leather materials with almost no airflow. Your feet have more sweat glands per square inch than almost anywhere else on your body, and that sweat has nowhere to go. Bacteria feed on the moisture and dead skin cells trapped inside, and it's the bacteria's waste products — not the sweat itself — that create the smell.

Add in the fact that most climbers stuff their shoes straight into a rucksack or a car boot after a session, sealing in warmth and moisture, and you've built the perfect environment for odour-causing bacteria to thrive.

What Doesn't Work (Despite What You'll Read Online)

Climbing forums are full of home remedies. A few are genuinely useful; several are more likely to damage your shoes than fix the smell.

The freezer trick. Popping shoes in the freezer overnight is a commonly repeated tip, but cold temperatures only pause bacterial activity — they don't kill it or remove the odour source. As soon as your shoes warm back up, the smell returns, often within the same session.

Machine washing. This is the one to be most careful with. Many climbing shoes use heat-sensitive rubber, glued (rather than stitched) construction, and materials that can warp, shrink, or delaminate in a washing machine. Some specific models and brands are known within the climbing community to be particularly prone to damage from machine washing — if you're not certain your shoes can handle it, don't risk it. Hand cleaning is almost always the safer route.

Spraying perfume or deodorant directly into the shoe. This masks the smell temporarily but does nothing to address the bacteria causing it, and can leave residue that affects the shoe's grip on the footbed.

What Actually Works

1. Air them out properly, every single time

This is the single most effective thing you can do, and it costs nothing. As soon as you're done climbing, take your shoes out of your bag and let them air somewhere with good airflow — not sealed in a rucksack, not in a hot car boot. Moisture is the fuel for the bacteria that cause odour, so removing it as quickly as possible after every session is the foundation of shoe hygiene.

2. Wash your feet and dry them before climbing

A surprising amount of shoe odour starts with the feet, not the shoes. Washing your feet before a session and making sure they're fully dry (bacteria love damp skin) reduces how much moisture and bacteria get transferred into the shoe in the first place.

3. Hand clean, don't machine wash

If your shoes need a proper clean, use lukewarm water, a mild soap, and a soft brush or cloth, focusing on the inside lining where sweat collects. Avoid soaking the shoe fully, and always let it air dry naturally — never on a radiator or in direct sun, which can warp the rubber and shrink the materials.

4. Use a natural, reusable deodoriser

This is where a proper deodoriser earns its place in your kit. A natural sachet — using ingredients like bamboo charcoal and zeolite — works by adsorbing moisture and odour molecules directly from inside the shoe, rather than just masking the smell. Left in overnight, it tackles the problem at the source. The best ones are reusable: recharge them in sunlight every couple of weeks and they'll keep working for months, which is a lot more sustainable (and cheaper long-term) than disposable sprays or single-use inserts.

5. Never leave shoes in a sealed bag or car boot

It's tempting to just chuck your shoes in your climbing bag and forget about them until next time, but a sealed bag is the worst possible environment — warm, dark, and airless. If you're not airing them immediately, at least leave the bag open, or better, take the shoes out entirely.

The Bottom Line

Smelly climbing shoes aren't a life sentence — they're a moisture and bacteria problem, and moisture and bacteria problems have straightforward solutions. Air your shoes properly after every session, keep your feet clean and dry before you climb, hand wash rather than machine wash, and use a natural, reusable deodoriser to deal with what's already built up inside. Skip the freezer trick and the washing machine, and your shoes — and your climbing partners — will thank you.

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Looking for a natural way to keep your shoes fresh between sessions? Shoe Sausage's bamboo charcoal and zeolite deodoriser sachets are handmade in Bristol and designed to be recharged and reused for months.