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How do you get white shoes looking white again?
Do you also have a pair of white shoes in your collection? So, how white are they still? White sneakers and shoes are very trendy at the moment, but unfortunately they quickly turn grey, yellow or downright dirty. Sad, of course, but luckily not the end of the world. Keeping white shoes white can be done in different ways. With the next ten tips keeping white shoes white is no longer an impossible task!
To keep your white shoes in optimal white shape, we have collected over ten handy tips. So you never have to panic again when your favorite white sneakers or shoes slowly start to lose their shine. We kick off with two preventive tips and then present eight tips that come in handy when your white shoes have visibly suffered from the pleasure of wearing them. As an added bonus, we’ll point you to a special video that also includes tips for getting and keeping white shoes white and we’ve got two extra house-garden-and-kitchen tips as an encore. In short: our extensive box of tips gets and keeps every shoe white!
Two preventive tips to keep them white
To ensure that you can enjoy your white shoes for as long as possible, it is important to keep your white shoes white. You can do this both preventively and after the shoes have become dirty.
Keeping white shoes white
You bought new white shoes. They’re shining in the shoebox. To keep these shoes white from now on, we have two tips for you!
Tip 1: what isn’t on them doesn’t have to be off.
Inject white sneakers
Injecting white sneakers: of course you want to keep your new shoes virgin white for as long as possible. Before putting them on, even if only for a moment, it is therefore best to treat them with a water and dirt-repellent spray. Spraying your shoes with this spray beforehand actually creates a protective layer through which dirt and moisture cannot pass. Moreover, dirt and grime can easily be polished off, keeping your shoes white for a longer period of time. The spray is done by putting your hand in your shoe and then applying a thin layer of spray from nose to heel. Keep the can at a distance of about twenty centimetres from the shoe and don’t be afraid to spray. The shoes may get a little damp, but this will dry up quickly.
Tip 2: yellowed white soles
If you have shoes with white soles, you will notice over time that the soles turn yellowish. White rubber soles and sunlight are a horror story: the light discolours the soles and from white the soles slowly change to various shades of yellow. The solution sounds simple now: try to avoid contact with sunlight as much as possible. But not to walk on your white shoes at all when the sun is shining, might go a bit far. Fortunately, there is a golden mean… Keep your shoes with white soles in a box or in the closet so that they can’t come into contact with sunlight when you’re not wearing them. This keeps discoloration to a minimum. Are the soles of your white shoes discoloured after all? If so, use soft eraser to remove the worst discolouration.
Getting white shoes white again
Even if you do your best and pay extra attention to where you walk when wearing white shoes…keeping white shoes white is almost impossible. Fortunately, there are also a number of handy tips that make it very easy to get your not so white shoes white again.
Tip 3: White wine vinegar and fabric
Did you buy white fabric sneakers and, unfortunately, did they get dirty? Don’t worry! You can get your shoes white again in no time using water, soda and white wine vinegar. You read it well, with this first tip of getting white shoes white again, we use white wine vinegar and soda. You make a kind of porridge by mixing two parts soda and three parts white wine vinegar in a plastic or glass container. Then you lubricate this with a clean brush over the stains on your shoes. Once you have rubbed the mixture well over the stains, you can rinse the shoes with cold water. As good as new and completely white again! Tip: To make sure you don’t get any differences in colour, it is best to test this method first on an inconspicuous part of the shoe.
Tip 4: Washing with shampoo?
You’re at a party shining with your brand new white shoes when you’re offered a tasty snack. You take a bite, but unfortunately it goes wrong. A drop of fat falls on your shoes, creating an ugly grease stain. Of course you try to limit the damage as much as possible, but unfortunately you keep seeing the stain. Do you have to throw away the shoes? No! You can remove a grease stain from your white shoes using shampoo. Choose a mild shampoo that you also use to wash your hair and rub it together with some warm water on the grease stain. Also for this method of keeping white shoes white, it is best to use a small, clean brush. Then rinse the shampoo out of the shoe with plenty of water.
Tip: For this method of keeping your white shoes white again, it is best to test it on an inconspicuous piece of the shoe.
Tip 5: Grease it up!
Getting your leather, white shoes white again is already easy with a medium that we women almost all have in our bag as standard, namely Vaseline. For best results, rub the Vaseline gently into your shoes with a soft cloth. This is done by making rotating movements while rubbing in the Vaseline. Then allow the Vaseline to soak in for a while. After a few hours you can remove the Vaseline with a clean cloth. You will see that this will also result in beautiful white shoes.
Tip 6: Because Vaseline is part of the shoes
Are your shoes still virgin white, but have your laces gotten a bit grey and dirty by wearing them? Then take the laces out of your shoes, put them in a laundry bag and put them in the washing machine. After washing, your laces will come out as new. Would you like to wash your white sneakers as well? Some sneakers will be able to handle it, but we’re not in favour of it. The fabric and the fit of the shoes generally don’t improve. Moreover, the soles of canvas shoes are often glued. Washing your shoes in the washing machine will release the glue and your shoes may break.
Tip 7: what to do with suede shoes
Suede is perhaps the hardest material to clean. Especially when it comes to white suede this is a tricky cleaning job. However, it is anything but impossible. There are a number of handy tools with which you can clean white suede shoes: A suede eraser is an eraser that has been specially developed to remove stains from suede shoes. With the suede eraser you erase the stain, as it were, from the shoe. Suede cleaner is a spray that allows you to remove dirt from suede. One way to do this is to apply the suede cleaner to a brush or sponge and then rub it onto the stain. A suede brush is a brush with a rough brush to remove stains and a soft brush to brush the suede back on after removing the stains. You can always use the above tools to remove stains from your suede, white shoes. Something you should not use is a cloth. If you do, there is a chance that you will rub the dirt deeper into your shoe. This will only make the stain worse and even more difficult to remove.
Tip 8: Leather also becomes whiter than white again
Besides suede, leather is perhaps the most commonly used material for shoes. Just like suede, white leather can be cleaned with various detergents. Which products we think work well: A cleaning cream specially developed for leather. You can carefully rub the cream on the stain with a clean cloth or a brush, after which the stain will disappear. A cleaning spray with which you can remove dirt from leather. By spraying the shoe with a cleaning spray and then rubbing it out well with a cotton cloth, you will ensure that the stain disappears.
Tip 9: Dry, hard and caked dirt
If there is dry and hard dirt on your beautiful white shoes then you are ‘lucky’. This type of dirt is relatively easy to remove. However, it is important that you let the dirt dry completely before removing it. If the dirt is completely dry, simply rub it off your shoes. Then clean the stain with soft gum or choose a good cleaning spray to also remove the last bit of dirt.
Tip: Is there any dry dirt on your suede or canvas shoes? Then be careful and don’t scrub the dirt off too fanatically. The chance that the small hairs will be damaged if you scrub too hard is very high. And it would be a shame if your cleaning only causes more damage, wouldn’t it?
Tip 10: Can you camouflage scratches?
Sometimes you run into something that leaves an ugly scratch on your shoe. Superbly annoying of course! Especially because you can’t brush away a scratch like this one, two, three. But to write off the shoes now is also premature. Using a whitening cream you can camouflage the scratches perfectly. No one will notice the damage after you have treated your shoes. Tip: To do this, use the axle polisher kit specially designed and equipped for cleaning and getting white shoes.
Some easy tips to follow
The following two tips are real house-garden-and-kitchen tips that we don’t want to deprive you of. Maybe one of the tips below is the golden tip for your white shoes.
Tip 1: white toothpaste
Using a toothbrush, apply a white toothpaste (without gel) to your white shoes. Let the toothpaste soak in for about ten minutes. Remove the toothpaste with a damp cloth. Repeat these steps until your shoes are white again.
Tip 2: white wonder sponge
A white miracle sponge is a sponge made of melamine and for sale in several shops. When using this miracle sponge, wet the sponge a little and gently wipe away the stains on your shoes. The sponge is suitable for leather as well as pre-canvas or rubber.
Keeping white shoes white is quite easy
In this article we have discussed ten tips that will help you keep your white shoes white or get your white shoes white again. Do you want to be sure that you are using the best products when maintaining your white shoes? We have put together a handy maintenance kit for you with only the best products. With a cobblers polisher-kit especially for white shoes, keeping white shoes white and getting white shoes white again is a piece of cake! Keeping white shoes white seemed like an impossible task, but with the above tricks it suddenly becomes an achievable task. Especially if you use the products from the different maintenance kits we discussed in this article, you can be sure that your white shoes will stay white for a long time. Enjoy your white shoes and let’s keep them white!
