How to clean mouldy Birkenstocks

Jimmy Bottlehead

Hey.

In one of my not-so-wise moments, I left my wet birkenstock sandals in my bag after being at the swimming pool. Just took them out there and the foodbed (sole) has mould on it.

What is the best / most effective way of cleaning this?

lorebringer

I would try leather cleaner first but it has probably gone past that so if you use anything else on them the soft leather/suede may go a bit hard and dodgy looking. It may be a good idea to get a leather/suede softener and apply this afterwards to try to make sure it stays soft (you can get them quite cheap in equestrian shops!). I used the following mix to clean the inside of a pair of really expensive shoes (100% real leather inside - not mine!) that had, what looked like, mildew growing in them (gross):

Old toothbrush/nailbrush
Bit of washing powder/liquid (perhaps one designed for delicate fabrics)
Tiny (really tiny) drop of bleach
Warm water

Rinse really well and leave to air dry. The mold spores have probably gone into the soft part of the shoe so you'll need to work in the mix pretty well to make sure you kill them off. You may end up soaking your shoe (probably will when rinsing anyway) so giving them a good towel dry and leaving them in the sun, then apply softener when totally day.

Hopefully it works as well for you as it did for the minging shoes I cleaned!