Odd Smell
This will probably be the strangest scenario of the day, but here it is: my 12 year old son is having trouble with some of his shoes.
He has a pair of AndOne sneakers and a pair of Nike sneakers that smell like cat urine.
We don’t have a cat.
This doesn’t effect all of his shoes and I don’t know what to do.
He has leather Eastland shoes that are fine.
He has Nike football cleats that don’t smell like this.
It’s like a game of chance when you go to the shoe store to see if in 6 weeks time they smell like faux cat urine.
I’m tending to the thought that it is some type of chemical breakdown/reaction with the materials the shoes are made from.
If you have heard of a similar problem would you please reply.
I’m at my wits end and I am keeping Tide and Pinesol sales at an all time high.
The smell is potent enough that the school nurse called me about the problem.
I’d feel better if we had a cat, but we don’t and there aren’t any around our house.
5 comments
Vivian Abrams DPM
When the shoes are mostly or all synthetic, more sweating occurs. This may be the case with the shoes you mentioned. Leather breathes, where all man made materials do not. When buying shoes look at the label inside to see if it says “Leather upper” balance manmade is usually ok. You can have him use an antiperpirant on his feet such as Mitchum Roll-on. This will help control the sweat. If he sweats more than this can control, look for Certain-Dri. You can deodorize the shoe insides with a simple spray of 1 part bleach to 10 parts water.Socks that wick perpiration contain COOLMAX or GoreTex can also help. Good luck.
Tom
Hello Lisa, I have experienced the same problem with a pair of Nike Air Max 95’s, and a pair of Nike Shox Elite. THey reek so bad that I did an internet search on the problem, which led me here. I have other, older trainers I wear on a much more frequent basis that don’t smell at all, yet the nikes reek of Tomcats. So much so, that when I visit someones house I don’t want to take them off as they stink out the house, so basicaly I gave up wearing them, which is annoying after spending 90 odd quid on them. You’d thing with Nikes billions, they’d be able to sort the problem. Apparently if you put sodium bi carbonate in them that will help, but I haven’t got round to getting some yet. Please yet me know if you have discovered something that combats the smell of cats piss.Regards, Tom Evans (UK)
Marlene
Wow- this is EXACTLY what has happened to me (my kids, actually, ages 10 & 13)!! We had big-time problems with Adidas sneakers (other brands too, but not quite as bad, and so far the only thing that works at all is Odor-Eaters shoe powder and/or Febreeze fabric deodorant. But you really have to keep up with it, and it’s really just a cover-up, not a “cure”. I believe it’s definitely a chemical reaction between some people’s sweat and the synthetic materials in these shoes.
Marlene
Wow- this is EXACTLY what has happened to me (my kids, actually, ages 10 & 13)!! We had big-time problems with Adidas sneakers (other brands too, but not quite as bad), and so far the only thing that works at all is Odor-Eaters shoe powder and/or Febreeze fabric deodorant. But you really have to keep up with it, and it’s really just a cover-up, not a “cure”. I believe it’s definitely a chemical reaction between some people’s sweat and the synthetic materials in these shoes.
jilly
HA I can’t believe this is true. one of my friends said his sneakers smelled like cat pee after the air pockets broke and I just got online to search if this was actually possible!