If you love buying wholesale liquidations chances are, at one time or another, you gotta clean a pair of shoes before you sell them. Whether it’s dirt from potential buyers trying them on in the store they came from or whether it’s clearance sticker goo, here’s products and methods to help you get those sneakers looking brand-spanking-new again:

First, there’s several TYPES of sneakers. Some are all leather, some are mesh. This difference is super important regarding the products you use to clean them. If you use a leather product on a mesh-composition shoe you can expect a TERRIBLE outcome, like this: 

...and nobody wants yellow-stained white kicks. Yuck. So let’s start with:

SIMPLE DIRT REMOVAL

if all that is dirty is the rubber bottom, I personally recommend standard Clorox Wipes. BUT, the wipes MUST be Clorox brand. Other brands are trash because they either leave soapy residue mess or they contain DYE that will stain your shoe! Clorox wipes have the right amount of alcohol to bang out dirt and sticker residue without harming the shoe. We use them on all kinds of things at our warehouse. Clorox now has a new packaging style that is similar to baby wipes and a 3-pack of packs will run only $11 on Amazon (sometimes you can get them for less if you dig through Amazon.)

NOTE: Do NOT use baby wipes. Even though they look the same as Clorox Wipes, baby wipes do not contain enough alcohol to work with ease. Makeup wipes also don’t work. If you do not have Colorx wipes the only other emergency situation product that does work is Stridex acne wipes:

Another option would be to use literal clear alcohol, such as the vodka you have in your cupboard. Clear hand sanitizer would also work. Basically you need something that contains enough alcohol to clean.

If you’re flat broke and need to clean the rubber bottom, you can try soap and water HOWEVER (this is SUPER IMPORTANT) do NOT use colored dish soap! The colored soap, such as the cute blue Dawn brand, contains dye… that’s why it’s blue!! Please learn from my mistakes. If one drop of that dang dyed dish soap ends up on the canvas part of the tennis shoe you’re only remaining option is going to be to throw it in the washing machine, so… DO NOT USE DYED SOAPS. So, if youre totally broke and don’t have any of the aforementioned products, you may want to first try water and a clean washcloth + a little old fashioned elbow grease. You can also look at your laundry detergent and see if it is clear or contains colored dyes. A tiny bit of detergent goes a very long way. You may want to consider applying the detergent with an ear swab.

LEATHER STYLE TENNIS SHOES

One of the cheapest and easiest methods is this $7.99 Sof Sole foaming cleaner. With almost 2,000 reviews and an average rating of 4.9 stars, this guy gets the job done:

If you want an even better product, the $16 Jason Markk Essential Kit is a top rated product. The photos from the reviews speak for themselves. Here’s some before and afters:

The Jason Markk cleaner is approaching 10,000 reviews and has 4.6 stars, which is pretty amazing considering people don’t like to read directions, lol!

Now, both of the product listings above state they can be used on Mesh or Canvas-Type sneakers, however if you read the reviews, these are the only complaints about these products. So if the shoe you are trying to clean is NOT leather, then consider one of these products:

MESH / CANVAS SHOE CLEANERS

The highest rated product is Goat Shield by Gold Standard but it is a little pricey. Goat comes in around $17.99 on Amazon. However people claim it can also be used on your leather shoes and some even claim suede. Check out the before and after photos:

With that being said, regardless of the method you choose to use, you absolutely should pick up a pack of Clorox Wipes.  I have found that they resolve at least 60% of issues with liquidations.  Clorox wipes work AMAZING with body care because they will shine the product without ruining the label!  I have tried other brands of wipes and they wipe the print right off the label, then you're stuck keeping the body care because who on earth wants to buy a product with no label?  Thats just creepy!  Happy cleaning, my friends! 

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