Trainer upper
The only part of a trainer whose material changes the answer, and the part people cannot usually name.
Start here
What this is, what goes wrong with it, and where CleaningHQ can help.
What tends to go wrong
- Oil and grease on textilevia its material
The stain where the trade guidance switches from water to solvent — and the switch brings a warning the water route does not have.
Why it is difficult: Why oil resists water, Penetration into fibres, Why old stains are harder
- Perspirationvia its material
Sweat itself has almost no smell. What you can smell is bacteria eating it — and which bacteria depends on what the garment is made of.
Why it is difficult: Classifying a stain by its origin
Two stains in one bottle: an oily film, and a UV filter that forms a coloured complex with the iron in your water. The second one is why the mark comes out orange.
Why it is difficult: Chelation, Water hardness
The science behind this: Dye migration and colour bleeding, Capillary absorption, How care labels work, Adsorption of odour molecules
Part of Trainers.
In detail
Everything above the sole, and the reason a single instruction for cleaning trainers does not exist. A synthetic mesh or knit upper is the case the hand method was written for: warm water, mild soap, a soft brush, and the soap rinsed out rather than left in. A suede or nubuck upper is a different material with an opposite instruction, because its surface is a nap of raised fibres and water damages it — so it is brushed dry first, marks are lifted with a suede or pencil eraser, and a damp cloth is the most water the maker will permit, with a warning that it darkens the colour until it dries. Brushing follows the grain. Where the reader cannot tell which they have, the conservative branch is the suede one: a dry brush harms a mesh upper far less than water harms a nap. Nothing read here addresses a leather trainer upper, which is a third case again.
What works
Soap is safe on, in specific conditions, Trainer upper
Safe only in specific conditions
This is only appropriate within specific limits. Outside those limits, CleaningHQ makes no claim.
Only within these limits:
- Mild soap in warm water, by hand, with a dedicated sponge or soft brush
- Do not soak or submerge the shoe
- Rinse the soap out thoroughly rather than leaving it in the fabric
- Not on a suede or nubuck upper, where water damages the nap
The clearance is for a synthetic mesh or knit upper. The same treatment on a napped upper is the thing the other manufacturer in this register warns against.
Why we say this
Supported
Two manufacturers, two upper materials, opposite instructions. The clearance is written with the exclusion inside it rather than as a bare permission.
Sources
Can I Put Shoes in the Washing Machine?
Altra Running (VF Corporation) · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That the maker's hand method is warm water and mild soap with a dedicated sponge, with the soap rinsed out thoroughly and the shoe not soaked. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The verdict, the mechanism paragraph and the hand-cleaning sequence. Supports the claim as stated. Closes the washing-machine question with a manufacturer's own refusal and a named mechanism, and supplies the hand method the trainer-cleaning question needed. The adhesive is the finding: it makes a trainer an ASSEMBLY rather than a surface, which is why the register now models it with parts.
Shoe Care Tips: Nubuck and Suede
KEEN Footwear · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That water damages the nap of suede and nubuck. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The cleaning, stain, nap, waterproofing and storage paragraphs. Supports the claim as stated. Gives suede a method for the first time. The Leather Institute guide has called suede the most difficult of the group since Sprint 7 and supplied no procedure for it; this is a footwear manufacturer supplying one. It also opens an evidence conflict worth carrying rather than resolving: this maker permits rubbing alcohol on suede, and the Leather Institute prohibits alcohol-containing cleaners on leather.
Last reviewed by a person on .
Related
- Trainer upper is made from Suede
- Trainer upper is made from Nubuck
- Trainer upper is made from Polyester
Sources for this page
Sources
Shoe Care Tips: Nubuck and Suede
KEEN Footwear · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That water damages the nap, that the routine is a dry suede brush first, that an eraser lifts marks, that a damp cloth darkens the colour until it dries, and that brushing follows the grain. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The cleaning, stain, nap, waterproofing and storage paragraphs. Supports the claim as stated. Gives suede a method for the first time. The Leather Institute guide has called suede the most difficult of the group since Sprint 7 and supplied no procedure for it; this is a footwear manufacturer supplying one. It also opens an evidence conflict worth carrying rather than resolving: this maker permits rubbing alcohol on suede, and the Leather Institute prohibits alcohol-containing cleaners on leather.
Can I Put Shoes in the Washing Machine?
Altra Running (VF Corporation) · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That a mesh upper is cleaned by hand with warm water and mild soap, and that the soap is rinsed out thoroughly. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The verdict, the mechanism paragraph and the hand-cleaning sequence. Supports the claim as stated. Closes the washing-machine question with a manufacturer's own refusal and a named mechanism, and supplies the hand method the trainer-cleaning question needed. The adhesive is the finding: it makes a trainer an ASSEMBLY rather than a surface, which is why the register now models it with parts.
Last reviewed by a person on .