Holy Cow my skates stink. Help please!!!!

[beginner skater]

I think deodorant does work, one of my friends is allergic, and I can tell she doesnt use it.

Loops, I have tucked the thin little ribbon that comes with tops, to hold them on coathangers in the shop, that I tend to cut off, under my insoles, and I cant feel them in my skates at all. They do help pull out the insole, and I dont have to keep pinching the same part of the insole to get them out, which I was worried would damage them. They need a bit of care to position, and they are easy to lose in the car when I am airing my skates on the way home.

[Query]

You know, many human-applicable deodorants work partly by suppressing your own ability to smell yourself

I think deodorant does work, one of my friends is allergic, and I can tell she doesnt use it.

I said "partly". If you look at the ingredients, and look them up, many (maybe even most) brand name deodorants contain a chemical that tends to suppress your sense of smell. That doesn't change the fact that most deodorants also contain an anti-antiperspirant, and something that tends to kill microorganisms, both of which actually reduce the amount of odor you produce.

P.S. I think I've got that right. Someone else did the research, and that's what they told me. It doesn't matter enough for me to check. I'm not even sure how you look up what all the ingredients are, because they only usually list the "active" ones on the package - which I think means the ones the FDA requires them to list.

BTW, maybe your friend hasn't tried all the types of deodorant. They don't all have the same active ingredient(s), and they don't all have the same perfumes, and other non-active ingredients.

[lutefisk]

I finally made it back to the rink the other day (still nursing a broken arm, so not skating) and asked the kids in the pro shop about the cabinet that hockey players stuff their smelly gear into to render it all downy fresh.  Basically it's a combo of UV light and ozone.  They usually charge $25 bucks for a whole bag of hockey gear but said if I wanted to run just my figure skates they'd charge me $15 bucks.  I haven't done so (yet).  I figure I'll wait til I'm back on the ice and the boots are good and ripe again so that whatever the outcome, it will be a good test.  I should be skating again by mid-September and thus my test will probably take place in mid-October.  Not exactly full press summer stink conditions but it will be the best that I can accomplish under my current circumstances.

[Query]

UV and ozone? - maybe they are just trying to kill the bacteria or mold.

So... I wonder if leaving it outside in the sun on a sunny, low humidity day would do the same thing... Sunlight has ultraviolet. (You'd need to use sunlight on both sides.)

Assuming you don't live in a high theft area!! 

P.S. A window is not the same thing. I think most glass absorbs a lot of the U.V.

P.P.S. I wouldn't try to work with ozone myself. Ozone is not good for you.

[lutefisk]

Query:  As I'm sure you know, ozone, like bleach and hydrogen peroxide, is a fairly strong oxidizing agent.  The advantage of ozone gas is that one need not dunk one's boots in a bucket of liquid for roughly the same effect.  Boots come out of the treatment a lot less squishy--a great benefit!  What is unknown (at least to me ) is the effect of the ozone on the leather of the boots.  Are modern hockey skates constructed from leather or are they mostly synthetic?  I'm guessing mostly synthetic.  As for me working out safe ozone concentrations--no need to worry--I'm much too lazy!  I'll spend the $15 and chalk it off as an experiment.

[Bill_S]

I still say that a skate drying rack like this would go a long way to prevent odor in the first place.  Think of how easily heavy, moist air can escape.



And it keeps the spiders out during the off-season.    (Oh how I wish I could skate right now!)

[beginner skater]

Will be really interested to hear about this experiment lutefisk. The sterishoe uv shoe sanitiser manual says uv light  may discolour the interior of the shoe, and uv light may accelerate the degradation of certain materials. I wonder how often the hockey guys use the machine. . Yes, definetely build up a good stink!

[Query]

I guess leaving boots outside would not be a good idea in a city that had dirty air. Coal dust, wood and other smoke, pollen etc., could coat the boot. To some extant, they might wipe or buff off, but I've seen buildings in cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh that looked so dirty that I'm not sure anything short of demolition would remove the dirt.

A major "active ingredient" of smog is ozone... but maybe not enough to help. And I'd bet if there were enough ozone to sterilize bacteria and fungi associated with stink, there is also enough to be unhealthy to people - especially if you are asthmatic, but maybe otherwise too.

Are modern hockey skates constructed from leather or are they mostly synthetic?

Almost all modern hockey boots are synthetic. Very few modern hockey skaters (I think a very small fraction of the goalies) use leather boots.

AFAICT, leather is just dried out skin (usually cow skin), chemically treated ("tanned") to resist bacteria, fungi, worms, maggots, and other living things - though apparently not completely enough, if there is stink. Live skin is affected by UV, so I'm sure leather can be damaged by UV too. (Of course, UV covers a wide range of wavelengths - don't know what the shoe sanitizers use.) I'm sure ozone will react a bit with the finish on the outside of the boots too. But if you have this problem, you have to decide what matters more - stink and decomposition, or occasional minor damage from de-stinking operations.

Better yet, always wipe the boots dry, and let them dry and be stored in the open air (assuming your home isn't too humid), not in a locker, bag, car trunk, Zucca, etc. The boots will probably last longer too. I've never knowingly had all that much trouble with boot stink not even on my prior 12 year old Klingbeils - but my feet don't sweat much, I am careful to let boots dry in the open, and my sense of smell isn't that great, so maybe I just don't know they stink. 

I suspect most of the smell is from the inside of the boots, because that's what gets most wet, though if you keep the boots in a locker, etc., moisture will to some extant spread everywhere. So if you really care about color, you could cover the viewable outside of the boots with masking tape during treatment. Who cares if the insides discolor?

Your skate shop would be very happy to replace your boots every time they start to stink, for a "modest" fee!  Think of them as disposable? 

[lutefisk]

Boots come and boots go.  I get roughly 2.5 to maybe 3 years out of a pair and since I resist the temptation of buying higher than Jackson freestyles, that works out to less than 100 bucks per year--way cheaper than the equipment replacement costs for some of my other hobbies. 

The part that stinks is not the external leather (which never the less will probably take a hit from the uv part of the program), but rather the soft, moldable interior which in summer seldom completely dries out regardless of storing the skates out of the bag with the laces slack enough to pull the boot tongues open.  This particularly so if one skates 4 or 5 days per week.  Winter is easier--I store my skates in the heater room and they usually dry over night.

[Query]

the soft, moldable interior which in summer seldom completely dries out regardless of storing the skates out of the bag with the laces slack enough to pull the boot tongues open.  This particularly so if one skates 4 or 5 days per week.

A good boot drier, like the regulated 99 degree F (about body temperature - fairly safe long term) DryGuy models designed for ski boots (search eBay - like this AC/DC powered model), would probably help, with both moisture and stink. I've used an older model in the winter to warm up my boots before I skate. Don't use the higher temperature models, or it will mess up your heat mold.