Need Advice For Cleaning Up Bargain Fit-Flops!

[JazzAngel]

Hi,

I found some great toe-post Fit-Flops in one of my charity shops for a bargain £3 recently. They fit perfectly and are ridiculously comfortable for my neuropathy-damaged feet (I tend to live in squishy garden clogs, crocs, that sort of thing since BC chemo).

The only problem is that there are these weird white marks on the insole part, where your feet go.

Thought it would prob be dead skin from previous wearer, and that it would come off with some washing up liquid and a good scrub. Used both scrubbing brush and an old toothbrush, nice hot water, and they STILL look kinda manky!

Have looked everywhere online, can’t find anything about about this.

Anyone experienced this? Has anyone got any brainwaves about how to clean them up?

The outer soles show v little wear, the uppers look almost new, so I’m puzzled as to why these white marks seem so ingrained because they don’t look like they’ve been worn much.

Will try to put up a pic for the first time on here, so you can see what I’m waffling about!

TIA for any helpful answers
JA

Pics from front

One of those wire wool scourers (like a soapless brillo pad - or even just a brillo pad!)?

Or a really stiff bristled floor scrubbing brush - yours may have been too soft?

Try a cotton wool pad with micellar water

Scrubbing brush is really stiff and hard...wouldn’t wire wool scourers damage the insole?

However, at this point, I’m willing to try pretty much anything!

I’ve got some of those nylon ball scourers under the sink, maybe that would be an option?

The white stuff isn’t even in those annoying cracks that ALL Fit-Flops seem to develop within a day of wearing.

Any idea what it is?

Thanks for your answer, will try!

I put my flip flops in the dishwasher. They come out fine.

Ooh, micellar water! Really? Would it do the “dissolve and float stuff out” that it claims to do on skin?

Hadn’t thought of that, thanks!

These are leather uppered Fit-Flops, not rubber flipflops, so would imagine the patent metallic leather bits prob would come out wrecked! Thanks for answering tho!

...but maybe a ground-up dishwasher tab might help with the next hard scrubbing session...hmmm, something else I hadn’t thought of! I’ve really been quite dim about this!

Tiny bit of nail varnish remover might work. Get ready to wipe over with water straight after.

Also a can of WD40 is good for cleaning things. Spray onto a cloth and rub (rather than spraying on the shoes).

Could you just go over the white bits with a black permanent marker if you can’t get rid of them?

Mosaic, thanks! Hadn’t thought of those (now really obvious!) cleaners either - good call

Would I use a toothbrush or similar, do you think, or just a cloth of some description?

AgentProvocateur - great idea, but they‘re a darkish brown, not black, unfortunately. I‘ve done that on scuffed black leather before, though, and it worked brilliantly

[balloons] [fireworks] (Made te last two up, no idea if they‘ll work.)

Just done the WD40 thing, with cotton wool pads, and so far so good. Not perfect yet, but def better than it was.

Was slightly worried the oil might damage the rubber, because a lot of oils do, even olive oil in a rubber topped pipette bottle makes the pipette go sticky and weird, but nothing obvious showing yet.

Thanks Mosaic!

Put this up with last msg, didn‘t show up, so re-posting.

Dammit.

A couple of hours later, and white bits are showing again. This what happened after I’d scrubbed them, too.

Stumbled on a post elsewhere online, about white streaks on Hunter wellies. If it’s the same thing on my Fit-Flops, then it’s called “blooming” and happens to rubber goods under certain conditions.

Olive oil seems to work for some, not for others. There are sprays, but they’re not v cheap.

Olive oil next, I guess

Oh dear.

But hopefully your beautifully manicured toenails (!) will cover it all anyway.

And you know it's clean so that's all that matters.

Mosaic - Lol!

Olive oil works for a day or so, then white speckles appear. Speckles I can live with, it’s the huge streaks that come after the speckles that bug me.

DOH said same about it all being covered by my feet, but as some of it extends to the walls of the soles, I’d be trouble if it was!

Saw that other rubber-bloom sufferers use car trim-cleaning stuff with silicone in, so tried my silicone shoe shine sponge. White stuff reappears sooner than olive oil. Pfft.

Will find a solution (no pun intended) if it kills me. Or grow my feet bigger.