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Odor from shoes, terrible smell

Hi. I have a big problem with the smell of my shoes. I'll start from the beginning. 3 years ago I suddenly felt the stench of shoes. I thought it was athlete's foot, so I used clotrimazolum and tebinafine. It helped for a while. Later I had recurrences of this smell, but my new shoes lasted for several months. In the meantime, I used a lot of foot preparations such as powders, chlohexidine, antibacterial soaps, deodorants and antiperspirants, and formalin. After all these treatments, my shoes inside have a nice smell, my feet do not smell either. Only when I put my shoes on it starts to emit a strange smell. Reminiscent of neglected, musty socks. This is very strange because after taking off the shoes the smell disappears. I emphasize that the stench spreads throughout the room. It disturbs my life a lot, office associates also complain about this smell. New shoes start to smell 3 hours after putting them on. I know it's very strange. I have seen many doctors but they don't know the cause of my problem. Of course, I regularly change and disinfect my shoes, but it helps for a maximum of an hour. It is very strange that the smell is emitted from the shoes to the outside. The inside of the shoes smells better than the room in which I am sitting. The smell appears regardless of the type of footwear, I usually wear good leather shoes. I think I caught some fungus or bacteria that is resistant to everything. Only I don't have any marks on my feet or boots. My feet are sweating on average. I have no hyperhidrosis. Of course, all blood and hormone tests are ok. Please help me because I don't know how to live with it.
Sorry for my English.
Regards Martin
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Avatar universal
I saw someone with this problem on the Dr Oz show years ago. They bathed their feet in strong black tea (Cooled) every night for a week and the tannins in the tea kind of sealed their feet a bit from sweating and stopped the stinky shoes/ruined shoes
Helpful - 0
134578 tn?1693250592
Here is one (of many) articles on this topic. https://www.prima.co.uk/diet-and-health/healthy-living/a28578567/smelly-shoes/

I can't help but feel that if the problem comes on even after you wear brand new shoes, it is the interaction of the sweat on your feet, the bacteria or fungus on your skin, and the way the leather in the shoes is tanned.

Do you wear shoes around the house? Have you tried going barefoot at home?

Have you soaked your feet in something like epsom salts and water, or vinegar and water, or hydrogen peroxide, for at least a half hour every evening? (You mention products you have put on them, but don't say you have simply soaked them and then let them dry.)

Do you think it could be related specifically to the toenails, or is it the whole foot?
Helpful - 0
9 Comments
Thank you for your response. I have already used all the methods mentioned by you. I soaked my feet many times for 30 minutes and subjected them to iontophoresis. Unfortunately, nothing helps. In addition, the smell intensifies when I even start to stress to a minimum about it. As for the feet, it's hard to say because they don't have any visible signs of disease. The strangest thing is that the feet themselves do not stink. I wear jackets and socks on the dock. I always wear 100% cotton shoe socks.
You don't have diabetes, by any chance, do you? It can be associated with this problem.
I don't have diabetes. My blood tests was ok.
Have you met with a doctor that specializes in the feet? (Like, a podiatrist?) And what about a dermatologist? And you have ruled out toenail fungus?
I was at the podiatry and dermatologist but unfortunately they did not see any negative changes. My nails normally have no color changes. The smell intensifies under stress. At home, when I'm relaxed, I don't smell it. I thought it was an olfactory disorder or some kind of mental illness, but my friends also smell it. Only the householders feel nothing. I know it is a very strange disease and I don't know what specialist to turn to.
I hope that I will find someone who happened to this and find out how to heal it.
I hope so, as well. What is a householder?
Someone who live with you in the same house.
This is a similar case where nothing helped but mostly the feet. I cured my feet, but the fight with the shoes remained.
https://www.medhelp.org/posts/Dermatology/Im-desperate-My-foot-odor-is-SO-Embarrassing/show/2256318
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