Like all shoes and sneakers, sometimes even your expensive Nike sneakers need to be washed. You can safely wash Nike shoes and sneakers if you take few precautions. Once you learn how to wash Nike sneakers you will be able to wash them safely whenever you need to in order to keep them looking and smelling great. If you’re not sure how to wash Nike sneakers to prevent them from becoming damaged use these tips and your sneakers will come out of the washer clean and damage-free:

Take the laces out: You should always take the laces out of your sneakers before you wash them. If you want to wash the laces you can hand wash them in hot water with a little detergent. Washing laces in hot water will kill any bacteria or germs that are on the laces. If you don’t want remove the laces or you forget to remove them, you can also tie them up tight and put the sneakers in the washer. Just be sure that the laces aren’t flopping around when you put them in the washer.

Use a pillowcase: If you put your Nike sneakers in the washer without padding them in some way, they could bang around in the washer and become damaged. They could get scuffs on them, or pick up dyes from the other items in the wash. To make sure that they don’t become damaged in the wash, put them in an old pillowcase, or put them in a zippered pillow protector and wash them in that. If you don’t have a pillowcase or pillow protector to put them in, you can also throw an old towel into the washer with the shoes. The towel should provide enough padding to keep the shoes from getting damaged. You should also use a natural detergent with no dyes in it like Rockin' Green to protect your Nike sneakers.

Never use the dryer: Don’t ever put your Nike sneakers in the dryer. The high heat in the dryer can melt some of the synthetic fabrics in the shoes and damage the soles. You should always let your sneakers air dry. In order to make sure they keep their shape you can roll up hand towels and stuff them inside. Some people might tell you to stuff your shoes with newspaper, but if you do that you might end up with print from the newspaper on your shoes.