Same boot, same two minutes. Nothing but water.
Ninety minutes on a wet pitch and half of it came home with you. That's a good game, that is.
Here's the thing though - boots don't get ruined by football. They get ruined by mud that was left on them until it went hard, and by the twenty-minute cleaning routine that felt like too much effort at half nine at night, so it never happened. Get to them while the mud's still soft and the whole thing takes two minutes.
What you actually need
A BootBuddy and water.
It lives in the bag, so the clean happens at the pitch.
That's the list. Not a bowl, not washing-up liquid, not three different brushes. The scraper, the water and the brush are all built into the same thing, which is the entire reason it exists - so the job happens at the car with your boots still in your hand, instead of in a kitchen sink you'll then have to clean as well.
Water at any temperature works. Warm is slightly nicer to use, cold does the job. If you want to go deeper on a pair you've let get away from you, a bit of cleaning solution in the tank helps - but for a normal muddy pair, water on its own is genuinely all it is.
How to clean football boots, step by step
Here's the whole thing, start to finish:
- Scrape the big stuff off. The scraper's built into the BootBuddy - run it across the studs and the soleplate and the worst of it drops straight off.
- Brush in circles. Water feeds through the brush as you go. The circles are what breaks the mud up rather than pushing it around.
- Squeeze. Once the mud's loose, a squeeze flushes it off the boot.
- Wipe them down with the microfibre cloth that comes in the box.
Soft mud comes off in seconds. Hard mud is the whole job.
Then they go back in the bag. They'll air dry in there on their own and it won't take long, because you never soaked them in the first place - the wipe-down gets them dry enough. No newspaper, no radiator, no leaving them by the back door for two days.
Two minutes. Do it at the car before you drive off and it's done before you've stopped thinking about the game.
Do you need to take the laces and insoles out?
No. This is the bit every other guide gets wrong.
Your laces will get muddy - they're at the front of the boot, of course they will. But they're not what makes your boots look a state, and they don't need doing every single time you play. Every few weeks is plenty.
When you do fancy sorting them: pull them out, drop them in a bowl of warm water with a bit of cleaning solution in it, and leave them for twenty to thirty minutes. The mud lifts off on its own. No scrubbing, and you can get on with something else while they sit there.
Insoles stay in. They'll get sweaty, that's what insoles are for, and pulling them out doesn't help you get mud off the outside of a boot. If the sweat turns into a smell, there's a section on that below.
Taking a boot apart every time you play is how a two-minute job turns into a twenty-minute one. And a twenty-minute job doesn't get done, which is how the mud ends up setting.
Can you put football boots in the washing machine?
No. Nike say the same thing in their own boot care guide - hand-wash only, and washing machines can damage the boots and the machine.
A wash cycle is a long soak plus a lot of hammering. Plenty of modern boots have the soleplate bonded on rather than stitched, and that's exactly the joint a machine works loose. Leather comes out stiffer than it went in. A mesh bag on a cool cycle makes it less likely, not safe - and a proper clean is quicker than the cycle anyway. We've been through the whole thing in our guide to putting shoes in the washing machine.
Leather or knit - does it change anything?
Not really. Same scrape, same circles, same squeeze, same wipe. Water's fine on knit uppers, whatever you've read.
If anything, knit boots are the ones to get to fastest. Mud works into the weave and sits there, and the longer it sits the more it takes with it when it eventually comes out. Clean them while they're still wet from the pitch and they stay looking new for a lot longer.
Stains are the one place a boot might need more than water. A foam cleaner will lift a lot out of a material upper - though we'll be straight with you, nothing gets every mark out of a boot that's had a season of football.
Cleaning boots after astro
If you play on 3G, you'll know what comes home with you. Not mud - those little black rubber bits, all through the knit, in the lace guard, and all over your car mats.
Straight off a 3G pitch. Leave that in the upper and it marks the boot.
The reason to get to them quickly is that the rubber stains boots. Left sitting in the upper it works its way in, and once it's marked the boot you're not getting that back. Same routine, just don't leave it until the weekend.
Why do football boots smell, and how do you stop it?
Sweat. Ninety minutes of running and your feet have soaked the inside of those boots, then they go in a zipped bag and sit there until Thursday.
It's got nothing to do with how muddy the outside is - you can have spotless boots that smell horrendous. So the fix is getting that sweat back out of them:
- Get them out of the bag when you get home. Zipped up with the rest of your damp kit is the worst place they can be.
- Wipe them down after you play. Ten seconds with the cloth.
- Put Deodoriser Bags in them. They sit inside the boot and draw the sweat and moisture back out, which is the bit that actually causes the smell. Insoles stay where they are.
That's the whole answer. Boots that dry out properly don't smell.
The mistakes that actually wreck boots
- Leaving mud to go hard. Everything else on this list is downstream of this one.
- The washing machine. Covered above.
- Radiators and tumble dryers. Heat is what cracks leather and works joints loose.
- Scrubbing at knit like it's a doorstep. Circles, not force.
- Chucking them in the bag wet and zipping it up. Then wondering about the smell on Thursday.
When a clean doesn't fix it
Some things aren't cleaning problems, and it's worth knowing which.
Marks that survive a proper clean are usually stains rather than dirt - foam cleaner is your best go, but a boot that's played thirty games is going to look like a boot that's played thirty games. Cracked leather doesn't come back either - that's heat damage or age, and no cleaner reverses it. And a soleplate starting to lift is a repair job, not a cleaning one.
BootBuddy: the two-minute version
Everything above is one tool and some water, and that's not an accident - it's the point.
Aaron built the first one because he couldn't be arsed cleaning his boots properly and got told off for the state of the hallway (sorry mum). The family ignored him for about two years. Ten years, a patent, the Dragons and more than 10,000 five-star reviews later, the thing we hear most is from people whose BootBuddy is still going after eight seasons.
Frequently asked questions
Can a BootBuddy clean my football boots?
Yes - the BootBuddy works on any football boot, whatever they're made of and whatever state you've got them in. Leather, knit, synthetic, moulded studs, blades, kids' first pair or the ones you spent too much on. There isn't a boot it doesn't work on.
How do you freshen up smelly football boots?
Get them out of the kitbag, wipe them down, and put a pair of Deodoriser Bags in them. The smell comes from sweat sitting inside the boot, so drawing that moisture back out is what fixes it. You don't need to take the insoles out to do it.
How do professional footballers clean their boots?
They don't - somebody does it for them, every day. Manchester City's kit manager Ally Marland has described cleaning the boots as part of his morning routine, and kit manager job adverts list boot prep as a duty. The secret isn't technique, it's that it happens after every single session.
Should you soak football boots in water?
No. Soaking waterlogs the padding and takes days to dry out properly. You want enough water to move the mud, which is all the BootBuddy puts through the brush anyway.
How do you clean boots without ruining them?
Clean them while the mud's still soft, use water rather than anything harsh, and keep them away from heat while they dry. Nearly every ruined pair broke one of those three.
How often should you clean football boots?
Every time you play - and as soon after as you can, whether that's a Tuesday night session or Saturday afternoon. Two minutes each time beats an hour of scrubbing once a month, and your boots last longer for it.
Do you need to clean football boot laces?
Not every time. They'll get muddy, but they're not what's making your boots look rough. Every few weeks, take them out and soak them in a bowl of warm water with a bit of cleaning solution for twenty to thirty minutes - the mud comes off on its own.
Clean boots, better Saturdays
Two minutes at the car and your boots are sorted for the next one. And if you'd rather not do it at the kitchen sink, the BootBuddy Football Boot Cleaner lives in the kitbag and does the lot.