One of the things people forget about sustainable fashion is that it’s not just about buying used but it’s also about finding ways to “clean up” items that you may think about getting rid of due to excessive wear, damage, etc.

I had a pair of Converse that had seen better days and were no longer white again. But with a few tricks we were able to get these babies looking brand spanking new again. Based on the response on social when I shared this, I figured I’d put the tips here as well to help!

Here was the finished product:

Steps:

1. Remove the shoe laces, and clean off any surface dirt and grime from the shoes with a scrub brush.

2. For safe whitening and stain removal on most light colored clothing/bedding, my go-to is always oxi-clean white revive powder. Prepare a cleaning solution in a bucket, made up of a high concentration of oxi-clean and hot water, (think a full scoop in a small half-filled bucket of water).

3. Throw the laces in the solution, and then use the scrub brush to gently scrub cleaning solution into the canvas material of the cons, including the tongue. Save the rest of the solution.

4. Wait a couple hours, then throw the shoes into the bucket of solution and add more hot water until it completely covers the shoes. Wait another couple hours with it soaking in.

5. Remove the laces, and rinse those out by hand. Remove the shoes, and place them in a washer load with light colored and non-delicate items such as towels. Depending on how worried you are about any odors transferring, you can even skip this step and hand scrub and rinse the cleaning solution out of the shoes. Expect to put it through 2+ rinses.

6. Let shoes air dry, thread up the laces. If spots remain on the canvas, repeat the process with a stain stick spot treatment, and then the oxiclean again.

Amazing how they look brand new! Here are the two products recommended above for this process:

Typical gentle Scrub Brush | Oxi-Clean Used

And that’s it! If you use the process be sure to send your before and after pics - would love to see how it comes out! Clean rather than throwing out, buy used rather than new!