Under The Palms

I've basically never given any of my vans a proper cleaning, but now since I've sold most of my sb's and am jumping back into vans I was wondering what most of you do as far as cleaning goes for your vans.

The main question I have is how most of you clean the mid-sole? Any certain solutions or house hold cleaners you use? I'm mainly interested in keeping the mid sole clean, but also something that won't speed up yellowing. I know it's bound to happen.

For example. These Ari's. Just got them, but haven't cleaned them.

Little piece of soap dissolved in glass of water (you get the idea) + toothbrush. You know what to do

THose will clean up super nice, to almost a brand new look. Get a microfiber towel, and some jason markk shoe cleaner, it works really well. I'm sure some sort of mild soap and water will work too, but I like the conditioning and smell in the jason markk cleaner. Dip the rag with your finger into a highly diluted solution of jason markk and water, and rub it into the rubber midsole, then as it's sort of wet still, take a dry part of the microfiber, and wipe it. Repeat by wetting the area, and wiping with the dry area, and it erases all the smudges that seem to be hard to take off of Vans sidewalls. Nothing has been proven to work better, not even unscented baby wipes, which are good for quick dust offs, and touch ups, but the microfiber towel is the key! Done deal. (some older stains don't fully come out, but then again, it is Vans, which suck at staying new anyways).

DJGuamstyles wrote:Get a microfiber towel

You obviously know what's up. +Windex for me, haha.

Windex has ammonia in it, and it might dry out the rubber. Use simple green at least! I think Jason Markk consists mostly of shampoo. It says it's made with jojoba oils, which is in a lot of shampoos.

Thanks for the info man. I'll try that out.

I'll order some of the jason markks solution. Also Is rubbing alcohol harsh on the mid-sole? I use to wipe down my skate shoes with them often, but always threw them away after I was done with them. Not long enough to see anything happen to the mid-sole. Any experiences?

Dude do you drive a lot? If so, that dirt you have on those Aris there are for sure from driving. Get that on almost all my shoes and it's so annoying.

Derek wrote:Dude do you drive a lot? If so, that dirt you have on those Aris there are for sure from driving. Get that on almost all my shoes and it's so annoying.

I just got these, but yeah I get it alot from driving. It's annoying. I do clean my car mats though. Still some dirt gets to them.

Right, should've read the description lol. Same shit here man, there's no escaping it.

You never want to use any type of alcohol based products. It will fade the white soles to a yellow over time. Just face it, Vans are just never going to be NDS once worn. They go from DS to USED, and there's no in between really. Microfiber towels are the key to those soles being cleaned up nicely.

Derek wrote:Dude do you drive a lot? If so, that dirt you have on those Aris there are for sure from driving. Get that on almost all my shoes and it's so annoying.

I always have that problem, but there ain't much you can do about it.

BeastJr! wrote:

Derek wrote:Dude do you drive a lot? If so, that dirt you have on those Aris there are for sure from driving. Get that on almost all my shoes and it's so annoying.

I always have that problem, but there ain't much you can do about it.

My Mom puts a towel down on the floor, so it doesn't scuff up her heels on her nicer shoes. That probably helps.

Water and soap should do fine and just use an old toothbrush to brush away the dirt.

Or get a "eco-friendly" cleaning liquid. Haha.

I once saw a video where a guy cleaned his midsole just by rubbing it with an eraser. Seemed to work rather well! The shoes in the video went from looking fairly close to those Ari's up there to having a nice, white midsole. I still have yet to try it, but I don't see any drawbacks to doing it, unless you rub hardcore and scrape away part of the midsole or something. I guess it wouldn't work on the toe bumper, but that's a tough area no matter how you slice it.