Feet stink. The “make my feet not smell like an armpit covered in bleu cheese and death” industry, led by Dr. Scholl’s, accounts for god knows how many millions of dollars a year. It’s an inconvenient detail of active life, but it happens.
(Well, of course the shoes are yellow.)
But something far worse is going on for Nike’s latest offerings; according to the BBC, they’ve started to smell like “cat wee” without any help from the feet inside them:
Watchdog has received complaints about Nike’s Mercurial and Total 90s ranges that start to produce a very unpleasant odour after their first use.
[…] We took Matt’s pair of football trainers to Nike’s flagship store to find out what the public thought of the smell. One person said: “They smell like they’re old and someone has had their feet in them for years.”
The BBC eventually found someone to explain the problem, and no matter what words in what order they use to describe it, it all sounds suspiciously like “R&D Department smoking hellacious amounts of drugs instead of performing the most basic of functions related to their jobs”:
Nike has told one angry customer the problem started because they replaced some of the man-made lining just under the laces with a cotton canvas.
Kevin says that when the cotton canvas gets wet, it rots. The moisture can’t escape because the man-made materials around the cotton don’t allow it to breath.
Just because it needs to be said more than once: they didn’t bother wondering what would happen if the new materials in their shoe got wet. Outstanding work, Nike. You have condemned thousands of loyal British customers to a lifetime of ridicule because their feet now smell overwhelmingly like #1. And really, who pees in their shoes? Who does that?
[Full disclosure: if peeing your shoes is cool, then consider me Miles Davis.]
2:23 pm on November 18th, 2008
How was Nike supposed to know it would ever rain in Britain?
2:39 pm on November 18th, 2008
I always thought Nike shoes stink. This proves it.
11:35 am on December 13th, 2008
My last two pairs of Nike running shoes have done this to me. The first time it happened I blamed it on my sister's cat. This time around I started to wonder if it was the shoes themselves. Now I know!
3:50 pm on December 18th, 2008
so will nike refund all the smell shoes
4:56 am on December 23rd, 2008
My Boyfriend has a pair of Nike football boots and hasnt had them long, but we do not have the box or the receipt and the smell is getting i worse i have tried washing the boots but nothing is getting rid of the smell, is there anyway of contacting Nike…???
10:28 am on September 3rd, 2009
I have Adidas and they did the same thing! I called Adidas and brought them back to the same store I bought them from and got a different pair. A boy on my team has the same shoes and his stink too.
4:48 am on October 6th, 2009
both my childrens shoes smell, nike and adidas, I was just looking on website to see if I can find a way to get rid of the smell, at least I know its not their fault
7:44 pm on October 19th, 2009
My son has a pair of LeBron James basketball shoes that REALLLY smell like cat pee. We thought something medically was wrong with him and/or our cats were very talented. Thanks for giving me something else to check into!!!
12:45 pm on December 5th, 2009
I have a pair of Nike Tiempo Natural II and yes after a while they stunk like cat piss. Tried washing it and even tried keeping it under the sun to get all the moisture out. The sun bathing helped, until I put em on again and the odor came back.
1:41 pm on October 10th, 2010
Dear Nike,
My daughters Nike Cleats stink sooo bad and yes it resembles Cat Urine I thought the cat sprayed them—- I have worked hard to get the odor out— will Nike replace them or do they have a solution???? Thank you.
Nike we like you but right now we need your help— 5 children And years of Nike cleats. I hope you can help??
Jude.
10:01 pm on September 14th, 2011
i got the same pair of shoes that is in this pic and omg they stink like cat pee. my mom had got them for my sone so i have no clue where she got them but what can i do with the cat pee smell please help me out. or what can i do
5:27 am on October 3rd, 2011
My son is on his third pair of Nike’s in a year…all with the same issue. All this time I thought he may have stepped in cat urine somewhere. These things reek to high heaven. I even tried cat urine remover from a pet store to no avail. Guess this family won’t be buying Nike again.
7:42 am on October 16th, 2011
There is one thing you can do -you have to by those shoe inserts with activated charcoal-helps control the smell very well-but you have to keep replacing them after a period of time because their effectiveness wears off.I’ve read reports the “cat pee
‘ smell is from the type of glue they are using
11:34 am on October 20th, 2011
The BBC report was 3 years ago and Nike said they would fix the problem and meanwhile, take shoes back and replace them, even without a receipt - so why are the shoes they are selling now still having this problem????