2Toms Stink Free shoe and gear spray review

Smelly shoes or kit? 2Toms Stink Free shoe and gear spray should help sort out the problem. We've been testing it

Cycling Weekly Verdict

If your shoes or other sports kit are getting smelly, 2Toms Stink Free Shoes and Gear Spray is an effective solution. Its antibacterial formula deals with the source of the problem, but you need to keep reapplying it to eliminate the odour and use periodically thereafter to stop it returning.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Effectively deodorises smelly shoes

  • +

    Works on other kit too

  • +

    Economical

  • +

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Need to keep reapplying to be effective

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

If you’ve been wearing your cycling shoes under overshoes all winter, chances are they’ve spent at least part of the time damp and unventilated. If you’ve not been careful how you dry them after rides, you may find that they’re smelling a bit lived-in as spring comes around.

The shoe spray is part of a range of 2Toms products designed to sort out common cycling problems
(Image credit: Cycling Studio)

That’s where Stink Free spray comes in. It contains a couple of antibacterial agents which zap those bugs living on the sweat in your shoes and other gear. Because they also have detergent properties, they wet out the fabric and penetrate its pores to reach the smell-forming bacteria lurking there, treating the cause rather than the effect.

>>> Embarrassing cycling problems and how to prevent them

I’ve been using the spray on a set of dubious cycling shoes and some distinctly unsavoury walking shoes with an internal membrane. It’s been effective, although you do need to persevere and keep spraying multiple times before it fully takes effect. 2Toms recommends initial treatment two or three times a day, followed by a couple of times a week thereafter, allowing the spray to dry between applications.

>>> How to wash your cycling clothes

Watch: Shoe buyer's guide

With a bottle containing 237ml and an effective pump-operated spray, a bottle should last for ages. I’ve used around a tenth of a bottle to treat a couple of pairs of shoes.

>>> Are stiffer soles better?

2Toms says that you can use Stink Free on canvas, leather and denim and a lot of other smelly kit besides shoes: gloves, lockers, clothing and bags. It doesn’t recommend using it on helmets and headgear, where sweating could result in the active ingredients getting in your eyes and causing irritation.

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Paul Norman

Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.

He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.