How to Get Gum off Shoes
Food and drinks are something that you cannot live without, and if you are anything like me, you are often looking for a snack while on the go. This means that you end up with food and drink around your shoes. Sometimes, you don’t even realize it until you have already left the location.
Since it is so difficult to find a napkin or tissue on the go, this is why it is important to be careful about where you set your drink or snack down. While it is easy to lose focus and not realize that your food or drink has spilled on your shoes, it is also easy to clean off with just a little bit of water.
If you have a stain on your white sock or pants where you may have spilled a sugary drink, soak the stain in a one-to-two ratio of water to hand soap. This will loosen the sugary drink and make it easier to scrub off.
Use a toothbrush or scrubbing brush to scrub the stain off. If your stain is a lot larger, you may need to repeat the process to loosen the food and sugary drink even more. A toothbrush is also good for getting gum out of the small grooves and crevices of your shoe.
All you need to do is soak the area with water, apply a little bit of soap, and brush until the gum is completely gone.
Getting Gum off of Standard Shoe Materials
Most shoe soles are coated with some sort of rubbery or plastic layer. It prevents them from wearing out and protects them against the elements.
This is because most shoe soles are made out of rubber from tree sap, they age well when exposed to the elements.
This is part of the reason why your shoes may be difficult to wash out gum. It is important to know that gum does not actively attach itself to your shoes like a sticker or piece of tape would. It just sticks there.
So if you keep on wiping without any force, it will remain stubbornly stuck.
The way to get that sticky stuff off of shoes is to use some force.
So grab a knife or use a piece of sandpaper to scrape the gum off.
Make sure the shoe you are working on is free from dirt or anything else that will add to the problem.
Carefully scrape off as much as you can, then rinse the area you’ve scraped off.
Wipe off the gum residue with a damp cloth and then dry it off with a dry cloth.
If the gum is still there, try again until it’s gone.
Removing Gum from Suede
Make sure the gum is completely dry, and then you will need either peanut butter or an oil to remove it with.
Peanut butter works best for gum on suede, and it also leaves a pleasant peanut butter smell after you’re done. Put a thin layer of peanut butter, then put the shoes upside-down so that the gum is touching the floor. As the peanut butter starts to harden, scrape it off the shoe with a butter knife.
If peanut butter isn’t your thing, including olive oil, vegetable oil, or even mayonnaise to get gum out of suede is also a good idea. Simply massage the oil in multiple directions until the gum softens, then scrape the softened gum off.
Why Does Gum Stick to Shoes?
Gum is sticky, and sticky things tend to stick to everything. Shoes are made of leather and rubber, whose non-porous surface are perfect for adhesives. If gum is fresh, chances are, it will be even harder to stop it sticking than the first time around.
Wearing shoes with gum stuck to them is definitely not the most comfortable feeling in the world, and you’ll probably want to learn how to remove the gum as soon as possible.
But first, you need to understand why the gum is able to stick to the shoe in the first place.
Throw Your Gum in the Trash
The first thing to do is to throw your gum in the trash. The chewing gum is bad for the environment. It’s not biodegradable and people don’t want to step on it.
Chewing gum, when it gets stuck on someone else’s shoe, tends to produce an unpleasant odor. The sooner you can dispose of any gum, the more likely you are to avoid this.
If you need to remove gum from shoes, you can either throw your gum in the trash or just take an ice-cream stick and try to flick it off.