Four ways to make your old Birkenstocks look as good as new this summer

'Long-time Birkenstock wearers will know they're not necessarily comfortable from day one, but are well worth taking the effort to wear in,' writes Rochell - Getty Images

I have two pairs of Birkenstock Arizona sandals – one white pair and one black pair – and both are well over 10 years old. They’ve gone on all sorts of adventures with me, moved house, travelled to Mexico, Thailand and all over Europe, attended music festivals and fashion week front rows.

They’re my summer dog walking shoes, and are actually older than my dog. They even appeared in a book I wrote about flat shoes that was published back in 2014: I didn’t expect them to outlive its presence in Waterstones, but here we are.

Birkenstocks of a certain age are really well made. Long-time Birkenstock wearers will know they’re not necessarily comfortable from day one, but are well worth taking the effort to wear in. Thanks to the cork footbed, they get more and more comfortable as time goes on, eventually moulding to match the unique shape of your own foot.

Birkenstocks get more comfortable the more you wear them – so they are worth keeping and looking after - Jeremy Moeller/Getty

That makes Birkenstocks – especially older ones – well worth keeping each year and cleaning at the beginning of the summer, ready to take on new adventures. The easiest part of your Birks to clean is the straps – simply unbuckle them, brush off any dirt and give them a rub with some beeswax or regular shoe polish.

Then, there are plenty of techniques that are supposed to work if you want to give the rest of the shoe a refresh, but do they really work? I’ve been investigating…

The bicarb method

You will need: 

• Bicarbonate of soda
• Water
• Suede brush
• Toothbrush (an old one is fine, but make sure it’s clean)

This method for cleaning the suede footbed comes up time and again on Google searches, and is very easy, but I’m dubious about its effectiveness. I tried it a couple of years ago by making a thick paste with two parts bicarb to one part water, and applying it to the footbed with a toothbrush. I left it to dry (but not in the sun – this can crack the cork) and then brushed off the powder with the toothbrush. The whole process took about 24 hours, but only about ten minutes of actual work.

The verdict

They looked exactly the same.

The sandpaper method

You will need:

• 180 grit sandpaper

Founder of The R.U.E. Substack, Alexandra Stedman, was also underwhelmed when she tried the bicarb method on her footbeds, but is fully dedicated to the sandpaper method, having employed it last year on both her and her husband Chris’ Arizonas. Simply use the paper to sand the grimy top layer away. “It was so easy, anyone can do it and it’s satisfying,” she told me. “It felt a little gross if you thought about sanding dead skin cells away too much, but I tried to enjoy the process.”

The verdict

Enjoyment aside, Alex says it really worked. “They felt like new shoes and looked great. The logo wore away but that didn’t bother me. I’d love to say they didn’t revert back to looking like the worn old sandals I started with but alas, now it’s like I never did them! Realistically, it’s probably a once a year job.”

The washing machine method

You will need:

• Washing machine (obviously)
• Pillowcase
• Guppyfriend bag

Disclaimer: Most advice I can find says to categorically not do this. However, I ignored the advice. Use the washing machine method at your own risk!

I didn’t realise until years after I bought them that my white Arizonas are actually from the Birko-Flor range, which is vegan. And that got me thinking – since they’re not leather, perhaps they’d benefit from the easiest shoe cleaning method in the book: chucking them in the washing machine. I don’t advise doing this often as it’s stressful for your shoes, and always pop them inside a pillowcase to protect the drum of your machine. Ideally, use a Guppyfriend bag too, to catch the microplastics that will be released from the vegan leather. Then, let them dry slowly out of sunlight and away from a direct heat source.

The verdict

When I did this last summer, my white Birks came out positively sparkling. Like new shoes but with the comfort of a trusty old pair. The bonus is that it cleaned all parts of the shoe, not just the footbed.

The metal paint method

You’ll need:

• Hammerite metal paint, or similar
• Small paintbrush
• An old toothbrush

If you wear your Birks in the rain (me) or worse, by the sea (also me), you may suffer from rusty buckles. If you happen to have a pair of Arizonas with a black buckle, this is easy to deal with and even when your buckles aren’t black originally, if your Birks are, this might be worth considering. Simply brush off any flaky rust with an old toothbrush, clean the buckles and when dry, carefully apply a coat or two of the paint.

The verdict

This tiny detail gave these old sandals a fresh spring in their step – highly recommended from me.

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