Rainy days are just perfect when you plan on staying at home and doing nothing. You can stay in bed, do nothing all day and relax. But when you need to go to work or school and it’s pouring, the rain can be such a hassle.

Public transportation is tough to come by, traffic jams get incredibly ridiculous, and the stress of putting a good-looking outfit together is raised exponentially, especially if you’re a sneakerhead!

Whatever brand it is that you’re loyal to, sneakers, like most things, don’t fare well in the rain. Water damage can gradually ruin the glue used to keep your sneakers together, make their colors fade, and make them smell terrible if you don’t dry them up properly.

All of these things can keep sneakerheads like you and me from wearing our beloved sneakers, but thankfully, there are numerous methods we can utilize to stay fly AND dry despite the rain. Here are a few of them:

Deodorize Your Sneakers

Silica gel can go a long way in sneaker care.

Yes, the go-to move of the common Filipino is to bring an extra pair of slippers/flip-flops in our bags to change in when it’s raining. While it may not be a bad idea, it certainly isn’t the best, and it sure as hell isn’t sanitary (you wouldn’t want to know what’s mixed in with all that flood water). So sometimes, you just can’t help but deal with wet sneakers.

For the times you can’t avoid getting your sneakers wet, you can use silica gel. Silica gel absorbs and holds water vapor. In leather products, the lack of moisture can limit the growth of mold and reduce aging. You will find little silica gel packets in anything that would be affected by excess moisture or condensation because the gel contains millions of tiny pores that can adsorb and hold moisture.

Crep Protect Pills absorb moisture and deodorize your sneakers.

If you want to take that up a notch, you can get yourself a Crep Protect Pill. Like silica gel, the Crep Protect Pill absorbs moisture in your sneaker. However, the Crep Protect Pill adds another dimension to sneaker freshness by deodorizing them. By placing the Crep Protect Pills in your sneakers and letting them dry, you allow the pill to absorb the moisture in the shoes and essentially kill the bacteria to keep your sneakers looking and smelling fresh.

Use a Shoe Cleaner

A sneaker cleaners have properties that can preserve your sneakers!

Now I know that we can’t always predict the rain, so there will be times that you may go out of your house unprepared for the rain. So, for the times that you do go home with damp shoes, here’s a pretty good fix.

As soon as you get home, use a shoe cleaner and, well, clean your shoes. Sure, leaving it out in the open air to dry might sound like the easy fix, but using a shoe cleaner clears all of the dirt and grime your sneaker gets from the rain. Cleaning your shoes as soon as you get home also assures you that they won’t get stinky. Nobody likes a smelly pair of sneakers!

We recommend you get a shoe cleaning kit from either Crep Protect or Clyde. They’re good investments if you really want to keep your sneakers.

Use a Waterproof Spray on Your Shoes

The Crep Protect’s waterproofing spray is tried and tested.

This one’s pretty straightforward. I cannot recommend using a waterproofing spray for your shoes enough! If properly applied, a waterproofing spray can protect your sneakers from water damage for a good couple of weeks. Water literally slides off of your sneakers when you put waterproof spray on them, and it’s really amazing! Thanks to the boom of the sneaker culture, these waterproofing sprays aren’t that hard to find.

One brand of waterproof spray we can recommend is the Crep Protect’s waterproof spray. They’re pretty easy to find and are available in all urbanAthletics stores.

Do you have other tips to take care of your sneakers during the rainy season? Make sure you leave ‘em in the comments section below.

And if you’re interested in getting the products we recommended for sneaker care or if you’re just in need of a fresh pair of kicks, make sure you drop by the urbanAthletics stores and check out the urbanAthletics website.