How to Clean & Look After Your Custom Sneakers

Whether it's a hand-painted custom or a vinyl finish, our pieces are made to be worn — the designs are crack- and water-resistant, but it's natural for them to get dirty. Here's how to keep yours looking as good as the day it arrived.

Everyday cleaning

You can use a brush — there's a misconception that you need to be super delicate, that's not the case. A soft bristle brush and sneaker cleaner is all you need. We trust DFNS the most with this.

If you want to help prevent stains, you can use this too. It's a great preventative!

Keep them out of the washing machine

Machine washing and tumble drying can damage hand-painted finishes, dip-dye colour, and cut & sew panels. Our paintwork is crack and water-resistant for everyday wear, but it's not built to withstand a wash cycle.

Protect the finish from heat and sun

Direct sunlight and radiators can fade or affect painted and dyed finishes over time. Store your pair somewhere cool and dry when you're not wearing them.

Keep their shape

Use shoe trees or stuff the toe box with paper when storing your customs for any length of time - this helps the shoe (and any 3D or panel detailing) hold its shape. Leather toe box sneakers can really crease around the bend of the shoe so these are great preventative measures.

Store them in the box

We ship every custom pair in its original shoe box for a reason - it's the best way to store them long-term and keep them protected from dust and light.

Something gone wrong?

If a design element needs attention, get in touch at info@mattbcustoms.com before attempting a repair yourself — some finishes are easier for us to touch up in-studio than to fix at home.

You can shop all our shoe care products here.