Shoe Dryer

We all know that feeling. You’re walking home from work or from the errands you were out doing, and you suddenly get caught in the rain. Great.

Your hair is soaking wet now. If you were wearing makeup before, it’s definitely not holding up now. Your outfit? Ruined. Now you look more like a drowned rat than whatever look you were going for before.

You’ve been caught off guard. You don’t have your umbrella. And now you have some issues to contend with.

One of the biggest problems? Your feet.

Without proper waterproof footwear or a pair of boots, your feet are drowned in gross water from the street or even the muddy grass. You know what happens next: your toes will turn into prunes and wrinkle up. And even after you take them off, it may take days for them to dry out and get the wet odor out of your soles.

Or will it?

If only there was a way to avoid the issue in the first place, or, once it’s too late, to get those shoes drier, faster. Good news: there is a way. A shoe dryer could be what you’re looking for to get that sweat and mold feeling out of your shoes quickly.

With all of the contraptions to protect your feet, it only makes sense for this technology to exist to keep your work boots dry all day.

The Risks of Wet Feet

What’s the problem with having wet feet, after all? It can’t possibly be a big deal to have your feet get a little wet, can it?

Unfortunately, there are some real health risks that can occur when you get your feet too wet, especially when they’re cramped in soggy shoes. Even if you feel your rubber soles getting a bit wet from your natural perspiration throughout the workday, it still can create some cause for concern.

Here are just a few of them.

Damage to Your Skin

First and foremost, the friction and wetness that happens inside of wet sneakers can rub away at your skin. This leads to damage on multiple levels to your skin.

One of the most common is a thinning or rubbing off of the outer layer of the skin of your feet which can cause skin irritation. This leads to your skin becoming raw and tender.

Blisters

Aside from rubbing your skin raw, wet shoes can lead to nasty blisters. Blisters are a bubbling of the skin where the outer layer begins to separate from the layer beneath but doesn’t fall completely off.

This leads to a pocket of air and moisture that is a perfect area for an infection to form. Infections lead to even more health problems, limiting your mobility for longer than just a few days.

Smelly Shoes and Feet

Though not as severe as infection or skin damage, wearing wet shoes can lead to some seriously smelly feet and shoes.

This is because wet surfaces are breeding grounds for smell-causing bacteria to grow. Smelly shoes are notoriously difficult to get the scent out of, so it’s best to avoid this scenario whenever possible.

What Is a Shoe Dryer?

What is a shoe dryer, anyway?

There are a few different types of shoe dryers and boot dryers, each working in its own unique way to get your shoes and gear dry as quickly as possible.

Shoe dryers can be an easy way to improve the quality of life for everyone and extend the life of footwear too.

How Does It Work?

Shoe dryers work by using some type of heat or air pressure that reaches a certain amount of degrees Fahrenheit that then evaporates water particles that collect on your wet shoes.

This speeds up the process of shoe-drying, getting an overall drying time of around an hour or two. That’s a huge improvement from the days it would take you to dry out your shoes before the invention. It is a lot like a glove dryer, but for your feet.

Types of Shoe Dryers

There are a few different kinds of shoe dryers that remove water quickly. The one that you choose is largely based on a matter of preference. Of course, some shoe dryers work better than others, but here are the main types of dryers on the market to see the right model for your preference.

Upright Shoe Dryers

Perhaps the most common shoe dryer is the upright shoe dryer.

This type of shoe dryer has two to four upright pillars used as drying ports that you place your shoes on. They use either heat or hot air at a constant temperature that quickly evaporates away the moisture particles that keep your shoes wet.

They’re very effective at drying shoes quickly, but due to their size, they aren’t very portable.

Ceramic Heat

One of the common ways that shoe dryers work is through the process of ceramic heat.

This intense heat essentially speeds up the evaporation process through conduction.

Hot Air

Another common form of drying that shoe dryers will use is hot air.

A hot air shoe dryer works very similarly to a hot air dryer that you would find in a public bathroom. This is effective since it uses both heat for evaporation and direct air, working dually to dry out your shoes as quickly as possible.

What Extras to Look for

Aside from the basics of a heating or drying element, there are a few other extras that you may want to look for in your shoe dryer.

Here are a few of the things that you may want to come with your shoe dryer.

Drip Tray

If you know your shoes are going to get really wet, you want to be sure your shoe dryer comes with a drip tray to collect moisture as it falls off of the shoes.

Otherwise, you’ll just be trading off wet shoes for a wet floor.

Whether It’s Portable

If you need to have dry shoes on the go, you will want to find a shoe dryer that can be easily transported from your home to anywhere else you may be staying. Portable shoe dryers are more light and compact for travel. Just throw it in with your travel pillow, and you’re good to go.

A Shoe Dryer to Save Your Wet Feet

If you’re tired of soggy feet, get yourself a shoe dryer to keep your toes nice and dry. The ability to dry shoes is extremely important, especially if you don't want your fleece-lined or leather shoes to meet a watery death. Depending on the types of materials and types of footwear you normally wear, you can find

Sources:

Blisters: Causes, treatments, and prevention | Medical News Today

How to Get Rid of Smelly Feet: 14 Treatments | Healthline

Hot Air Dryers | PT Online