Your favorite Nike slides took a beating this summer. Poolside grime on the straps, black scuff marks along the rubber outsole, a footbed that looks two shades darker than the day you bought them. Here's how to clean Nike slides in less time than most people expect, using stuff you already have around the house.

Here's the fast version. Tap loose dirt off, swipe the straps and outsole with a damp sponge or a SneakERASERS, hand-clean the footbed with mild detergent, sprinkle baking soda overnight for odor, then air dry away from heat. Skip the washing machine. Skip the bleach. That routine handles Benassi, Offcourt, Victori, Calm, Asuna, and every other Nike slide style in your rotation. And it matters more than you'd think. Shoe soles carry an average of 421,000 bacteria, according to cleaning research from the Cleaning Industry Research Institute. Yours are riding around inside the same slides you wear barefoot.

Three things gang up on your slides. Sweat and skin oils sink into the footbed. Dust, sand, and grime cling to the rubber outsole. And scuffs land on the synthetic or foam upper anytime you brush against a curb, a chair leg, or another shoe in your closet.

Most Nike slides use synthetic or foam uppers over a rubber outsole. Those are non-porous surfaces, which is great news for you. They respond to gentle swiping, not aggressive brushing. Come at them like you would a car finish, not a barbecue grill.

Material still matters by model. Nike Benassi slides and Nike Offcourt slides lean on synthetic uppers with memory foam options on the footbed. Nike Victori slides pair a foam upper with a memory foam footbed. Nike Calm slides and Nike Asuna slides use soft, plush foam that feels amazing and shows every mark. Nike Kawa slides run a synthetic strap over rubber. Nike Comfort slides add a memory foam footbed that soaks up sweat like a sponge. Knowing which pair you're holding tells you exactly how gentle to be. The rest of this guide on how to clean Nike foam slides works across every model in the lineup.

You don't need a fancy shoe care kit. This is a short lineup you probably already have.

• Warm water (never hot)

• Drop of mild dish or laundry detergent

• Soft-bristle brush or old toothbrush

• Microfiber cloth and dry towel

• Baking soda for odor

If you want scuffs to lift in seconds instead of minutes, add a SneakERASERS sponge to that list. It's the fastest way we've found to pull black marks off rubber outsoles and grime off synthetic straps, and it takes just a little water to activate. Use light pressure. The sponge disintegrates like a pencil eraser as it works, and pressing hard only makes it wear out faster.

A quick warning on what not to grab. Hot water warps foam, bleach yellows synthetic material, harsh solvents crack straps, and the washing machine or dishwasher will destroy the glue that holds the whole slide together. If a method sounds aggressive, it probably is.

Five steps, in order. The first one feels obvious. Do it anyway.

Take the slides outside and tap them together to knock sand, pebbles, and grit out of the outsole tread. Then run a dry soft-bristle brush or an old toothbrush along the footbed, inside the straps, and around the sole edges. You're pulling loose dust off before water enters the picture.

Skip this step and you'll smear that loose dirt into a muddy streak the second your cloth touches the strap. Two dry minutes saves you 20 wet ones.

Dampen a microfiber cloth with warm water and a drop of mild detergent. Wipe the straps in the direction of the material, not against it. Gentle, even passes.

For stubborn scuff marks on synthetic or rubber straps, lightly swipe a SneakERASERS sponge across the mark. Activate the 10-pack sponge with a little water first, since it's not pre-moistened out of the pack. One or two passes usually lifts a scuff the cloth couldn't touch.

One caveat. If you're figuring out how to clean Nike Calm slides, or dealing with the Asuna, do not put the sponge on the knit or fabric-lined upper. Those plush foam materials need SneakERASERS SOAK instead. Using the sponge on porous fabric can damage the surface without lifting the dirt.

The footbed collects the worst of it. Sweat, oil, dead skin, and the gray discoloration nobody wants to think about. Here's how to clean Nike slides with memory foam without ruining the cushion: dampen a cloth with warm water and a drop of detergent, then dab (don't soak) along the footbed contours. Work in small circles.

If you have memory foam footbeds (Victori One, Offcourt, Comfort), press gently to lift dirt out of the surface. Never twist or wring the foam. Memory foam holds water for days if you saturate it, and trapped moisture is exactly how odor takes root.

To finish, sprinkle a thin layer of baking soda across the footbed and leave it overnight. It pulls out odor and moisture at the same time. In the morning, tip the slides upside down and shake it out.

For footbeds that need more than baking soda can lift (end-of-summer buildup after months of daily wear), SneakERASERS SOAK handles the deeper reset overnight. It works through porous foam without saturating it, so the footbed dries clean instead of holding water.

The rubber outsole holds the most visible grime because it hits everything. Cleaning rubber Nike slides quickly comes down to how well you handle this one step. A damp microfiber cloth handles the surface layer. For stubborn black streaks or scuff marks, swipe a SneakERASERS sponge in short strokes to lift them without harsh chemicals.

Then get into the tread grooves with a soft-bristle brush. That's where slippery grease from parking lots, lawn stains, and dirt paste settle in. A cloth won't reach it. A brush will.

Wipe the whole slide down with a fresh damp cloth to lift any leftover detergent residue. Skip this step and you'll end up with a soap film that attracts dust the moment they dry.

Pat with a dry towel, then loosely stuff paper towels inside the footbed to absorb interior moisture. Air dry at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, and nowhere near a radiator or vent. Heat cracks synthetic uppers and warps memory foam faster than any cleaning mistake. Full dry time runs 8 to 12 hours.

White slides show every mark. Every scuff, every gray heel smudge, every drop of coffee from the drive-thru. The fix is a lighter cleaning done more often.

Skip bleach for good. It reacts with the synthetic material in white Nike slides and speeds up yellowing over the long run. What looks like a whitening shortcut turns into permanent damage.

A dedicated white shoe cleaner, like the SneakERASERS sponge, lifts scuffs and gray marks off white synthetic straps and rubber outsoles with just water. No soap film left behind to attract more dirt. Combined with the same overnight baking soda treatment on the footbed, this is how to clean white Nike slides so a pair keeps looking almost new well past the point most people give up on them.

Odor is a bacteria problem. Sweat trapped in the footbed feeds it, and cleaning the surface without addressing that trapped layer only masks the smell for a day. Here's how to clean Nike slides that smell, from a mild funk to a full end-of-summer stink.

Start with baking soda. Sprinkle a thin layer across the footbed, leave overnight, and shake it out in the morning. Cleaning Nike slides with baking soda works because it pulls moisture and odor at the same time. Repeat weekly if you wear the slides regularly for gym, pool, or backyard use.

For deeper odor, mix equal parts white vinegar and water. Dab (never soak) the footbed with a cloth, wipe with a fresh damp cloth to remove the vinegar, and let air dry completely. Vinegar kills the bacteria without the harshness of chemical deodorizers, and it evaporates clean.

Short answer on how to clean Nike slides in the washing machine: no. Trust us on this one.

The washing machine's agitation cycle warps memory foam, loosens the glue holding the straps to the sole, and cracks synthetic uppers within a few cycles. Nike's own shoe care guidance recommends hand cleaning for sandals and slides, and that's exactly why.

If you need a deeper clean than the surface routine allows, SneakERASERS SOAK handles porous foam and fabric elements far more gently than any spin cycle. It works overnight while you sleep, no supervision required.

Maintenance beats deep cleaning every time. 30 seconds after a pool day, gym session, or dusty walk saves you a two-hour reset later. A quick microfiber wipe on the straps and outsole is all it takes.

Keep a small shoe care kit near the front door with a microfiber cloth, a SneakERASERS sponge, and a small brush. This matters most for a Nike Comfort slides rotation, since that memory foam footbed absorbs sweat faster than any other model in the lineup. When you kick the slides off, it takes less effort to wipe them down than to walk past and think, "I'll get to those later."

If you wear slides every day, rotate between two pairs. Rotation gives foam time to fully rebound and dry between wears, which noticeably extends footbed life. It's a small habit that pays off across the whole summer.

Hand wash Nike slides with warm water, mild detergent, and a soft-bristle brush or a SneakERASERS sponge for scuffs. Skip the washing machine and the dishwasher. Both damage the foam and the glue.

Break it into two passes, the same approach that works on really muddy shoes. First, dry brush the loose debris off the outsole and footbed. Second, damp clean with detergent and a sponge or cloth. Finish with baking soda overnight to pull out odor and any last bit of moisture.

Yes, for cleaning. Slides handle water fine on the surface, but don't soak the footbed for long stretches. Moisture trapped in memory foam takes forever to dry out, and that's where the smell starts.

A microfiber cloth, warm water with a drop of detergent, and a SneakERASERS sponge for scuffs on rubber and synthetic surfaces. Skip harsh chemicals, wire brushes, and anything that promises instant whitening without explaining how.

That's the whole play on how to clean Nike slides. The routine boils down to four moves. Dry brush, damp swipe, footbed dab, air dry. Do that consistently and your Nike slides will keep looking like the day you unboxed them for at least another summer.

If you want to make it even easier, the SneakERASERS sponge 10-pack lives near your door for on-the-go scuff cleanup on straps and outsoles. And when it's time for a full reset (especially on Calm, Asuna, or Victori footbeds), SneakERASERS SOAK handles the whole slide gently overnight while you sleep. We built both products because we got tired of complicated shoe care kits ourselves. That's the same problem that got us on Shark Tank a few years back, and it's still the same problem we're solving today.

Clean shoes, simple routine. That's the whole promise.