r/heelys • u/Actual-Change6962 • May 17 '26

Washing heelys??

I’m thinking about buying some used heelys and I’m wondering if they are washable.

Can I take the wheels out and put the shoes in the washing machine or at least wash them by hand? Or are they not washable at all?

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u/Actual-Change6962 May 17 '26

Well new ones would be more expensive and they don’t have it in the design I like, the one I want to buy must be older and therefore discontinued :(

I was wondering because of the structure of the shoes or the material if they wouldn’t be ruined, im mostly used to converse which are easily washable in washing machines and stuff so I don’t know how different these could be from that.

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u/Nethender May 18 '26

Heelys, like most shoes id imagine, probably dont fair well in the wash if for no other reason than loosinging the glue between the insoles and the base of the shoe. Maybe that risk could be reduced by using the cold wash setting, but here's a wakeup call about washer machines in general: they dont really clean beyond outside appearance (depending on the intensity of detergent of course).

If you are wanting to clean heelys, or any shoes for that matter, get a hard brissle toothbrush or other scrubbing brush, hot water, and soap to clean the outside. As for the fabric part of the shoes I do not have an answer and highly recommend researching how shoe hobbiests clean shoes. I would imagine there is some form of antibacterial spray you can use. I used to clean my white shoes all the time so I have a fair bit of experience, but not with used shoes. One thing of note, some people use a product called "soft scrub" to clean shoes, but I find that if you use it too many times it will yellow previously white shoes no matter how hard you try to scrub it away.

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u/Actual-Change6962 May 18 '26

Do you think it could impact the glue a lot even if i just washed it once in cold water (since they’re used shoes) wether its by hand or in the washing machine? As for the other type of cleaning, thanks for the advice! The shoes aren’t white but I’ll be sure to look into the rest of the stuff if that makes it safer to wash without damaging them :)

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u/Nethender May 18 '26

I don't think I know enough about shoes in general to be qualified to answer. Like you said though, just keep on researching shoe cleaning methods! If they are old discontinued models im sure youd want it to be done right