Avoid Using the Dryer for Your Shoes — Try These Tips for Minimal Damage Instead

Another way to dry your shoes is via the newspaper hack. That involves inserting crinkled newspaper (or paper towels/white paper if you’re worried about the print rubbing off) inside your shoes to remove excess moisture as they air dry. Though it should be pushed all the way down to the toe, don’t use too much, as it’s crucial that the air still circulates inside. Then, just replace the wet newspaper with a dry one as many times as you need to.

Now that we know the best ways to dry our footwear, let’s get into what could happen if we ignore Ocean Van’s advice, because there are several reasons why our footwear should stay far away from the dryer. “[The dryer] can warp and change the shape of the shoes. We’ve seen some of the rubber parts on the bottom of shoes get damaged from excessive heat, especially in athletic shoes,” Van exclusively explains. Intense heat could also loosen any glue used to bond the shoe together, and you may find that fabric shoes come out of the dryer wrinkled or scrunched up. In most cases, once your shoes are damaged, there’s no going back.

But it’s not just your footwear you’re risking in the dryer. “We’ve seen shoelaces get stuck in the dryer drum. In the dryers we use at our laundry service, there are metal mesh panels where laces can get caught, causing clanking noises and even damaging the metal parts of the drum,” Van says. That could mean, at a minimum, you’ll need to buy new shoelaces (and that can be pretty annoying when you’re trying to put your best foot forward in one of 2025’s shoe trends). Worst case, you may need to buy a brand new dryer — and that could be pricey.