8 Ways You Can Prevent Farting Noise in Shoes And Sandals When You Walk!
To stop shoes and sandals from making farting or squeaking noises, check if your insoles are creased under the toes and use baby powder underneath. Also inspect your insoles for damage, moisture or debris and replace if distorted. For dress shoes, wear them in for 1-2 weeks to break them in fully. Ensure your shoes fit properly and laces are tight enough. For sandals, the farting noise may be from trapped air under the footbed or ankle straps.
Farting noise in sandals or squeaking in shoes can be quite annoying when walking or running. It attracts attention to your shoes and distracts other people.
Having this noise in your shoes is also one of the ways to have bad reputation. If you are wearing, for example, Adidas shoes while walking or running indoors, people will look at you in different manner, which will make you feel embarrassed.
Read this guide till the end as I’ll describe the useful tips on how to get rid of squeaky noise from shoes.
Bonus Read: Fixing clicking sound in dress shoes
Table of Contents
Why Do Sandals and Shoes Make Farting Noises and How to Prevent Them?
The squeaking sound produced by your shoes or sandals depends on several factors. The squeaking or farting noise majorly comes from the following areas:
- Outsole
- Insole
- Heel cup
- Shoe tongue
- From footbed due to trapped air
- New Shoes
1. Noise from Sole Unit
This type of farting noise from shoes depends on the sole material and the surface it is in contact with.
Sneakers like Converse or Vans have rubber soles that make squeaking sounds on wooden gym floors. So, it’s normal. The grippy rubber soles are doing their job and stick with the floor.
Shoes like Nike Air Max or Jordans also produce irritating squeaky sounds when you walk on any surface. This is due to the trapped air in the midsole unit that the manufacturer injects to enhance the cushioning and offer a bouncy stride.
Prevention
If this squeaky noise due to the sole unit irritates you too much, one thing you can do is to rub the sandpaper to roughen them up and make them less squeaky.
To remove squeaky noise from Nike shoes sole, this method is a bit weird. But trust me, it really works. You’ve to be a bit tricky to do this step flawlessly. So, all you need is a WD40 and 0.4mm syringe.
Next, you need to locate the exact point in the sole where the farting sound is being produced. Stick the needle in the sole until you’re through the hard surface, and in the air chamber as shown in the picture.
Now, inject WD40 in the chamber. When it starts to evaporate, it will get some trapped air bubbles out.
2. Farting Sound from Insole
If everything is fine with the outsole, there might be a possibility that the squeaky noise is coming from the footbed.
Now, there are multiple reasons for it. Most of the time, the culprit is the orthotic insole that generates squeaky sound.
The reason is that when you walk, it rubs against the shoes bed. This produces a rubbing sound because of friction.
Prevention
If your shoes have leather insole, and you’re wearing them without socks, try to wear socks and then walk in your house for some time and observe whether the farting sound diminishes or not.
If it doesn’t, there are multiple solutions to silence the squeaking noise produced by the insole. The famous one is using baby powder. You’ve first to remove the insole and sprinkle the powder in the shoes.
Then, place the insole and make sure that it streamlines perfectly with the bed of the shoe. The powder will reduce the friction and smoothen the insole’s movement.
You can also use a silicone spray, hand lotion, or sanding insoles to remove the noise from the shoes.
3. Squeaking Noise in Sandals Due to Trapped Moisture
Sometimes your feet become too much sweaty, due to which moisture gets trapped in hidden places of the shoes.
This usually happens in summer when you stand for long hours during your work, walk or run for long distances and put your shoes or sandals in the closet without letting the moisture dry out of the shoes.
It may also happen if you accidentally step in a shallow puddle or wear your shoes in the rain.
In those cases, it doesn’t matter whether you put talcum powder under your soles or use oil; it is not silencing the squeaking noise.
Prevention
So, there are two methods to get rid of hidden moisture in the shoes and the suction noise.
The first method is to lean your shoes up against your bathtub or wall in the bathroom, run a heater facing the shoes opening for about an hour, and close the bathroom door. This hot air will evaporate the moisture.
The second method is to put your shoes in the dryer. Now, I don’t know the type of your shoes in which the moisture is trapped.
Whatever shoe pair you’re wearing, first ask its manufacturer whether it is fine to put it in the dryer.
If it’s fine, put your shoes for a shorter cycle in the dryer to remove any moisture, Hope, they will come out squeaky free.
4. Squeaking Sound Due to High Foot Arch
This type of farting sound is usually produced in sandals like Birkenstocks or Chacos. It is similar to the sound you can make by pressing your hands together to form a vacuum and unsealing it.
Prevention
If your sandals are thoroughly dried, and still they’re producing squeaking noise, there are two methods that you can apply to stop squeaking sound in sandals.
First, you can use thin pieces of Industrial Strength Velcro. The Velcro strap makes the suction and helps the air to escape.
All you need to do is to cut a one-inch of a piece of Velcro (only the soft and fuzzy side) and stick it on the sandal bed where your foot’s arch meets.
You can use multiple small pieces of Velcro, depending on your arch length and width. Velcro pieces are comfy and strong.
They’ll remain stick for a long time with the footbed of the sandal, and you won’t face any issue.
You can also take a sheet of baby wipes and place it between your foot and sandal. However, this method will not last long. You would need to change baby wipes occasionally.
An alternative way is to scrub the footbed of your sandal with a brush to fix farting noise. You can watch the following youtube video to learn more:
5. Squeaky Noise by Shoes Tongue
This squeaky noise is usually produced by leather shoes, including dress shoes and sneakers like Adidas Sambas. This happens the tongue rubs against the inside of the shoes up towards the tip where you tie them.
According to the wearers of Sambas, short tongue shoes models tend to produce that averting sound as compared to the long tongue models.
So, first applying the technique to remove that noise, make sure that it’s not coming from the sole.
Prevention
To stop farting noise from the tongue of shoes, you can apply petroleum jelly, Vaseline, chapstick, or a lotion.
These are temporary methods, and you can easily use them. The permanent method is a bit technical. You need to take fine-grit sandpaper.
The sandpaper could diminish some shininess off the shoes. But don’t worry, it won’t be visible.
Sand the spot on the tongue and inside until it becomes smooth. After that, walk in your shoes to some distance, and observe whether the noise is still there or it’s gone.
6. Squeaky Noise Due to New Shoes
You’ll observe this farting sound in new leather dress shoes, or when the leather becomes dried out and scuffs appear on it.
Most of the dress shoes have a bit stiff leather, due to which it requires some time to conform to your feet.
During this break-in period, there are the chances that you’ll hear some irritating farting sound when you walk in your new shoes.
Prevention
To stop squeaking noise from the leather upper, you need to soften it. You can apply leather oil, wax-based conditioners. Apply the conditioner on the creases over the toe area and under the laces. You can also use a shoe stretcher to soften the leather.
7. Farting Sound In Shoes Due to Loose Fit and Heel Slippage
This squeaky noise in shoes is usually produced when the heel of the foot is too narrow that it starts slipping against the shoes when you walk.
This kind of squeaky noise due to loose fit is usually observed in leather dress shoes, some climbing shoes and Chuck Taylors.
In Chuck Taylors II, the reason of heel slippage is that they feature a compressible lunarlon insole. When you take a step, the insole compresses under the weight of your heel, due to which it rubs against the heel cup.
Prevention
First, you need to buy shoes of the correct fit and tighten the laces properly. Make sure that your rearfoot is not loose in the shoes.
Your socks pair could also be the culprit. I’ve found that 100% cotton socks are most prone to cause squeaking noise in shoes after wearing them a bit. So, if you’re wearing cotton socks, I’d suggest you to 100% synthetic material socks.
If you can’t wear synthetic socks due to skin problems, you can use hair oil or hand lotion to lubricate the heel cup of the shoes.
You can also use moleskin to stop the shoes from rubbing against your heel. Here’s what a customer on amazon says about his experience of using moleskin to silence the farting sound in the shoes.
8. Farting Sound Due to Metal Shank in Shoes
This is also a major issue in dress shoes. Several dress shoes, except Allen Edmonds, contain a metal dress shank under the insole, which the manufacturer screws to give shoes rigidity in wear.
After some time, depending on the quality of dress shoes, the metal shank starts losing its strength and the shoes produce a squeaking noise.
Prevention
The only solution for this type of squeaky noise is to take the shoes either to the cobbler or the manufacturer to fix the metal shank. You can’t do anything by yourself.
How to Prevent Farting and Squeaky Noise in Shoes (Quick Summary)
So, here’s is a quick summary of what I’ve discussed to remove farting sound or squeaky noise from the shoes or sandals for different cases.
- Sprinkle baby powder, or apply silicon spray under the insole
- Rub the rubber outsole with sandpaper if you’re wearing them on polished floors
- Apply leather oil or wax conditioner on the creases of leather shoes and under the tongue
- Dry the shoes by putting them in the dryer or facing them against the heater
- Use industrial strength Velcro strap or baby wipes in sandals
- Get the shoes with a correct fit
- Use moleskin, heel grip, or apply hand lotion to stop shoes from rubbing
- If possible, avoid cotton socks and try to switch to socks with synthetic material
