At some point in your life, you have probably kicked off your shoes and been greeted by an aroma foul enough to clear a room. Do not despair; there is hope for you and your smelly feet. There are thousands of sweat glands on the soles of your feet, generating approximately one pint of sweat on an average day. Bacteria thrive in this warm, dark, wet environment. This is the main reason we have stinky feet. Odor Eaters are shoe inserts that adsorb foot perspiration, which helps reduce foot odor.
The Product
Odor Eaters is a brand of products designed to reduce the aroma of stinky feet. In the early 1970's, Herbert Lapidus invented the namesake insoles, sandwiching activated charcoal between layers of permeable latex. The inserts simply slid into the shoe, cushioning the foot and adsorbing sweat and odors.
The Problem
At any given point in time, bacteria is present on your skin. They are beneficial to your health and under normal conditions, you don't even know they exist. Bacteria thrive in an environment that is dark, warm and damp, making a sweaty sock or shoe the perfect place to grow and multiply. Some people's feet smell worse than others because some people sweat more than others. Bacterial growth on the feet isn't dangerous, but it can lead to other problems, such as athlete's foot or toenail fungus.
The Function
The basic concept behind the Odor Eater's design is founded on the principles of general chemistry. The original inserts had a layer of activated charcoal in the middle. Activated charcoal has been manufactured in a way that opens up tiny pores that exist between the carbon atoms. This process allows the charcoal to adsorb odorous substances. When the activated charcoal of an Odor Eater adsorbs foot sweat, it attaches to it by chemical attraction. The bigger the surface area, the more bonding sites there are. Some substances will be attracted to the carbon and others will pass right by.
This means an Odor Eater insole is good at trapping some impurities, specifically the buckets of sweat that come pouring out of the soles of your feet each day. It also means that once all the carbon bonding sites are full, the Odor Eater will stop working and will need to be replaced. How often you change your inserts will depend primarily on how sweaty your feet are.
The Company
Manufactured by the Combe Corporation, the Odor Eaters line has expanded to include foot powder, sneaker spray, socks and even cat litter odor neutralizer; but one of its most popular side lines began in 1975 as a gimmick to sell shoes. Odor Eaters sponsored the first ever Rotten Sneaker Contest in a small Massachusetts shoe store. Currently held every spring in Montpelier Vermont, the event sees thousands of kids between the ages of five and 15 compete for the grand prize--a $500 savings bond and a year's supply of Odor Eaters. But the cash takes a back seat to what many consider the true prize, having their stinky sneakers enshrined in The Odor Eaters Hall of Fumes, securing their place in smelly shoe history.
Conclusion
Even if you have shoes that can make grown men cry and send innocent children screaming from the room, do not give up hope. No matter how bad your feet smell, the process can easily be reversed in a few weeks. Odor Eater inserts are a cheap and easy way to replace your current insoles, removing harmful bacteria and giving your feet (and everyone else in the room) a chance to breathe.
Tags: Odor Eaters, Odor Eater, your feet, activated charcoal, Bacteria thrive, bonding sites