Edit- thank you so much for your responses!
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You probably don’t. Those tummy acids are strong. I would wipe the surface with soap. Maybe submerge them in water if you can immediately place them in direct sunlight afterwards to dry them out again. Wipe surface again and hope for the best. I would water an un-vomited-upon Birk along with the offender, maybe not in the same sink water, to wear them out equally.
Agreed with this, you might be able to salvage the shoe if you’re okay with it being noticeably stained, otherwise it’s best to just accept the loss and move on.
Also, throwing up in shoes is usually personal, but not always. Maybe try and think about why your cat is upset. Not enough food/water? Litter box dirtier than usual? Naps getting interrupted? Strangers in the house? Or maybe the cat is just an asshole, equally likely
Dog we rescued, I bonded with almost immediately. Gf did not, woke up to only her shoes getting ripped apart a few times, a pair of birks included. Dog won’t touch my stuff lol.
Generally, once it’s dry, it’s a permanent stain, and likely some deterioration of the materials. It won’t be major damage, as in making them fragile, but they won’t look nice.
Remove all visible matter, obviously
Get a bowl and an old toothbrush, along with some rags.
Laundry detergent, preferably without dyes or scents. Be aware, that the colors in some detergents will stain leather, and might the soles.
A few drops of white vinegar, a few of the detergent, and some warm water in the bowl. Dip the brush and scrub gently until as much of the more ingrained matter is gone, and you’re no longer seeing the brush pick up anything that discolors the liquid. Now, in most shoes, that might never happen, so you might have to settle for it reaching the point where the colors of any stains are even. No telling unless I was there and doing the work; even pics wouldn’t help.
Switch to plain water, and clean the brush well, so that you can use it to remove soap residue.
Use the rags to dry the shoes as much as possible once finished.
The next part is where you gotta buy stuff. You’ll need a leather conditioner, and a cork sealant/conditioner if the cork was soiled. No way around it, no shortcuts because you’re already going to be stripping some oils from the leather, so cheaping out makes no sense. But it can be the inexpensive stuff.
Also, don’t use other kinds of soap. Laundry detergent is going to strip the least amount of oils.
You can maybe get by with bypassing all of that if only the leather is dirtied, and just buy some leather cleaner, but I can’t say it works any better; it just takes less steps.
From there, air dry. You can use a blow drier on low heat if you want
I just wipe it off and go over it with a little Simple Green
And Lysol, some sort of disinfectant. I don’t believe simple green will disinfect, its only an all purpose cleaner, won’t kill bacteria to kill the funk.
Lysol works well on regular sneakers too, kills the bacteria in sweat creating the funk.
For (genuine) leather, saddle soap or Renapur leather cleaner is probably your best option.
For non-animal-based materials an enzyme cleaner.
Worst case scenario, dye them black.
Get a dog. They’ll clean it up.
the absolute WORST thing I’ve ever had to clean up was dog vomit that was full of cat shit litter. and I’ve been a public school custodian for almost a decade. lol
Goddamnit man, I nearly wet my pants laughing, this was WAY too familiar
Patchouli
why would you own shoes that can’t get wet
Have you tried putting your shoes away like you were taught as a kid?
e: tough crowd I guess 🤷
Teach your cat how to wash it’s vomit.
Oh! Mr Wiskers! Did you vomit on the carpet??? Go get the cleaning bucket!
Meow!
No, I don’t care. You’re cleaning this!
Meow!
Yeah, you’re gonna think twice about doing this again, aren’t you?
Meow!
Pssshhhh!!! I’m not bailing you out. Now clean this up!
