After months or years of using the same shoes for everyday activities or hard-core exercises, it is common for anyone’s shoes to develop a form of inconvenience – squeaky noises that nobody likes to hear when they are indulged in any form of work.
Even I have shoes from Nike that used to squeak until I bothered doing something about it. There is always one way or another to fix issues related to any shoe. But let us get to the real question at hand that must be bugging you to be answered by me – how to fix squeaky Nike shoes?
Why Do My Nike Shoes Squeak?
Your Nike shoe squeak could be for almost anything. Here are a number of reasons for your question – why are my Nike shoes squeaking?
Here are 5 reasons for squeaky Nike Shoes.
1. Your Nike shoes have been nearby water for long
If the Nike shoes were nearby water when you were doing whatever, it could cause squeaking. It may have caused the material to be damaged and lose its integrity, resulting in unwanted squeaking. If your shoes are wet, they will most likely squeak until dry.
2. You are wearing your Nike shoes with wet feet
If there is moisture between your feet and shoe, it can result in squeaking noises when they rub against each other, considering your feet are bare and you are not wearing socks.
3. The insoles of your Nike shoes are displaced
There is also the possibility of your shoe’s insoles moving around so much that they make squeaking noises whenever you try to walk. If your insoles are staying where they are supposed to, the shoes are not supposed to squeak.
4. Lack of lubrication of the insoles of your Nike shoes
The lack of lubrication of the insoles can be an underlying cause if you have not lubricated your insoles for quite a while. However, lack of lubrication is not just limited to the interior of your Nike shoes either. The exterior can be lacking lubrication as well, in case you find that lubricating the interior has not helped much to remove the squeaking noise.
5. Soles of your Nike shoes are too smooth
Soles being smooth is also a good enough reason for your Nike shoes to start squeaking, along with there being a gap between the bottom and upper part of either of your shoes. Often it is not even the fault of your shoes; instead, the surface is to be blamed. If by any chance, the surface you are moving on is slick, your shoes are usually bound to make squeaking noises no matter how good the condition of your shoes is.
One or more of the above are supposed to answer your question – why do my Nike shoes squeak? If you found the reason, let’s look at a bunch of solutions.
You can also check my article, why do Converse Squeak?
How to Fix Squeaky Nike Shoes Quickly? (08 Quick Ways)
If you are like any average shoe user, you would want to save your shoes however you can instead of throwing them away like most people do without caring about how much they spent on their shoes, be it cheap or expensive.
Since there are many reasons behind squeaky shoes, we will look at different methods to address your problem. We will go through the materials you can use for various methods first.
Materials Required
- Baby powder, talcum powder, or corn starch.
- Paper towels, napkins, or dryer sheets.
- Coconut oil.
- Sandpaper.
- Superglue.
- Conditioning oil.
- Saddle soap.
- Newspaper.
Note that it is not an absolute must to use every material, as chances are your squeaking issue may get solved by the first few. Also, each material brings different ways to fix the problem, so consider this when deciding which material or method to go for first.
Here are 8 Ways to Fix Your Squeaky Nike Shoes
1. Using baby powder, talcum powder, or starch:
Step 1: Take out the insoles of your shoes.
Step 2: Considering that you have baby powder, talcum powder, or corn starch anywhere nearby (all of which are found commonly in every household), sprinkle a little bit of the powder.
Step 3: Add the insoles back.
This method helps reduce friction between your shoes and their insoles. If you do not have removable insoles, try sprinkling the powder around the seams of the insoles instead.
2. Using paper towels, napkins, or dryer sheets:
Step 1: Fold two paper towels, napkins, or dryer sheets inside your shoes under the insoles.
Step 2: Change whatever you put folded below the insoles from time to time. Otherwise, they may start to smell terrible.
This method lets you prevent your insoles from moving around and making a squeaky noise.
3. The coconut oil method:
Step 1: Remove the insoles and rub coconut oil on the bottom of the interior.
Step 2: Insert the insoles and notice how lubricated they are now making the squeaky noise less likely to occur.
This, however, is a repetitive process. You have to apply coconut oil again if your shoes start making a squeaky sound. Use a thin layer of coconut oil instead of overdoing it.
4. Sandpaper method:
Step 1: Make the bottom of your Nike shoes rough by gently rubbing a piece of fine sandpaper.
Step 2: Stop rubbing the sandpaper when they start feeling somewhat rough to your touch.
It is best to use fine sandpaper of grits 120-220 to avoid scratching your precious shoes. This process will get rid of slippery soles that can cause squeaking.
5. Using superglue:
Sometimes the bottom of your Nike shoes can get loose. You can use the good old reliable superglue to get the job done.
Step 1: Just fill the gap with superglue.
Step 2: Clamp the hole.
Step 3: Wait for the glue to dry out.
It is no surprise that if you have a loose shoe bottom, it can be one of the causes of a squeaking noise.
6. Via conditioning oil:
Only use this method if you are sure that the exterior of your Nike shoes is the sole reason for causing squeaky sounds. When you are sure of it, apply conditioning oil on the outside to make it lubricated.
Beware that you must use the conditioning oil best for your shoe type. For example, using a non-leather conditioning oil on a leather Nike shoe will ruin it. Get leather conditioning oil for leather Nike shoes.
Like the coconut oil method, this process is also repetitive and must be done again once the conditioning oil is used up and the shoes start squeaking again.
7. The saddle soap way:
For some shoes, the tongue and laces can rub off to make noise which can be annoying. So to deal with this, you can order saddle soap online or use conditioning oil if you can’t find saddle soap available anywhere (which is unlikely).
Applying saddle soap to the tongue acts as a conditioning cream for it which lubricates the tongue just like how conditioning oil would. In the same way, you must repeat this application as long as the squeaky noise persists whenever the saddle oil wears off.
8. Stuffing Nike shoes with newspaper:
Last but not least is putting newspaper in your shoes. You can use this method, assuming your shoes are making noises because of moisture on the inside.
Step 1: Crumple up the old newspaper lying around your home.
Step 2: Stuff them in the shoes to absorb moisture and reduce or completely remove the ability to make squeaky noises.
Now you know how to fix squeaky Nike shoes very easily in a few simple steps! There are a lot of methods described, so you can choose whatever is convenient to you.
You can also read our article, Why Do My Air Forces Squeak when I Walk?
Why Do My Nike Air Max Shoes Squeak?
Nike Air Max shoes have air chambers mainly meant for comfort and support. But as a user (including myself), the amount of wear that the shoes go through can mean a couple of things: the air chamber wears out so much that they start making squeaky noise when you put pressure around the shoe’s heel.
However, the insole or both the insole and air chamber can cause noise. As mentioned above, a loose insole in any shoe can result in noisy consequences, apart from getting the shoes wet both inside and outside.
In my case, the air bubbles were to be blamed. But I got the situation under control and fixed it in no time by using a method that I shall be expanding on below.
Please check our article, why are my Doc Martens squeaking?
How Do I Stop My Nike Air Max from Squeaking?
The processes I have discussed above for Nike shoes can be attempted for Nike Air Max shoes as well, but in case those do not work, you can use the method I did – WD40.
WD40 is a multipurpose spray that has multiple functions, one of which is for removing squeaky noises from Air Max shoes.
Just spray the WD40 on the air bubble, toe area, or under the insole and put your shoe in the fridge if required. Once the WD40 has dried up, you can notice that the squeaking noise is not even there anymore and if it did not resolve the issue, just try the other methods mentioned above until one of them does the job.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do my Nike running shoes squeak when I walk?
The reason is the same as why Nike shoes squeak – it is either the fault of your shoe’s interior where it is wet, or the insole is loose and keeps moving around, or the exterior which is not lubricated enough and rubs in a bad way against surfaces and squeaks.
Why do my Nike Vapormax squeak?
If you do manage to pop the bubble in Nike Vapormax shoes, they will tend to squeak. Then there is also the insole that can squeak as the air pocket is between it and the bottom of the shoe, making it tougher to get an actual fix for the problem.
How to fix squeaky Nike shoes (Summary)
As you can see, I have given numerous ways to address your issue to fix squeaky Nike shoes. Hopefully, these will help you not dump your current shoes and save your money in the long run. After all, I cannot justify throwing away shoes that make noise and disrupt your experience but can be fixable if given proper care.
But in the off chance that your shoes still squeak even after trying everything you possibly could, if the noise bothers you, it honestly depends on what you prefer to do. I would keep using my shoes even if I could not get rid of the squeaking noise.