Bad rubber boot smell?

i may or may not have a solution for the new rubber boot smell that hunting boots seem to have when you get them new. With christmas just being over and myself just getting a new pair of boots i was trying to figure out how to get rid of that annoying rubber scent, so after talking to my brother in law he said to take them out and rub mud on them and let them sit about a day or so and wash them off, i did so and it seemed to help some but i could still smell the rubber. I was taking my tree down tonight and realized there was pine needles all over the floor, after sweeping them up and getting about 2 or 3 cup fulls i realized why not put these to use, so i broke out the wifes old blender and added about a 1/2 cup of water and blended the needles to a fine puree to make a paste, i then took the paste and rubbed it all over the boots using my hand, i took the boots and put them in a plastic tote and poured the rest of the mix into the tote and covered it with a lid, i will check it in a couple days to see if it worked

 

I got rid of the smell just by wearing them around the yard while doing chores around the house.

 

Weed whacking in them worked great for mine. Smelled like Fresh cut grass afterwards.

 

You can try to cover the scent up by adding natural stuff, but underneath the rubber smells are still there. The best thing for getting the smell out of new gear is to put it out in the sun for a few days. Of course, at this time of the year, that's not much of an option anywhere up north, but it works for other seasons.

The best thing, for during winter, is to smother it in baking powder for a while. Believe it or not, vinegar (white or apple cider) works pretty well, too.

 

ok, i will see what how they smell after i take them out, i had a set of cabelas boots a couple years ago that i set outside for like a month and it actually dry rotted them and they leaked after that and the scent was still there but not as strong

 

Do not let rubber boots sit out in the sun, they will dry rot. a cover scent is your best bet if you want to use them ASAP.

 

I store mine in a corn feed bag.

 

Sorry for the bad advice, then. I have never had that happen! But if two of you have gone through it, I guess it's a bad idea. Sitting stuff outside is pretty much the standard for me when it comes to getting the smell out, but perhaps it depends on where you live. I'm in Canada and even in the summer I haven't killed anything by putting it outside yet. I don't leave them out for too long though. Just a few days to a week. And I often bring it in at night.

 

ok so i took them out of the tote today and washed them off with water then let them air dry and hardly any smell now whatsoever, nothing a little scent spray can't handle, i'm actually surprised the pine needles worked

 

New rubber boots take time. Actually, anything that is new rubber takes time to dissipate. The reason is that what you're smelling is gasses being released from the rubber compound itself. That releasing of those gasses produces that smell. Its my understanding that direct sunlight amplifies this and moves it along much quicker. However, rubber boots stink no matter what. I quit wearing them and haven't had an issue going back to leather uppers.

 

I wear LaCrosse Iceman that have rubber bottoms, it just takes time for the rubber to stop off-gasing. It will eventually stop smelling like rubber. Now is a bad time of the year but leaving them outside, say under some pine trees and let some rain do some work they'll stop smelling like rubber. Now Iceman's don't smell. I still always use some Tinks cover scent on them before I go out hunting.