I come from a family that has never thrown any shoes into a washing machine. It sounds...alien....to me. and my partner has never done that in his life either.

But then I'm from a family that always took off outside shoes before walking around inside the house. We just cared about hygiene..differently.

We did wash sneakers in a bucket of water outddors..during childhood.

I don't wash my cycling shoes, but I wear slip-in custom-made orthotics. For years, I've tried to always make sure I have a bunged up pair of old cycling shoes..for rainy weather and my usual, better pair. Keep the dirt separated.