I’ve always been envious of my friends and coworkers that own boot and shoe dryers. I can’t count how many times I’ve headed inside after a day in the hot sun, rain or snow – only to watch them hook up their boots or shoes to an electric drying system. The next morning, they’re lacing up dry footwear while I’m forced to deal with the sogginess of the day before. The jealousy often wears off once I realize how unrealistic a powered system is for my lifestyle. I often wish I had one in the tent while camping, or even in my bag while traveling.
The likelihood that I’ll have power available inside my tent is questionable at best – and the thought of carrying a boot dryer in my carry-on bag immediately makes the decision pretty easy. I relegated myself to believe that I’d never use a shoe dryer – and I’d be cursed with wet, stinky feet for the rest of my life…until I discovered the Drysure system.
First, what is the Drysure Shoe Drying system? Drysure comes in two different sizes: “Active” for shoes and mid-height boots, and “Extreme” designed for tall boots. I own both – and use each very differently.
At the heart of the system is mesh bag, filled with silica oxide beads. You read that correctly – silica. While I haven’t dissected the bag itself, the beads feel larger than what you might find inside of the “do not eat” baggie that comes inside of an electronics package. The mesh bag is then housed inside of a high gloss outershell – which allows airflow around the silica oxide, and prevents the mesh baggie from sitting directly on the inner sole of the shoe or boot.
Because of the drying power of the materials themselves, they function completely independent of heat or electricity.
Drysure claims that the system can absorb up to 10 days of sweat and moisture before needing to be re-activated in direct sunlight – or even better in the oven for a few hours. While I’ve been fortunate enough to never need 10 straight days of drying, I can attest that they’ve worked perfectly each night during a week on the road or in a tent.
While the company calls out that they work in as little as 4 hours, my routine has been to place the Drysure units inside my shoes or boots before I go to bed – and ready to go again in the morning.
Something that’s definitely worth pointing out, is the effect that high heat has on leather footwear. Electric shoe dryers often produce heat as part of the drying process – which can lead to damage of the shoes themselves. Because this isn’t the case with Drysure, I feel confident that my shoes will be in the same condition as I left them – even after multiple uses over time.
To top things off, Drysure doesn’t just dry shoes and boots – but actually stands in defense to prevent bacteria and fungus from growing inside the footwear…and that makes my feet happy.
Check out Drysure Shoe & Boot Dryers here.
http://gph.is/2hpZMBK
