Netball week in most houses goes something like this. School PE on Tuesday, club training on Thursday, a match on Saturday morning, usually somewhere you've never been before. In between, there's a kit bag that never quite gets emptied.

Somewhere in that bag are a pair of court trainers, and you'd bet money they aren't dry. This is a guide to dealing with that without adding another job to your evening.

"But it's an indoor sport"

That's what most parents assume, and it's half right. The court itself is dry. Everything around it isn't.

Plenty of netball is played outdoors, on school playgrounds and tarmac courts, and from October to March those are wet for months. Even for indoor sessions, the trainers have already done the walk from the car park, the school field and the muddy bit by the sports hall door. Add an hour of hard running and jumping, and the inside of a shoe ends up properly damp from sweat alone.

Then it goes in a bag, zipped shut, until the next session. That's the problem, not the weather.

Why netball kit is harder than it looks

Football parents have one muddy bag to deal with. Netball parents often have two sets of everything. There's the school PE kit and the club kit, sometimes with a second pair of trainers for outdoor courts, and they all end up in the same bag at the same time.

Court trainers also take a lot of punishment. Netball is all quick stops, pivots and landings, which means the shoe is constantly flexing and gripping, and a damp shoe does both worse. It rubs where it didn't before. If your child has had the same blister on the same heel for three weeks, a damp trainer is a likely suspect.

And then there's the smell. Warm, damp shoes in a closed bag by Thursday night will make themselves known to the whole house.

Why leaving them by the radiator doesn't fix it

We've all done it. Trainers on the radiator, or under it, or on the boiler cupboard shelf. The outside gets warm and feels dry, but the insole and lining are still damp, and heat that strong can also warp the shoe or loosen the glue. You've made the problem look better without solving it.

Air alone is slow. A pair of trainers can take a day or two to dry fully in a heated house, and with two sessions plus a match, they rarely get that long.

A habit that fits a busy evening

The idea is to make it so easy you don't have to think about it. Here's how it can work.

When the bag lands in the hall, trainers come out before anything else. Pull the insoles out and put the shoes on the Atacama, switch it on, and carry on with the rest of your evening. It takes around 90 minutes to dry them properly, which is about the length of tea and a bit of homework. By bedtime they're dry, and in the morning they go back in the bag ready for the next session.

That's the whole routine. There's no remembering to move them in the morning and no guessing whether they're dry enough. It's the same few seconds every time, and you do it once rather than reminding anyone about it later.

If you're running a household with more than one sports kid, the same habit works for football boots, hockey boots and school shoes. The Atacama has room for a pair at a time, so it's worth staggering them across the evening.

FAQs

How do you dry netball trainers quickly?

Put the shoes on a dryer that moves warm air through them. The Atacama takes around 90 minutes, which is much quicker than air drying and kinder than a radiator.  

Why do my daughter's netball trainers smell so bad?

The smell comes from bacteria growing in the damp inside the shoe, and sweat plus a closed kit bag creates exactly that environment. Washing the socks won't touch it. Drying the shoes properly after every session is what stops it.

Can you put netball trainers in the washing machine?

It's best not to. The heat and spinning can damage the glue and the cushioning, and shoes can take a long time to dry afterwards. Wipe them clean by hand, then dry them properly.

Is it okay to dry trainers on a radiator?

It isn't ideal. The heat can warp the shoe and weaken the glue, and it usually dries the outside while the inside stays damp. A gentler, airflow-based method is the safer choice.