I'm Paul Thomas, founder of Sole Mate here in Merthyr Tydfil. I've been running for years, everything from the local Parkrun to 100-mile ultras, and in that time I've learned most of what matters about foot health the hard way — blisters, black toenails, shoes that never dried out between sessions. Everything we stock, including the kit below, is stuff I've tested on my own feet first.

You know the feeling. You've come off the Taff Trail or down off the Beacons after a wet winter session, and your shoes are heavier than when you set out. Newspaper stuffed in the toe box, shoes propped by the radiator, out the door still slightly damp the next morning — and repeat. Most runners round here do this all winter without a second thought.

The problem is what that cycle does to your feet, not just your shoes.

Why wet feet matter more than wet socks

Skin that stays damp for hours softens and loses its natural barrier. Add friction from a shoe still holding yesterday's moisture, and you've got the two ingredients blisters need. Damp, warm shoe interiors are also exactly the environment athlete's foot thrives in — once established, it doesn't go away on its own; it just reinfects the next foot that goes in. We see this a lot through a Welsh winter: not one soaking, but weeks of shoes that never quite dry between sessions.

There's a knock-on effect for the shoes too. Foams break down faster when compressed while wet, and damp midsoles encourage odour-causing bacteria no amount of febreze fixes.

Winter trail running: the obvious culprit

If you're out on the Beacons, the Wales Coast Path, or any proper trail this time of year, wet feet aren't a risk, they're a guarantee. Bogs, stream crossings, mud that holds water — a trail shoe lets water in as fast as it lets it out. The usual fixes — radiators, tumble dryers, hairdryers — either take too long or cook the glues holding your shoe together. We've had customers bring in trail shoes gone stiff and cracked at the flex points from too many sessions by a radiator.

Save Our Soles Atacama shoe dryer — this is the exact problem it was built to solve, and why we stock it. It circulates warm air directly through the shoe rather than heating the room around it, so a pair soaked from a Beacons descent is properly dry in under two hours — no stuffing, no smell, no waiting overnight. It runs at around 30 watts, roughly the cost of an hour's television, and it's gentle enough not to shorten the life of the glues and foams direct heat damages.

Summer doesn't let you off the hook

This is the bit runners tend to miss. You're not crossing streams in July, so it's easy to assume dry shoes aren't a summer issue. But a foot inside a running shoe on a warm day produces a surprising amount of sweat, and that moisture has nowhere to go if you're back in the same pair the next morning. It's the same damp, warm environment as winter, just arriving from the inside. Athletes training for longer distance events, road or trail, doing back-to-back sessions in the heat, often see more blister and odour issues in July and August than in a wet February.

The fix is the same as winter: don't put a foot back into a shoe that hasn't dried out. Running the Atacama for even 30–40 minutes after a summer session resets a shoe that would otherwise still be damp tomorrow.

What we'd recommend

A few habits matter more than any single product:

• Rotate two pairs if running most days, giving each 24–48 hours to dry properly before going back on a damp foot.
• Dry shoes actively, not passively. Newspaper and radiators are slow and can damage materials — warm, circulated air is faster and safer.
• Get recurring blisters or hot spots checked. That's often a fit or gait issue, not just moisture — exactly what our Gait Analysis is for.
• Don't ignore itching between the toes. Early athlete's foot is easy to treat; established athlete's foot means the shoe needs treating too.

If you're regularly coming back from Merthyr's trails with soaked shoes, or clocking up summer miles in the heat, come see the Atacama running in the shop — it's changed how fast we turn shoes around.