Nobody wants to open a case of new women’s boots and get hit with that smell. Damp basement, gym locker, something that’s been sealed up too long — and once it’s there, it doesn’t go away by leaving the box open for a day.
One of our customers had this problem with 4,000 pairs of women’s boots. They were told that there was a hole in the container and some moisture got in and may have caused the odor and mold issue. By the time it reached them, the mold and musty odor were bad enough that the product wasn’t sellable as-is, and sending 4,000 pairs back overseas or getting them remade for the season wasn’t realistic. They called Darn It!.
We requested 12 pair to test before committing to a process. Mold and odor remediation on footwear is different from apparel — leather and synthetic uppers hold odor in ways fabric doesn’t, and you can’t just launder a boot. That’s exactly what our two dedicated Ozone Rooms are built for: treating the material without damaging it.
Once the samples came back clean, and were approved by our customer, we brought the full 4,000 pairs through the same process — Ozone Room treatment, followed by a full inspection of every pair.
Once every pair was inspected and confirmed odor-free, we re-boxed and shipped the full order back, ready for the floor.
The project took 8 days from intake to shipped.
That’s the call we like to get — not because we love a mold problem, but because it’s exactly the kind of exception we’re built to handle fast, without a brand losing the season over it.
“Your Problem Is Our Business”
