diff --git a/cmd/s3-gw/app.go b/cmd/s3-gw/app.go
index 6f1a9bc..ca4200f 100644
--- a/cmd/s3-gw/app.go
+++ b/cmd/s3-gw/app.go
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"os/signal"
 	"runtime/debug"
-	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"syscall"
 	"time"
@@ -368,10 +367,6 @@ func (s *appSettings) IsDefaultNamespace(ns string) bool {
 }
 
 func (s *appSettings) setDefaultNamespaces(namespaces []string) {
-	for i := range namespaces { // to be set namespaces in env variable as `S3_GW_KLUDGE_DEFAULT_NAMESPACES="" "root"`
-		namespaces[i] = strings.Trim(namespaces[i], "\"")
-	}
-
 	s.mu.Lock()
 	s.defaultNamespaces = namespaces
 	s.mu.Unlock()
diff --git a/cmd/s3-gw/app_settings.go b/cmd/s3-gw/app_settings.go
index 3715e04..86a091c 100644
--- a/cmd/s3-gw/app_settings.go
+++ b/cmd/s3-gw/app_settings.go
@@ -481,6 +481,10 @@ func fetchDefaultNamespaces(l *zap.Logger, v *viper.Viper) []string {
 		l.Warn(logs.DefaultNamespacesCannotBeEmpty, zap.Strings("namespaces", defaultNamespaces))
 	}
 
+	for i := range defaultNamespaces { // to be set namespaces in env variable as `S3_GW_KLUDGE_DEFAULT_NAMESPACES="" 'root'`
+		defaultNamespaces[i] = strings.Trim(defaultNamespaces[i], "\"'")
+	}
+
 	return defaultNamespaces
 }