Check your shoes. Leather? We thought so. In fact, most of your shoe collection is made from different types of leather sewn together with sewing machine thread. From full grain to lace-up, these leather shoes are reliable, stylish, and durable. But despite the complexity of natural resources, they still need to be protected.
Whether your leather shoes are boots, shoes, or sneakers, you need to take care of them. Cleaning and polishing are two simple steps, but they are tasks that can extend the life of your drives by several years. So take off your shoes, show some love and invest in the best shoe care.
Caring for leather shoes can be a bit of a hassle, but leather is very durable when given a little love and care. Proper care of leather shoes (whether they are dress shoes, boots, or casual shoes) has two main objectives: keep them clean and dry. By following these steps you can extend the life of your shoes.
6 Steps to Take Care of Leather Shoes
1. Don't wear your shoes every day
Leather needs to breathe just like your skin. You should always have at least two pairs of shoes in your regular rotation so you don't have to wear the same pair every day.
Your feet sweat all day (the story is true), and the leather absorbs that moisture. Wet leather is more prone to stretching, scratching, folding and darkening. Wearing them every day will ruin the shine and texture of your leather shoes and make them look bad.
2. Wash after each use
Keep a shoe brush or soft microfiber cloth and clean your shoes immediately after each use to keep up with the lustre. This will prevent dirt and grime from turning into the leather over time, and you won't have to deal with it later.
3. Preserve leather shoes and shoe wood
Cedar wood or spruce wood is the most important part of shoe care and is often the most overlooked area. Leather is porous, so it absorbs moisture and odours and breaks down. The shoe will absorb this moisture and odour while maintaining the shape of the shoe without creasing.
4. Avoid bad weather
If you know you're going to be caught in rain or snow, use a pair of boots for protection all around. If your shoes get wet, avoid drying them next to a radiator or window. Heat and sun damage the leather.
5. Polish them after every 6 wears
You do not want your leather to be overly wet or dry since it will ruin its shine and texture. Fortunately, there's an easy way to maintain a healthy balance: use shoe polish every 6 times.
Shoe polish helps moisturise the leather and adds a protective layer to repel dust and water. Restores colour and hides blemishes and imperfections. Cream is more effective than wax and gives a natural look. Wax has a better protection and gloss level, but it takes more drying time. We recommend starting with cream and ending with wax, but the choice is yours depending on the texture you want.
6. Store the shoes in a bag when not in use
Dust gets into leather shoes over time, causing them to become dirty and damaged. To protect and allow for air circulation, put your shoes in a dust bag when not in use.
Of course, there are other measures you can take to extend the life of your shoes, such as using leather or taking them to a repair shop, but these six steps do most of the heavy lifting. If you take care of your shoes properly, you will be surprised how long they last.
Types of Leather Shoe Polish
Shoe leather polish restores colour and moisturises the leather, and can act as protection against dirt and grime. It is safe to say that polishing your shoes is very important to protect your leather shoes. Don't forget that it can be very greasy, so use a leather cleaner every now and then to get rid of the extra layers.
But before you head out to the beach to polish your shoes, you should know the two types of polish you can choose from: cream polish and wax polish.
- Cream Polish: Cream is great for polishing leather shoes, extending their life and keeping them looking fresh and new. It is also used to fill scratches in leather.
In addition, cream polishes usually have a high concentration of pigment, so they are the first choice to restore the vibrancy of leather clothing. Since sandpaper doesn't colour the leather, but adds another layer of colour, you don't need to match the colour of the shoes. This doesn't mean you'll get a colour you like - try to get as close to the original colour as you can. If the polish is a little lighter than the shoe, that's fine.
- Wax Polish: On the other hand, wax polishes are the mirror shine that some people want to go for. Wax gives your shoes a shine that cream can't achieve.
However, wax is not the same as cream and does not provide the leather fibres of your shoes with the nutrients they need. Because of this, you will often hear people say that wax polish is a pretty thing, not a useful one.
Conclusion
Leather is highly valued due to its comfort and durability. It is composed of a network of fibres kept together by protein connections at the microscopic level. Protein linkages are maintained by natural lipids and oils. In the event that the oils in the leather are gone, the texture of the leather breaks and gets more and more damaged.
It becomes damaged and needs to be replaced when this occurs. By maintaining the moisture and flexibility of the leather's fibres, proper tanning helps to minimise this damage. As a result, well-made leather products stitched with bonded nylon thread or another robust thread can occasionally be used for over a century if they are used with proper care.
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