Whether you are a leather shoes enthusiast or might have been looking forward to owning a pair. After breaking the bank or using some savings to buy yourself a couple, then comes the time to stay committed to your recently acquired leather shoes. One question what precautions do you take for it to last longer? If you have no knowledge in shoe management, we are here to take care of that. If this is your initial pair of leather footwear, or the tenth pair you need to handle your footwear like an old-fashioned car collection. There is spot maintenance needed, regular maintenance alongside restoration is a very crucial component of proper dressing. When you treat yourself like a noble man, you will get unending rewards. Your shoes should not only look decent, but you can extend the life of your most prized pair of shoes.
Common issues with leather shoes and frequency of occurrence
Negligence is a big reason why a good-looking pair of leather footwear could get ruined. The other thing is contact with the elements and using the inappropriate leather cleaning means. Here are a few things that can easily deteriorate the quality of leather
- Exposure to excess heat and sun
Shoe leather material do not have so much difference with your skin. When you expose them to sunlight or heat for prolonged time, they will easily dry out. When leather shoes dry, they can get creases and could look uglier when you put them on your feet.
- Going cold and hot
Cleaning your leather shoes will be harder when you keep them under extreme heat conditions and then wear them in cold and humid conditions. When there excess heat and dampness levels, your shoes could easily become a breeding place for fungus and mold. Combined with sweaty feet you end up with foul smelling shoes.
- Use of harsh scrubbing products
Your skin treatment is not very different from how you should treat leather. Stronger cleansing agents and bleach could possibly ruin the texture of the leather. It could possibly dry out and form cracks in a way never anticipated.
How to clean leather shoes and when to do it.
University lecturer Anthony Covington is a prominent professional who has majored in leather science and in his book, ‘tanning chemistry’, he states that maintaining leather, requires you keep it away from liquids, but the leather should be capable of allowing aeration. Wiping a leather shoe, most specifically the white pairs are very tricky minus soaking or washing them. If you want to know what is needed to clean, the option having proper shoe maintenance products. It is more like human skin that needs good conditioners that will keep them clean.
Simple routine for cleaning leather shoes at home
- Cleaning
Use leather friendly items to take off the dirt from the surface of your leather shoes. You need to do this once every week to do a complete clean.
- Conditioning
The next process is applying conditioner for leather to add on the lost oils. You can do this maybe one time or two times every month.
- Polishing
After the conditioning has been applied, polish over to give a new look to them. This will give them a perfect shining black hue and remove dirt all in one move.
- Waterproofing
This is the last step to perform on your shoes, improving the waterproof features of the shoe. This protects your leather from such as tints, humidity. There is nothing satisfying in the process of shoe cleaning such as giving it a big waterproof.
Common tools required to care for leather material
Cleaning-use a clean fabric, shoe brush and customized leather cleanser
Conditioning- you should have a scrubbing cloth and conditioning gel
Polishing- have a washing cloth, shoe brush and conditioner for leather
Waterproofing- use waterproofing sprays for shoes
Proper treatment for leather shoes
The most operative cleaning gears are soft horsehair shoe brushes together with microfiber cloths which can help in buffing purposes. Do not consider using rough bristled shoe brushes because they cause scratches. If you do not have any liquid based leather cleaners, saddle detergent can do the job.
If you have to wash the interiors of your leather shoes, follow the steps below
- Take away insole it is detachable and rinse out its surface using microfiber
- Place the insole on a piece of paper and put on some mild cleansing agent or any facial cleanser to take away any persistent stains also smells.
- Do not rinse it, just pat it dry with a soft piece of fabric
- Get an anti-bacterial liquid to spray a haze in a slight coating that conceals your shoe insides. This effectively prevents mold or any smells to avoid the spread of bacteria
- Use a dry hand towel or paper to conceal the insoles then let them dry overnight
- On the following day, use a tiny quantity of conditioner to maintain the softness.
If your shoes have non detachable insoles, do a lot of cleaning. Baking soda and vinegar are still the best option for leather shoe enthusiast. It can get messy for the first times and they can even cause your leather shoes to dry out. It is better to use it with caution.
Popular leather material variations and ways to protect them
Vegetable tanned leather
This is the standard material for manufacturing leather shoes and tanning this material use the modern methods to give it cinnamon like leather coating. To prolong the usability of this shoe, you need to observe the gleam and shade. To protect it, do not leave it near any liquids or moisture. You may want to use oil-based cleanser that can be absorbed and a polish with beeswax
Pull-up leather
This material really needs a slight-oily touch and it can do a great deal of magic. You can try this by scratching slightly and rubbing using dry fingers and see the smudge vanishing. You need to reserve the pigment by using the appropriate wax quantity look like the original one. Use a worthy conditioning agent and a restyle using beeswax.
Chamois leather
Leather collections under this category are very smooth and nippier; possibly it can soak a lot of water. This shoe needs you to remove strains with a lint roller. You need to use a suede brush, a rubber eraser, suede cleaner and conditioner spray.
Conclusion
We all understand during harsh times, buying a couple of costly shoes could be a very respectable treat for yourself. The next requirement is taking measures to maintain your leather shoes to protect them from tinges because it is more of an investment than just a pair of shoe. You can follow the provided instructions to preserve your shoes in decent condition so that you can improve their life span.