Good reading.
The longevity of a pair of leather shoes depends greatly on the care taken in their maintenance and the way in which they are cleaned. In this article you will learn how to clean and maintain your leather shoes to keep them for a long time.
Thank you Mailmoth, author of this article and distinguished forum member.
How to maintain your leather shoes
There aren't that many things to do to properly care for a pair of shoes. It's one thing to know how to choose your shoes , but the rest is simple: you just need to clean them when they need it.
And above all you have to know what you want. There are leather shoes made to age, others not. There are leather shoes that will go out of fashion, others that will never be in trend. You may want to change it every two seasons just as you can fantasize about the splendors of leather weathered by fifteen years of use. Both attitudes are defendable. You just have to be clear, otherwise you risk ending up with a pair of shoes that will never be able to deliver what they were not initially designed for.
If you are in the first case and you consider your shoes as temporary associates, life will be simple for you: the quality of the leather, the resistance of the assembly have the right to remain almost indifferent to you. You can still have in mind to resell them one day more or less soon, which implies not having caused them to lose too much of their market value in the meantime.
Shoes by Christian Carol Poell: a lot of abstraction is required
to appreciate his work, but in a few years you will get there.
How to recognize beautiful leather shoes
1. When trying on, discreetly bend your foot when the seller's back is turned, and look at the leather: if folds form on its surface that resemble those of crumpled paper or cardboard, give up . Whatever the reason, whether the leather is dry or of poor quality, these deep creases will very quickly become marked, and if they fade once the shoes are on the shoe trees, they will reappear as soon as you take them off.
However, don't lose sight of the fact that a shoe gets marked, that the leather creases, and that this is almost inevitable. Only there are folds (the normal ones, as below) and folds (anything that deviates from them).
Acceptable creases.
Take care of your shoes so as not to damage them
2. If the sole is leather, don't wait too long before having it protected by skates , especially if it has an visible seam.
3. Find shoe trees. Don't bother looking for the exact size at Bexley or sanding the wood with sandpaper, this kind of refinement makes no sense in the case of shoes you don't plan to keep. There are plastic travel shoe trees (yes, plastic) at BHV which effectively tighten the leather and which will suffice; even if raw wood has the advantage of absorbing perspiration, it is still quite rare to sweat like an ox in a pair of dress shoes.
Shoe trees:
it is mandatory !
4. Before wearing them for the first time, moisturize the leather of your shoes with a nourishing milk available from any honest shoemaker. We generally recommend the Saphir and Grison brands. Leave to act overnight and polish with a cloth.
5. Avoid wearing your leather shoes two days in a row if possible, to allow the leather and stitching to rest.
How to maintain your leather shoes?
6. For regular maintenance, keep it simple: dust with a cloth , a little damp if they are really dirty; use milk, leave to act for a few minutes, rub with a brush or soft cloth; apply an infinitesimal quantity of shoe polish, spread and polish with a brush.
One thing to remember: shoe polish does not nourish the leather, it is a cosmetic . It is the milk that prevents the leather from drying out, and it is therefore the milk that should be favored. Another thing: buy real shoe polish, Saphir or Grison again; other brands often contain silicone which accentuates the shine by blocking the pores of the leather to make it smoother; but very quickly this makes it impermeable to nourishing products, dries it out and ruins it.
It's the same principle for real shoe polish with beeswax, and if you just polish your shoes without ever feeding them, you will achieve the same result: fragile leather like old parchment, which will end up by cracking. One year is enough. Too bad for resale.
Reason which justifies the seventh and final point:
7. Brush your shoes after each wear. This removes dust and excess polish that could block pores. It only takes a minute, but it's a great service to provide them.
All of the above is quite enough for regular care of leather shoes. But there are also other materials, to be treated differently; Furthermore, certain accidents (exposure to water, snow, salt, scratches) require more detailed attention.
That's it, you know everything about the care and cleaning of smooth leather shoes. If you have a nice pair of suede leather shoes, this is the article you should read: how to clean suede shoes .
