How to take care of your shoes
Shoes are certainly an essential accessory of elegance. Dirty or poorly maintained shoes and the entire balance of a silhouette collapses. The only way to remedy this: is maintenance.
Even the most beautiful shoe, made from the finest leather, won’t last long if you mistreat it. Whereas if you maintain it regularly (…and correctly!), the magnificent pair you have just purchased will acquire a patina and improve over time. Leather, a living material, needs great attention to maintain its beauty.
Some do it out of duty, if not out of respect. Others add a touch of love, even passion.
In any case, here are some ideas, tips, and advice from ”pros” for maintaining your shoes…!
The Ten Commandments of the Bootmaker
1: Don’t wear the same pair every day
Each day has enough trouble of its own. Professionals are unanimous, you should avoid wearing your shoes two days in a row. Wouldn’t it occur to you to wear the same underwear for 5 days…? It’s the same for shoes! The ideal is to be able to let them breathe for 2 days so that they can rest and eliminate all traces of humidity.
2: Put your shoes on shoe trees
This is the first maintenance step! Shoe trees absorb moisture, reduce creases caused by walking, and restore the shape of the shoe. “Tighteners” should be avoided because they tend to break the counter and they do not fill the shoe correctly.
Prefer “complete” shoe trees: with a piston at the back and a side spring. The ideal shoe tree is made of natural wood, unvarnished (to absorb humidity!). Cedar wood is recognized for its absorbent properties and its fungicidal action. Plastic shoe trees are only tolerated when traveling!
3: Clean your shoes
You take a brush or scraper and scrub. shoes, back and forth continuously, keeping your wrist flexible to remove dust and dirt accumulated during the day. Do this ashoes, as en as possible because it not only cleans but also shines your shoes.
4: After rain, do not dry your shoes near a heat source
In case of rain or snow, a damp sponge will remove the marks. Be careful, dry your shoes in the open air, away from any heat source, and on shoe trees to prevent them from becoming deformed. In the case of shoes with leather soles, place them on their edge to allow the sole to dry too. Once the shoes are dry (around 12 hours), you can cream your shoes to nourish them.
5: Do not confuse shoe polish and shoe polish cream
The purpose of shoe polish is not to nourish, but to shine… It is a paste that remains on the surface and blocks the pores of the leather. Even though some good quality shoe polishes have nutritional properties, they prevent the leather from breathing. The leather will eventually crack…
The shoe polish cream will nourish and moisturize the leather to prevent it from cracking. Only after creaming, if you wish, can you apply shoe polish for more shine!
In summary: polishing your shoes is optional, while cleaning and creaming them is essential! Clean successive layers of shoe polish with cleansing milk approximately once every two weeks, for a pair worn regularly.
6: Use the right products
A bad product can cause damage. Avoid products sold in supermarkets like the plague because they contain silicone. The latter completely waterproofs the leather and closes the pores, so no more cream can penetrate and the leather ends up cracking. These “magic” products usually make anything and everything shine in the blink of an eye, but this is not without consequences.
Keep in mind to favor natural materials based on beeswax in the same shade as your shoes and you won’t make a mistake. Famaco brand products are recognized for their strong moisturizing and repigmenting power.
7: Don’t put too much
This seems to make sense and yet it is a very common error! Don’t use too much shoe polish, cream, or milk! It is better to apply it in small amounts and repeat the operation until the leather has finished being nourished by the cream. When it comes to shoe polish, the main mistake is to apply too much shoe polish, which will eventually clog the pores of the leather and weaken it more quickly.
Take some shoe polish on your pilot brush and apply it in circular motions to the shoe. Leave to rest for half an hour. Polish. Once again, cleansing milk applied once every two weeks allows the successive layers of cream and shoe polish to be cleaned.
8: Do not have skates (soles) installed right away
Many think they are doing the right thing by having rubber pads installed immediately after purchasing their shoes to protect the soles; it is a mistake!
Skates make the advantages of leather soles disappear: breathability and flexibility. The glue and the rubber pad will prevent the sole from breathing and make it more rigid, which will have the effect of increasing the risk of cracks in the leather and the sole. However, the skates help protect your leather soles from bad weather…
Dilemma! We, therefore, advise you to first pay attention to your leather soles by nourishing them with a colorless wax at the rate of once every three polishes. Wait until your sole has softened (worn) before installing a rubber or crepe pad, as flexible and thin as possible.
This will allow you to extend the space between two resolings, without removing the quality of your shoes. When it comes to resolving, renowned shoemakers (Lobb, Church’s, Crockett & Jones, Santoni, etc.) as well as specialized craftsmen all work in the same way. Complete disassembly and reassembly, generally with the ”Goodyear welted” system carried out by hand… The operation offers a second or third life to your shoes.
09: Store your shoes correctly
Take care to store your shoes in a ventilated area, if possible on horizontal bars rather than in boxes. At the end of the season, be sure to store clean, polished shoes.
10: Polish your shoes according to the rules of the art
Smooth leathers:
First dust your shoes, without forgetting the welt, with a small brush, called a “scrubber”, then use a damp sponge or a renewing milk (every two weeks) to remove the rest of the old shoe polish. Your shoes are clean!
To wax them, it is preferable to leave the natural wood shoe trees unvarnished, inside, which will reduce the creases when walking.
To nourish the leather, apply a shoe polish cream. You can then “iron” the step creases with the heat of your fingers. Leave to rest for an hour.
Only after creaming, if you wish, can you apply shoe polish for more shine! Place a little shoe polish on a small brush or cotton cloth. Opt for beeswax in the same shade as your shoes. The idea is to wax them in the evening and let them dry.
Use a fairly large horsehair brush or a natural sheepskin glove to go back and forth with small, quick, successive touches on your shoe.
The final touch: using a woolen cloth, rub until you obtain a shine over the entire surface.
Calfskin suede, nubuck and suede:
Maintenance is simpler but must be regular. Dust with a brass bristle brush for suede, with a crepe brush for nubuck, or an eraser for calf suede. You will also need to shampoo them (water and Marseille soap) from time to time and let them dry on shoe trees (far from any heat source!).
Oily Leather:
For more sporty, hunting shoes, it will be necessary to soften and waterproof the leather using seal grease.
Icing option:
An added tip or a plain slap may merit icing on the tip. This is not the easiest task… To properly make your icing, you need a cotton cloth (a worn shirt sleeve will do very well) and lukewarm water in the lid of the icing. the shoe polish box.
Lightly dampen the cloth with lukewarm water and apply the shoe polish. The index finger works in a circle and only touches the shoe. It is the heat created by the rapid movements (hence the usefulness of lukewarm water) that will crystallize the dough plugs which will make it possible to reach the icing.
Ice several times, alternating both feet, while one rests, we treat the other. It is rare to obtain a real glaze at the end of the first session. This operation is a school of patience…
Discover these shoe tips so simple as to find your shoes like new!
Simple Rules to follow
We all have a favorite pair of shoes, often because they are “new and follow the trend of the moment.” Practically speaking, these shoes are much more comfortable than others, it seems. We each have our shoe “fetishes,“ And yet, behold, ideally, it is better to avoid wearing the same pair of shoes two days in a row to let them breathe.
You should also know that, at the end of the day, instead of directly enclosing your shoes in the closet, it is necessary to aerate during the summer and winter.
When it rains, it is even necessary to disinfect the inside of your shoes with a spray. This will prevent the mushroom from growing there. Consider leaving the stuff in the newspaper to dry in the air. Effective to absorb moisture and avoid deforming!
This will not prevent leather shoes from cracking quickly! Similarly, I prefer to cool in the open air, while avoiding direct sun rays that promote discoloration.
For each subject, the suitable product
Of course, keeping these shoes necessarily reaches through the dust.
Just keep the clothes for this.
For the maintenance of your leaven shoe hardware, you’ll need an old cotton cloth and a good polish.
They are suede?
Choose brush clothing. For canvas shoes, clean them with a clean sponge that you have previously soaked in water. For the maintenance of patent leather shoes, apply a light cream every two weeks!
