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A common shoe care advice is to brush off your shoes when one come home, to remove any surface dirt. Most think this is solely due to appearance, but that’s only one part of it. The more important thing is that doing this can significantly prolong the lifespan of your leather shoes. Here I explain why.
Still today the most commonly used shoe trees in the world are ones with a front part and a big spring that is bent to be placed against the heel. This type of shoe trees are in fact bad for your shoes, in the worst case they may even destroy them. Learn why in this article.
One of the most common mistakes done when it comes to shoe care, if one look at the population as a whole, is the use of waterproofing spray also on full grain smooth leather. Yes, it do protects against water, but it also makes it difficult for the nourishing ingredients of shoe creams to penetrate the leather, which means the leather risks drying out. Learn more in this article.
Many shoe factories and shoemakers use plastic coverage during the manufacturing process, to protect the uppers from stains and marks. When one remove this at the end of the production, you will inevitably end up with plastic left. About this topic, and how to handle it (or not handle it), in this article.
Pigmented shoe cream isn’t paint colours, but if one wish one can do quite distinct enhancements of the shade into darker tones. Here’s a walkthrough on how to do this in a good and efficient way to make sure that the colour come out even and nice looking.
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This tip is especially important for pigmented shoe cream, but also goes for all liquid creamy shoe care. Don’t think that you’re clever and put out dabs of cream which you plan to rub in consecutively, when leaving cream on the leather there’s a big risk of stains occurring.
This may be the most basic shoe care tip I’ve ever written, yet there’s so many out there who don’t follow it and therefore sometimes end up in trouble. When one use a new type of shoe care, cleaning or colouring product one should always test it on a hidden area of the shoes first, to make sure one get the result one is after and don’t harm the leather.
I’ve tested loads of different shoe cleaners through the years, some have been more or less useless, most are good, but none has been as extremely efficient yet being rather gentle as the Tarrago WASC Sneakers Super Cleaner (it’s certainly not only for sneakers it works). The fact that it works on all types of leather, suede and textile makes it a real go to cleaner.
For basically all shoe creams and wax polishes there’s recommendations to wait 5-10 minutes after applying before one go over the shoe with a brush. It’s very common though that one don’t have the patience to follow these, and do it quicker. This is a mistake. Here’s why you should make sure to follow the recommendations.
This is a very simple tip, which may not be obvious to everyone. It’s about making sure that the shoe trees are pushed as far forward as they can go in your shoes. It’s not uncommon for the spring on the shoe blocks to be a bit flimsy, and may need a little help to straighten the sole as much as it should.
