A Man's Guide to Maintaining Leather Shoes

Leather shoes: a real man has at least two pairs of these. You can not be called a modern man if you do not have a couple of them in your wardrobe. But having nice leather shoes is not enough, you also need to know how to take care of them so you can get the most use from them.

In this article you will learn the different ways you can take care of leather shoes so they will always look nice and spiffy.

Polish, polish, polish …

Before you put on a new pair of leather shoes you should polish them first. Why would you want to polish a brand new pair? Are not they shiny enough? Actually, the reason why you need to polish them before you put them on, even if they are still brand new, is to help protect the leather from the elements. So remember to clearly polish your shoes before and after use so they can last for many years to come.

Invest in a couple of good cedar wood shoe trees

When you come home from work, do not just throw your shoes under the bed or in the closet. You should always place them properly in a shoe rack and insert a cedar wood shoe tree inside them. The shoe tree not only helps to retain the shape of the shoes, they also help to absorb the excess moisture from the inside of the shoes.

Moisturize

Leather tend to dry out after a couple of years even if you put shoe polish on them regularly. So to prevent your precious leather shoes from drying up and cracking you need to moisturize them at least once a month. Place a generous dab of petroleum jelly on the shoes and wipe them thoroughly using a clean washcloth until all of the petroleum jelly gets absorbed into the leather.

Waterproof your shoes

However as careful as you may be, your leather shoes will undetectedly get wet at one time or another, which is why you need to make sure that your shoes are ready for the things that may come. One of the time-honored ways to make shoes waterproof is by applying mink oil all over the leather, but bear in mind that this will darken the leather so this will ruin light-colored leather shoes. A more viable way you can protect your leather shoes from water is by using a commercially available waterproofing spray.

Keep them clean

Keeping your leather shoes shiny is not necessary enough, you also need to clean them thoroughly every once in a while to prevent stains. There are a couple of things you can use to wash your shoes, the best that you can use is specialty leather soap (also known as saddle soap). If you can not find any saddle soap any soap that does not have too much detergent like Ivory or Dove soap will do fine.

If you follow the tips mentioned above you can be sure that even after years of use your leather shoes will still look like new.