How to properly care for leather shoes: special cosmetics, cleaning methods, storage features

Shoes wear out faster than any other item of clothing. Therefore, you need to start monitoring it immediately after purchase. A leather pair needs to be cleaned, nourished and protected regularly. The main thing in this matter is not to overdo it. For natural materials, lack and excess of moisture are equally destructive. But even with a huge selection of modern store-bought products, a universal one does not yet exist. Different colors, types of leather, intensity of wear and even the season affect the condition of the shoes. This means that each problem requires a separate approach.

How to properly clean at home

Cleaning should be done after each wear and after the shoes have been outside the box for a long time. It is best to clean boots or shoes immediately after taking them off, so that you have time to dry them and apply a caring cream.

PU Leather

Artificial leather loses its appearance much faster, so care for it must be regular.

Use special creams and cleaning pastes for leatherette.
Attention! Such products should not contain aggressive agents, such as solvents, waxes, kerosene, ammonia and alcohol.
Water based only. For shoes made of smooth artificial leather, the following tips are suitable:

1. Use a soft brush to remove dirt. Be careful and do not press too hard to avoid damaging the skin;
2. Use a delicate cloth to dry your shoes;
3. Thoroughly clean the sole and remove dirt from the seams and tread;
4. Use a slightly damp cloth to gently wipe the outside of the boots. If the shoes are very dirty, repeat this procedure until the uppers are perfectly clean;
5. For difficult dirt stains, a weak soap solution can be used, which must be rinsed off thoroughly;
6. Leave the shoes to dry away from sunlight and heating devices for at least 4 hours.

You can use baby wipes to clean your shoes.

After finishing cleaning, you need to apply cream.

Newly purchased faux leather shoes can be treated with a colorless cream that adds shine.

However, leatherette shoes lose their color and shine much faster than shoes made of genuine leather.

Therefore, over time, they may need tint creams that restore the original color.

Choose a cream that is a shade lighter than the current color of your shoes, so you can achieve the most natural look.

Shoes made of smooth artificial leather need to be polished periodically. For this, use special sponges with silicone impregnation or a flannel napkin with a couple of drops of glycerin. If your shoes are made of artificial suede or nubuck, you should remember the basic rules for caring for the product:

1. Avoid wearing such shoes in rainy or humid weather . If shoes or boots made of artificial suede or nubuck get wet, they must be stuffed with crumpled newspapers and dried in natural conditions away from sunlight and heating devices. After this, the shoes should be cleaned with special brushes;
2. Avoid getting the uppers too wet . To wash heavily soiled artificial suede or nubuck, use slightly damp cloths or sponges soaked in ammonia diluted in water;
3. To clean the outside of dusty shoes, use flannel wipes;
4. A special spray with water-repellent properties will help prevent the appearance of dirt and dust on the surface of shoes made of artificial suede or nubuck. It should be applied immediately after purchasing the product and dried for 10-12 hours. To maintain the dust- and water-repellent properties of the shoe surface, the protective layer must be periodically updated ;
5. To restore the color of faux suede or nubuck shoes in heavily worn areas, you can use special coloring sprays.

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Made from genuine leather

The rules for caring for shoes made of natural smooth leather are similar to the tips for maintaining leatherette products.

The only difference is that not water is used for washing, but special shampoos or glass cleaner.

After drying, mink oil can be applied to the surface of the smooth leather product.

It has water-repellent properties and moisturizes the surface, preventing the skin from drying out.

Remaining mink fat can be removed with a piece of velvet or flannel fabric.

If your pair of shoes made of natural smooth leather was purchased recently, colorless creams are used for care. For worn shoes, purchase a cream slightly lighter than the main shade. You can check the correctness of your choice on the heel of the shoes, where possible errors are least noticeable. Use liquid color restoration aerosols as little as possible.

For further polishing of leather shoes, a natural horsehair brush is ideal. Using movements from the toe to the heel of the shoe and back (without pressure), polish the dried shoes until the brush no longer experiences resistance. Pay attention to the area around the laces and the tongue. Traces of streaks from the brush are removed with a velvet or woolen cloth.

During the dry season, such cleaning should be carried out once every three weeks. In autumn and winter, when the weather is humid outside, clean shoes made of natural smooth leather once every 10 days. The natural oils and waxes contained in shoe polish will help enhance the water-repellent properties of the surface.

Important! Rinse the brush and cleaning cloth periodically as clumps of lint can cause damage to the skin.

What should be on hand

Having bought leather boots, immediately decide on the set of necessary “care” products and how to use them. The recommendations are simple: give preference to well-known brands and strictly follow the instructions on the packaging. It is better to buy such products in specialized stores. Experienced consultants will help you choose the right product. Homemade substitutes are not inferior in their effectiveness to industrial ones. Their main advantage is time-tested availability and safety. The most popular of them are the following.

• Castor oil. You can buy it at the pharmacy and use it to protect against moisture. To keep shoes dry in wet weather, warm castor oil is applied to the smooth surface. Particular attention is paid to seams and joints on the outside. Oil treatment also helps when shoes become dark from water.
• Glycerol. Sold in pharmacies and cosmetics stores. Using a sponge, they rub shoes with it so that the leather does not crack and retains its softness and shine.
• Ground coffee. Often used as a paint substitute. Its brown color will hide small scratches and abrasions on material of the same color. To hide imperfections, just cover them briefly with coffee gruel and then polish them to a shine.
• Dentifrice. Helps whiten white leather shoes. Using a soft toothbrush, spread the wet powder over the surface and gently brush. There is no need to replace it with paste. It contains abrasive particles that may cause scratches.
• Vinegar. A universal assistant that can clean light leather shoes from yellow stains and remove dirt from suede. Stains are removed by wiping with a 9% solution. Before the procedure, a suede pair must be thoroughly cleaned of dust, and then treated with a preparation to restore color.
• Eraser. An ordinary school grater perfectly removes colored and black stripes from shoes and sandals.

Before using the cleaning method, do a test - try it on an inconspicuous and small area of ​​the shoe. Even harmless household liquids can contain aggressive components and spoil the structure or appearance of the product.

Is it possible to wash sneakers in a washing machine?

Leather sneakers that are used for outdoor wear are not only exposed to dirt, moisture and dust.

Intense workouts lead to increased production of sweat, which is absorbed into the inner surface of the shoe and can subsequently lead to unpleasant odor.

To clean the outside of leather sneakers, you can use the tips in this article.

But to clean the inner surface, completely different techniques may be needed, which further increase the period required to care for shoes.

Therefore, owners of leather sneakers often wonder whether it is possible to wash such shoes in order to save time and achieve maximum cleanliness without much effort.

The best option would be hand washing. It is necessary to clean leather sneakers with a cloth soaked in soapy water, and then rinse vigorously with a clean, damp cloth. If you can’t remove stubborn dirt stains this way, you can briefly soak the shoes in a bowl of diluted baby laundry detergent and then rub them vigorously with a brush. After this, rinse with water and leave to dry at room temperature.

If you don’t want to bother with sneakers, soaking and scrubbing stains, you can use a washing machine. To do this, you will need a special mesh bag (or, if you don’t have one, a pillowcase). It will prevent excessive damage to the sneakers when moving inside the drum of the machine. A pair of old terry towels will provide additional protection against impacts.

Important ! For washing leather sneakers, a delicate wash cycle (no spin!) and a temperature of no higher than 40 degrees are suitable.

After finishing washing, remove the leather sneakers from the washing machine and allow the excess water to drain. After this, the shoes should be left anywhere in the apartment to dry in natural conditions.

Recommendations and tips for every day

Leather products are difficult to classify as budget purchases. However, their price is justified by convenience, comfort and long-lasting wear. Daily rules will allow you to extend the service life:

1. Do not leave shoes near heating appliances.
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2. Remove the insole from the wet pair and do not put it on until completely dry.
3. Use shoe polish promptly and regularly.
4. Do not leave the product exposed to sunlight.
5. Do not store dirty or dusty shoes.

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Cleaning after drying

If, after drying, there are streaks of detergent left on the leather of the sneakers, then the shoes need to be rinsed additionally.

You can use the washing machine again by running it on the rinse mode without spinning.

Sometimes even after machine washing your sneakers don't look clean. This is especially true for white shoes.

The following tips will help you return to their original whiteness (after using these products, white sneakers should be thoroughly rinsed with water):

1. Apply a gel-based laundry stain remover to the stains and scrub them with an old toothbrush;
2. Make a paste of laundry detergent, lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide and vinegar, apply to stains and scrub with an old toothbrush;
3. Cover the stains with whitening toothpaste and leave for 20 minutes. Then scrub with an old toothbrush;
4. Bleaching powder mixed in a 1:1 ratio with vinegar will get rid of yellowness.

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Required Tools

There are various tools that you can use to remove dirt from your shoes.

Cream brush

The main tool that is most often used when working with leather products is a bristle brush.

It is suitable for removing minor dirt and for applying detergents, creams and other cleaning products.

Polishing cloth

Some people want to not only clean their leather, but also polish it. To do this, you can use special polishing cloths, which are used to rub the shoes after cleaning them from stains and dirt.

Impregnation sponge

An impregnation sponge is a product that is often used for the rapid care of shoes. It, like a polishing cloth, is used to add shine to the surface. Experts advise wiping your skin with such a sponge every three days.

Washing sponge and washcloth

Sometimes washcloths and sponges are used to remove dirt from shoes. They must be used very carefully, especially if they are made of silicone. If you wipe the leather with silicone sponges too often, the surface will quickly deteriorate.

Soft rags

Many experts advise wiping leather products with fabric materials. The best choice is considered to be soft rags, which have many useful properties. It perfectly absorbs moisture and quickly removes dirt.

Toothbrush

If you don't clean your boots or shoes for a long time, they become covered with old stains that are difficult to wipe off. To remove old stains, an unnecessary toothbrush with elastic bristles is suitable, with which you can clean even hard-to-reach places.

Do I need to clean with soap?

Soap leads to degreasing of the lipid layer, so it is not recommended to use it for cleaning shoes made of genuine leather. Otherwise, the surface of the boots will quickly lose its appearance, which will be almost impossible to restore. But for faux leather shoes or fabric sneakers, a weak soap solution is used to remove particularly difficult stains. Do not forget to thoroughly rinse your shoes or boots after such washing to prevent soap stains from appearing. A dry bar of soap can be used to clean nubuck or suede shoes.

Proper care

Before you start cleaning, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of shoe care.

How to dry

Wet leather products must be dried so that they do not begin to deteriorate from moisture. To do this, they are transferred to a well-ventilated area. In the summer, drying is done on a lighted balcony, and in winter - in special dryers.

Storage

In order for shoes to last for a long time, they must be properly stored in the off-season. It should not be stored in rooms with high humidity, as in such conditions it will begin to deteriorate. It is better to choose rooms where the temperature does not drop below 18-20 degrees.

Regular cleaning

Leather products should be cleaned regularly to prevent dirt from accumulating on their surface. Therefore, experts recommend wiping them with a dry cloth after every walk outside.

Storing leather shoes

In order for leather shoes to serve well into the next season, they must be properly treated before putting them away for summer storage.

How to store leather shoes

First of all, leather shoes must be cleaned of accumulated dirt and dust, using the tips from this article.

After thorough drying (the insoles need to be dried separately), each pair should be inspected for possible damage so that they can be repaired in a shoe repair shop.

Leather shoes should be stored in cardboard boxes, placing each pair separately.

You can use special lasts or loosely stuff your shoes with newspaper to maintain their shape.

To store items made with natural fur, you should put moth repellent in the box.

How to lubricate before storage

Dried and repaired shoes must be coated with special compounds to better preserve the leather. Sprays are suitable for nubuck, suede and velor; shoe polish is suitable for shoes made of smooth leather. It is advisable to treat shoes and boots with these compounds several times, thoroughly drying and polishing between applications.

Processing, packaging, labeling

It is recommended to label cardboard boxes with leather shoes for storage. This way you can avoid spending a long time sorting through the rubble in search of the right pair. Place a sticker on the box indicating the type of shoes and the date they were put into storage, and arrange them so that the stickers are visible at first glance.

Optimal temperature

The correct temperature (not lower than 14 degrees) will help preserve your shoes until next season. Therefore, you cannot send shoes and boots to “exile” in the basement or garage. Here another danger lies in wait for shoes - high humidity for a long period.

What to try for odor

It is quite possible to clean leather shoes from odor. To do this, wipe the inside with any available antiseptic - peroxide, alcohol or a weak solution of potassium permanganate. It is better to carry out the treatment in the cold season, since in summer and autumn the insides of shoes are often wet, which weakens the disinfectant effect.

This method will not be able to remove the smell from cat urine. If your pet has taken a fancy to your best shoes, only special sprays will do the job. They are sold at pet stores.

Colored

Very often you can find green, red or orange shoes on store shelves. Different colors are achieved with dyes that are used to color the material at the time of manufacture. This leather is not much different from ordinary black leather, the only thing you need to guess is the choice of the shade of shoe polish that suits your product.

In fact, the care and preparation for this type of product is identical to ordinary leather shoes. The main thing is to be able to distinguish where there was processing and where there was not, but this was written above.

Varnished

This type of leather is very often used for bags, shoes and boots. This type of material is made using special natural and synthetic resins. The quality of the product directly depends on what raw materials were used for varnishing, however, different types must be cared for equally carefully and in a certain way.

Preparation

Patent leather shoes should not be washed. In order to properly prepare it and clean it from dirt, you will need:

• soft sponge;
• water.

And then you need to do the following:

1. Soak the sponge in water.
2. Using light movements, wipe the surface of the varnished product from dirt. Try to use minimal force, as grains of sand or dust can scratch the varnish material.
3. After this, wipe the shoes with a soft, dry cloth.

Care

After you have prepared the shoes, they need to be polished with a velvet cloth. Patent leather really loves this material. If you take care of your wardrobe item in this way every day, no one will ever think that you are wearing shoes that are already several years old. This method will help not only preserve them, but also update them!

Tip: if patent leather shoes become hard after you accidentally wet them, wipe the surface with castor oil.

Is it washable?

Without exception, all manufacturers of leather shoes prohibit their machine washing . They indicate information about this on a label that is located inside the pair or on the packaging.

Most often, it is encoded with an icon in the form of a circle located inside a square. This image will be crossed out.

load a pair into the drum that is made from artificial materials. However, before you start washing, you need to check it for:

• presence of defects,
• protruding threads,
• broken seams,
• shoes must be intact.

It is strictly forbidden to subject the following pairs to automatic washing:

• winter boots and boots with fur;
• products decorated with rhinestones, appliqués, and reflective elements;
• deformed shoes;
• boots with a hard last or high heels.

Hand washing of leather products is possible. At the same time, it is necessary to minimize their contact with water, working only on those areas where there are complex contaminants.

Heavily wet leather shoes tend to shrink, so after drying the shoes may become small .