How to care for new leather shoes?

bwalker25 · 12-28-08, 11:48

Alright - its been a long while since I got a new pair of shoes in fact over 2 years. I got 2 new pair for Christmas, Nunn Bush a black and brown pair. So I was wondering, they already look really good. Do I have to buy shoe polish and leather conditioner and cleaner? I use water/woolite 6:1 to do leather car interiors, would this not work as a cleaner as well for shoes? I also have some wolfgang leather conditioner. I also have some Ultima Interior Sealant. Can you use these car products on shoes?

I wouldn't see why not, they all either clean or protect leather.....

any thoughts?

jfelbab · 12-28-08, 12:10

Different kind of leathers require different kind of treatments, IMO. I'd get a black and a brown shoe cream and a black and a brown shoe polish and alternate using them. You may also want a dye treatment for the outsoles and heels if you need to wear them in inclement weather.

bwalker25 · 12-28-08, 12:16

ya know thats what I kinda figured I was just hoping I could use what I already had! oh well I'll just have to buy the shoe creams and polishes then, no biggie

thanks for the help

akimel · 12-28-08, 12:27

Here is the advice I got from an experienced shoe repair man in Johnstown, Pennsylvnia:

1) Periodically clean and moisturize your shoe with Cadillac Boot and Shoe Care Leather Lotion. I usually do this each time I polish my shoes.

2) Use Meltonian shoe polish.

bert31 · 12-28-08, 02:45

I see an Accumulator post coming.

For now I am using Johnston and Murphy's shoe creme and I apply it with the Johnston and Murphy applicator brush Johnston & Murphy: . I know Accumulator likes Kiwi and likes to spit shine his. I am curious what his spit shining procedure is. I spit shinned my shoes and they looked OK but not good enough to justify spit shinning over tradition apply on and buff off. I am guessing Accum has a much better procedure.

Another thing, any time my feet are not in my dress shoes, shoe trees are ALWAYS in them. Shoe trees Johnston & Murphy: keep the amount of moisture in the shoes in balance. When you wear a shoe all day long, they will weigh a few ounces more than when you put them on originally, that is sweat from your feet. Shoe trees help remove some of that sweat but at the same time keep a small amount in the shoes preventing the leather from dry rotting. Shoe trees will also keep the shape of your shoes better. Have you ever noticed some shoes the toe will bend upwards? That can cause that rippled look on the tops of your shoes. Shoe trees help prevent that. I highly recommend buying some. Those sold by Johnston and Murphy are quite expensive, you could probably find them cheaper if you look around.

Another thing, try to avoid wearing the same pair of dress shoes two days in a row. If you get home around 6 or 7:00 PM and put them back on 6 or 7:00 the next morning to go to work, that was only 12 hours for the sweat to evaporate from the shoes and is generally not enough. Try giving the shoes a good 18 or better 24 hours to allow much of the perspiration to evaporate.

JasonC8301 · 12-28-08, 10:48

I also sense an Accumulator post coming, lol.

I use plain old Kiwi and an applicator brush (Kiwi polish applicator) let it dry, then come back and brush it off with a Kiwi shoe brush (the brush and applicator are horsehair I believe.) This is the routine I follow for my black Danner Acadia combat boots. I could spit shine these but don't due to them being field boots. I make sure to get into the area between the leather and the soles. The name for that gap evades me right now but its the small details that sets a well taken care of shoe apart from just a so so one.

What type of shoes did you received? A picture can help because some shoes look out of place with a shine on them.

bert31 - Send me your shoes and I'll spit shine them for you. On casual shoes/boots I follow the basic method (apply polish, let dry, brush off, maybe come back around with a polish cloth), on dress shoes with smooth leather, I spit shine them. The end result is a shiny pair of shoes, almost to the point of looking like patent leather.

A whole thread on spit shining in this forum,
How do you polish leather boots to a mirror shine?

Shoe polishing from an earlier thread, good reads

Shoe Polishing - recommendations, process, tips, tricks???

I second bert31 and the shoe trees! I don't use the JM ones but have Alden's that my Allen Edmond shoes rest on. My Cole Haan shoes have cheap bed, bath, and beyond ones. I can't comment on the JM shoe trees but the Aldens are nice and are much better built than the BB&B ones. Well the Aldens were like $30, and the BB&B ones were $10. I would say it all depends on the shoes. From now on basically all my shoe purchases will be Allen Edmonds/Alden/Santoni/Ferragamo rested on Alden trees. The Cole Haan shoes I have are decent (not their handcrafted in Italy line but the ones made in India for Macys) but I can tell a difference between those and the nicer shoes I have.

Accumulator · 12-29-08, 08:51

Heh heh, well...after those posts from bert31 and JasonC8301 I don't know if I really have all that much to add

Long-winded post follows anyhow....

Yeah, I just use Kiwi paste. My dress shoes never get all *that* nasty under normal circumstances, but now and then they *do*...graveside services in the rain can make for a real mess.

But with all those layers of Kiwi on there the shoes clean up with just a spritz of my old Tony Nancy Leather Cleaner (that 16 oz. bottle will probably last my whole life as I hardly ever need to use it). Note that the only time I use anything except plain water is when the shoes are far dirtier than dress shoes normally get. If you really need to clean them, I'd expect any leather/interior cleaner would work fine, just don't saturate them and do some kind of light rinsing to get it all off.

FWIW, the pro shine guys I learned spitshining from used some kind of nasty solvent to clean every pair of shoes before shining them

I was sure it'd destroy mine, but it never caused any harm that I could tell and 20+ years later I still have those shoes and they're still OK.

(Short history lesson: I got my shoes shined by pros for years, just couldn't duplicate their work and I enjoyed the whole experience anyhow, stopping by the shine parlor every Friday afternoon. When that shop closed I worked and worked to finally get close to their level of ability. Still takes me a lot longer to get that "near-patent" look and I can't get as close to "patent" as they got 'em; a guy there named Willie could shine shoes as well as I can do *anything* and I'm nowhere near his league.)

I basically do the spitshine the way all the articles/links say to do it. I rub the polish on with old terry dampened with water (note that Willie rubbed it in with his bare hands). I buff off the first one/two applications with old horsehair brushes (my dad bought 'em shortly after WWII) then I switch to old cotton towels (same way Willie did it). Spritz on some water, rub the polish in until it's basically gone, buff off the minimal haze, over and over and over again.

As I've posted before, the last time I sent a pair or AE shoes back for resoling I told them to refinish them if they thought it advisable. They wrote back that they didn't even try to *shine* them because I had them in such nice shape. Those shoes were (at that time) nearly 20 years old and had never been treated with anything except the Kiwi shoe polish. They have lots of creases from all the years of wear, but other than that they're in great shape.

On "dress casual" shoes I use either neutral shoe cream or, more recently Leather Master stuff. But I hardly ever bother treating them and they don't seem any the worse for this "neglect" (scare-quotes intentional as I have some pairs from ~1990 that are still in great shape). Considering that these can be rebuilt like dress shoes, it seems they can last pretty much forever even with no really involved care.

Cheapie casual shoes I seldom treat at all, I treat 'em like disposables (same as with athletic shoes). I'll clean them as needed and maybe do a quick pass like on the dress casual, but I really just abuse and neglect them...but they still seem to hold up/look OK until they get replaced over worn heels/soles anyhow.

Accumulator · 12-29-08, 08:53

Oh, and note that all shoes trees aren't the same. Be sure to get ones that fit *your* shoes properly.

bert31 · 12-29-08, 09:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Accumulator

Heh heh, well...after those posts from bert31 and JasonC8301 I don't know if I really have all that much to add

Long-winded post follows anyhow....

Lol. I knew you couldn't help adding to this thread.

bert31 · 12-29-08, 09:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by JasonC8301

bert31 - Send me your shoes and I'll spit shine them for you.

Sweet! Actually, I would rather watch you spit shine to see what you are doing that I am not doing. Interested in making a youtube video?

My process was pretty similar to yours. What I did was take the lid off of the Kiwi can and put some water in it. Then took a cotton towel or T-shirt (don't recall at the moment) and tightly wrapped it around my index and middle finger, dipped my fingers in the polish then in the water then buffed on the show. After getting the initial base, I would repeatedly dip the cloth in the water, shake off excess, dip in polish and apply to show. I would continue the water dip, shake, polish dip until I could get the leather no shinier. Did they get shinnier than the typical apply on, buff off with a horse hair brush, a little but not near as impressive as you guys can do and not worth the time it took.

Maybe I am not working the polish in enough. Maybe on New Years Day while watching Bowl Games I will give it another try on my Johnston and Murphy's or Allen Edmunds.

JasonC8301 · 12-29-08, 02:08

bert31, sure! I just need something to spit shine, LOL. I do not want to strip my Cole Haan shoes just yet. I usually take rubbing alcohol and wipe down the shoe before applying some shaving cream and leave it on for a day or two, then wipe that off with some more alcohol. I then take Kiwi paste and lay it on thick, then go over it with a lighter. I then melt some polish in the top of the kiwi tin and start the spit shining process.

My Cole Haan shoes came with a decent finish and I do not want to strip them just yet, I usually just brush them off and they are fine. I have them on here,

bert31 · 12-29-08, 03:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by JasonC8301

bert31, sure! I just need something to spit shine, LOL. I do not want to strip my Cole Haan shoes just yet. I usually take rubbing alcohol and wipe down the shoe before applying some shaving cream and leave it on for a day or two, then wipe that off with some more alcohol. I then take Kiwi paste and lay it on thick, then go over it with a lighter. I then melt some polish in the top of the kiwi tin and start the spit shining process.

My Cole Haan shoes came with a decent finish and I do not want to strip them just yet, I usually just brush them off and they are fine. I have them on here,

I was actually kidding about making a video but it would be interesting.

What does shaving creme do?