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  • Old Shoe Rejuvenation Guide

    Making your old leather shoes new again is fun, easy, and takes only a few minutes of your time; and with so many shoes ending up in landfill every year, why not give it a go?

    This guide shows you how. It can be applied to all smooth leather footwear. e.g. calfskin, yearling, kangaroo etc. and with the right tools it's really a piece of cake. I provide a list and quick discussion on the tools to use at the end.

    The images below are used with permission from the Thomas George Collection Shoe Care Guide eBook, which you can download for free here. For the preservation of historic footwear, see this external guide.



    General Product Advice

    In order of appearance:

    1. Shoe Laces

    Shoe laces are always the first to go and a new pair is an easy hack to instantly lift the look of your old shoes.

    2. Shoe Trees

    Cedar shoe trees are especially useful for maintaining old leather shoes, insofar as they reform the shoe's shape, prevent creasing from getting worse and potentially cracking, and helps wick away damaging moisture (sweat) that rots the interal lining.

    3. Shoe Brushes 

    There are different types of shoe brushes. Horsehair is the all-rounder that I used above. Avoid synthetic as it is often too rigid and can scratch the leather surface. Boar hair is coarse (but flexable) and good for dispearsing cream polish (step 4), while goat hair is soft and good for maintaining a highly polished leather surface (step 6).

    4. Applicators

    An application cloth is the most common way to apply shoe creams, wax polishes etc.  A horsehair dauber brush, which typically has a round head, is also used to applying shoe cream and can get into places where our fingers (and cloth) cannot. Failing all of that, an old T-shirt does the trick.

    5. Cleaner / Conditioner

    Most shoe care brands sell some form of cleaner. A combined Cleaner/Conditioner is often a milder form of cleaner, which is better for older leather. The conditioner is a great primer for the shoe cream product.

    6. Shoe Cream

    People often apply wax polish when what the leather needs is shoe cream. A quality cream polish will contain the right balance of waxes, moisturising agent, and solvent. If you can't find an exact colour match, look for a shade or so lighter. If you can't find that, a neutral colour is more than ok.

    7. Wax Polish

    Wax polishes often contain beeswax. Better shoe care brands combine a number of waxes for optimum results. They can also come with pigment. I tend to prefer just a neutral wax, but a pigmented wax, or using both, can produce an exquisite shine.

    Don't Skimp On Product

    There is no trick to bringing old leathers back to life. Even my 8-year old mastered it in about 10-minutes. What does make the difference is using the right product, good product. `

    In this guide I was using shoe care products produced by myself and Japanese brand Boot Black, arguably the best in the business.