Are you asking yourself how to take care of leather shoes? There are so many amazing products on the market to help you easily clean your shoes, shine the topsoles, keep the heels and soles healthy and uncracked, and to get the scuffs out. A little care can keep your leather shoes healthy and happy for years.

Care for Leather Shoes and Water

• When your shoes are new, avoid wearing them in the rain so as not to damage the soles. Once they scuff up, you can wear them in the rain all you’d like.
• Let your soles dry naturally — no hair dryers or, heaven forbid, tumble dryers.  Otherwise, they’ll split.
• What about waterproofing?  You can have your cobbler do it, or try Angelus Mink Oil Spray, which will waterproof your shoes (and other leather items, actually!). Just be careful to test a small area as mink oil can darken and discolor some leathers.

Keeping Leather Shoes Clean

• Keep a shoe shine kit handy: Kiwi makes an all-in-one kit, or you can assemble your own.  While you may not polish your shoes as often as your grandpa did, you’ll need to have these items on hand to deal with salt and scuffs.
• What should be in your shoe shine kit?  Sponges, polish (black and brown are typical, or you can try Angelus perfect stain shoe wax, which comes in 15 colors), a shoe brush (made of horsehair, generally) and a couple of soft rags.

Leather Heels and Soles

• Men: do your shoes wear unevenly on the heels? Try Heel Seals, which help prevent extra wear and gets extra life out of your heels, saving you a trip to the cobbler.
• Ladies: do you have (or want) a pair of Louboutins?  That gorgeous lipstick red paint scratches just as soon as you hit the pavement.  Try Sticky Bottoms, which help preserve the red– it’s what stores do with samples, and what stylists do for the runway, too.  For a longer term solution, try Angelus Sole Coat, which comes in that eye-catching red, and has a special hardener for painted soles (it comes in black, too, for your black-painted leather soles!).

And If All Else Fails…

• Be sure to find a good cobbler!  Ask friends or your shoe salesperson for recommendations.  They will be invaluable when your shoes do need to be resoled or if you need other small repairs, which will add quite a bit of life to your shoes.

What tricks do you use to care for your soles? Remember, you can find Angelus paint, shoe polish, shoe care kits and other shoe products at Manhattan Wardrobe Supply!