Shoe Maintenance

Why shoe maintenance is important

Shoe care is vitally necessary to prolong the life expectancy of your shoes. Only proper maintenance can guarantee your shoes a long service life.

This category contains the products required to maintain the excellent condition of your shoes. Especially leather boots require maintenance regularly to keep them intact. Here are our shoe care supplies.

We have a detailed article covering various leathers, ways to clean and treat them, and general info about greases, spray-on treatments, and shoe polishes. Do check it out if you have the time, or just tl;dr the following:

Shoe maintenance goes like so:

1. Cleaning
2. Treating
3. Finishing

As a preventive measure, let the boots dry without insoles (and preferably laces) after each use.

For the maintenance itself, you'll need at least shoe brush to rub the dust off the surface. Shoe polish or oil won't do anything if it's spread on dirt. When shoes are clean, it's time to move on to handling. The product to use depends on the material of the shoes, but for leather shoes BW shoe polish or Ekol Leather Oil fits perfectly. After use, you should also dry your shoes properly. It may sound tempting to speed up the drying by putting them beside a heater, but that is not worthwhile because they may overdry and be damaged. If you need to speed up the drying process, try putting some newspaper or something else that absorbs liquid.

All in one package

We also have shoe care kits in our assortment. Swiss surplus and a new one from Springyard. Go ahead and have a look.

Avoid sole-destruction by using your hiking boots

It is probably good to mention that hiking boot soles have a tendency to start falling apart if you keep them unused for extended periods of time. This isn’t a diabolical scheme to destroy your boots as quickly as possible but a chemical reaction called hydrolysis. The hiking boot soles usually contain polyurethane (PU) because it is light, flexible, and cushioning. Some manufacturers also use ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA). They aren’t totally perfect materials because humidity - that slimy bastard - corrupts them, and this effect is accelerated when the boots are left unused.

So, how to battle this evil chemistry? When you walk, the sole bends, which creates friction and thus also heat, which repels moisture and slows down the hydrolysis. The best way is to keep the boots walking.