Many things are valuable in life – from home to products such as priceless jewellery and clothes. Let us not forget an important component – footwear on which our entire day to day functions rely and rest upon. Ever cared for your valuable shoes as much as you do for your luxury clothes and dripping diamonds? No matter how many heels you buy, replacing the shoe pairs you love gets tough. That is why shoe care plays a vital role. Let us take a look at how we can take care of our feet possessions.
Step 1: Polish your fancy leather shoes regularly in order to preserve moisture and maintain their lasting shine. Moreover as soon as you return home, wipe the muck off your footwear using a clean and moist cloth.
Step 2: When the shoe heels get worn or cracked due to constant wear or the brutalities of weather, go to a cobbler immediately and get them repaired. Any delay will only damage the shoes.
Step 3: In shoes made of Nubuck leather or waterproof suede, use a soft bristled brush to wipe the dirt off. As for fabric or canvas shoes, clean it off by hand or machine wash. It’s always good to stuff them with some tissue or wrapping paper after washing in order to maintain their shape after they dry.
Step 4: Do not wear the same shoes each day. Keep rotating their wearing pattern. This will help your shoes to wear less, air out and last longer.
Step 5: If you shoes, particularly leather shoes, get wet on a rainy day or a water puddle, then give them some time to dry off. Till the time they don’t dry off completely, they will damage your shoes and make them stink.
Step 6: Just like the colour of clothes fade away, so do the shoes. If the colour loss has started to happen on your favourite pair of shoes, then you should have them refinished and dyed. This will help restore the colour and make them look like a fresh new pair.
Step 7: Clean the insides of a shoe. This is more important when odour becomes a problem. Swab them with alcohol or a drop of an antifungal agent such as tea tree oil. Remember not to splash to avoid staining the leather.
Step 8: Wear hose or sock liners. This is a wonderful trick that protects against perspiration, which erodes insoles.
Step 9: Use shoe trees as they help retain the shoe’s shape. “Use forms made of cedar for the pair worn that day to absorb moisture,” says Joe Rocco from Jim’s Shoe Repair in New York City. Plastic trees are fine for your other shoes. You can get shoe trees at shoe stores and shoe-repair shops.
Good shoes begin with great leather but great shoes happen when you look after them well.