Calling all Shell Cordovan Experts - Damage - repairable or ruined? (Pictures included)

Looks ruined to me, but I'm no expert. If I had done the damage myself, I wouldn't be too worried, but to receive them in this condition would make me angry.

+1. You would probably make them look better with brushing but you'll never get rid of the damage. Unless they were ultra cheap: I'd send them back.

Cordovan is not cheap...and they shipped it in a plastic bag? That's nuts. I assume this was an eBay auction, and I would fight to return the item as S.N.A.D. and damaged due to seller's negligence. That is not the standard of care you shold reasonably expect.

Take a generous dollop of shoe cream (the soft stuff that comes in glass jars) and put it on the damaged spot. Then take a metal tea spoon, hold by the handle and plunge your thumb into the bowl for greater pressure. With the back of the spoon you go in circular movements over the damaged area, using the shoe cream as a lubricant. (It's rather like a child playing with mud.)

Do that for about five minutes, then take the excessive shoe cream off and polish with a brush. In principle you are doing the same as was done in the tannery, rubbing fats deep into the leather and creating the top surface through pressure.

I can't tell you whether it will make the damage totally disappear, but it certainly will make it much better.