**The Official Shoe Care Thread: Tutorials, Photos, etc.**

[Rugger]

Here's a question for the experts. Went to town on a new pair of 5th avenues, and finished it off with mirror shine on the caps. Today during first wear I noticed a lot of cracking/spiderwebs. I uses light pressure with my thumb to push on one of the caps and the cracks/webs exploded. Had to take a heat fun over it just to smooth it back together. Wasn't flake off cracked, just ugly cracked.

My first thought was that I put on too much wax. I thumbed a few other pairs with mirror-shined caps and they didn't crack/spiderweb at all.

What do you think? Wish I had taken a picture before I fixed them.

 

[JFWR]

Yeah, at the time I didn't know any better so I thought it was great, but definitely wouldn't pay for more than a shine there now. I will check out Minas Shoe Repair next time I need a resole, thanks for the suggestion.

Yeah, clearly this place doesn't know what they're doing. They still sell saphir products if you need 'em, though, which is good - but so does Minas, and Minas' prices are much better.

 

[JFWR]

Here's a question for the experts. Went to town on a new pair of 5th avenues, and finished it off with mirror shine on the caps. Today during first wear I noticed a lot of cracking/spiderwebs. I uses light pressure with my thumb to push on one of the caps and the cracks/webs exploded. Had to take a heat fun over it just to smooth it back together. Wasn't flake off cracked, just ugly cracked.

My first thought was that I put on too much wax. I thumbed a few other pairs with mirror-shined caps and they didn't crack/spiderweb at all.

What do you think? Wish I had taken a picture before I fixed them.

That or the shoe is flexing on the toe is having the wax crack. Which shouldn't happen, but are you perhaps wearing too small of shoes for your feet?

 

[JFWR]

The weird thing is that the creases don’t seem all that deep. They’re a little deeper than most of my shoes, yes, but I have a dozen+ pairs at all levels of quality from Carlos Santos and Alfred Sargent to Zegna to AE. They’re all vintage and they all have creasing to some extent, but these PS don’t seem out of the ordinary, creasewise.

In any case I think you’re right. Unless anyone else has any tips I may need to dye these to fix the colour. Frustrating, though, as I only bought them because the price was right. It’ll be annoying to have to pay for the dye after investing in all the refurb gear. Bah.

It really is strange, I must say.

I mean, every calfskin shoe creases. But this is insanely pronounced creases that just don't look good at all, and if the cream isn't goign to reduce it...yeah, yikes.

The only thing I could think of before trying that is to leave some pommadier cream polish on for a day before brushing it off. Really let it soak into the leather. I don't think it'll work, but it's probably worth the shot before dying them yourselves or paying a cobbler to do it.

 

[Keith Taylor]

Ah, good tip. I’ll give that a try today and report back if it helps

 

[ShadyDorathy]

I'm kind of a newbie to this welted shoe world. Here is a question for experts
How do you treat your outsoles? Brush them and use Saphir sole guard, correct?

 

[Kevin24]

Hi all,

Connoisseur of shoes as well but an amateur at shoe care.

I've read a lot of good things about Saphir over the years, and I am looking to get some reliable entry-level shoe care products.

Aside, from wax what Saphir products do the guys in this thread recommend I get to start with?

 

[TenTriply]

Since most shoes benefit from 1] conditioner, 2] cream polish and 3] wax polish, begin with a conditioner. That is step one.

Saphir Universal Cream will meet most needs. The much-loved Renovateur is great if you can afford it. But watch the videos that tell you when to avoid Renovat (non-uniform color in leather, and painted-on patinas, for instance).

Before you polish with wax (Saphir’s come in metal tins), polish with cream (which comes in glass jars). Saphir’s high-end line of cream polish comes in 8-10 colors max, I believe; their Beauté du Cuir cream, the standard line, comes in many other colors. Pay attention to color.

Saphir’s pigmented wax polishes are awesome, but be careful of color. There is no navy-pigmented was, so after I polish my navy Oak Streets with navy polish, I shine them with neutral wax.

Watch as many shoe shine tutorials as you can by Kirby Allison and Trenton and Heath. Follow their instructions and they will fill in the blanks.

And read up on leather. Oil-tanned boots just need a good Dubbin for regular cleaning, conditioning and shining; there are many out there — Saphir’s are Everest (vegetable base) and HP Dubbin Graisse (salmon oil)

Study and good luck!

— TenTriply

Hi all,

Connoisseur of shoes as well but an amateur at shoe care.

I've read a lot of good things about Saphir over the years, and I am looking to get some reliable entry-level shoe care products.

Aside, from wax what Saphir products do the guys in this thread recommend I get to start with?

 

[JFWR]

Hi all,

Connoisseur of shoes as well but an amateur at shoe care.

I've read a lot of good things about Saphir over the years, and I am looking to get some reliable entry-level shoe care products.

Aside, from wax what Saphir products do the guys in this thread recommend I get to start with?

Yeah, Saphir is the gold standard and worth investing in.

As Ten Triply said, you'll need three things. 1. Conditioner. 2. Cream. 3. Wax.

I would myself recommend the renovateur as, even if it is expensive, it is just so good. It even imparts shine by itself, but the cream universal is also fabulous, and you can't go wrong with either.

In respect to the cream, I suggest personally that you go the Beaut de Cuir route to start off with. The pommadier wax is fabulous, but much of what you need with a cream can be achieved by the Beaut de Cuir. It also will more easily and readily match your shoe colour as it has like, 40 shoe colours. It's also sometimes more than half as cheap as the Pommadier, with maybe 10% less quality.

For that matter, you can probably use the Beaut du Cuir wax as well, but I prefer the Medalle d'Or line because the wax just goes on so easy and becomes so glossy with so little work. Nevertheless, you can get an amazing gloss with just the BdC line of work, and if you add in the Amiral mirror gloss, you can get almost as good as the MDO.

Make sure you have a horse hair brush for brushing your shoes and a nice chamois (buffing rag) for applying and buffing the cream and wax (you can also use a dauber for both). A little spray bottle for water is recommended as well because you want to add water to the wax (sparingly) for the highest gloss.

Also, here's a trick: use a lady's nylon stocking for the final buff to get an extremely high gloss shine with virtually no effort.

 

[Rugger]

X-post from AE thread:



I generally do not shy away from light rain and leather sole shoes given that my walk in to work is at most 100-150 yards. Been like this for a while and haven't had any issues.

Today I wore a pair of black Carlyle for the first time and it was very, very lightly raining. Whatever is just above a mist in to actual droplets. Thought absolutely nothing of it. Get up to my desk and go to wipe away the few specks of rain and the shoes look like they broke out in hives. Rough spots the size of rain drops that look like acid rain went straight through the wax and polish and removed finish, and they were raised up like a rash. 30 minutes later they had dissipated enough to be mostly invisible from 6 feet up, and tonight they're hard to see but still there upon close up inspection.

I was genuinely shocked. Did the same pre-wear new shoe routine with these that I've done with every other.

 

[TenTriply]

(But don't tell the lady.)

Yeah, Saphir is the gold standard and worth investing in.

As Ten Triply said, you'll need three things. 1. Conditioner. 2. Cream. 3. Wax.

I would myself recommend the renovateur as, even if it is expensive, it is just so good. It even imparts shine by itself, but the cream universal is also fabulous, and you can't go wrong with either.

In respect to the cream, I suggest personally that you go the Beaut de Cuir route to start off with. The pommadier wax is fabulous, but much of what you need with a cream can be achieved by the Beaut de Cuir. It also will more easily and readily match your shoe colour as it has like, 40 shoe colours. It's also sometimes more than half as cheap as the Pommadier, with maybe 10% less quality.

For that matter, you can probably use the Beaut du Cuir wax as well, but I prefer the Medalle d'Or line because the wax just goes on so easy and becomes so glossy with so little work. Nevertheless, you can get an amazing gloss with just the BdC line of work, and if you add in the Amiral mirror gloss, you can get almost as good as the MDO.

Make sure you have a horse hair brush for brushing your shoes and a nice chamois (buffing rag) for applying and buffing the cream and wax (you can also use a dauber for both). A little spray bottle for water is recommended as well because you want to add water to the wax (sparingly) for the highest gloss.

Also, here's a trick: use a lady's nylon stocking for the final buff to get an extremely high gloss shine with virtually no effort.

 

[JFWR]

X-post from AE thread:



I generally do not shy away from light rain and leather sole shoes given that my walk in to work is at most 100-150 yards. Been like this for a while and haven't had any issues.

Today I wore a pair of black Carlyle for the first time and it was very, very lightly raining. Whatever is just above a mist in to actual droplets. Thought absolutely nothing of it. Get up to my desk and go to wipe away the few specks of rain and the shoes look like they broke out in hives. Rough spots the size of rain drops that look like acid rain went straight through the wax and polish and removed finish, and they were raised up like a rash. 30 minutes later they had dissipated enough to be mostly invisible from 6 feet up, and tonight they're hard to see but still there upon close up inspection.

I was genuinely shocked. Did the same pre-wear new shoe routine with these that I've done with every other.

That's.......really weird. The Carlyle from Allen Edmonds? Cause it looks like normal, good calfskin leather, so I don't know why it would react this violently to a little bit of rain on polished shoes.

Even heavy rain doesn't usually cause weird ass reactions on the leather like that. Shoes will get wet, but not have "hives".

 

[JFWR]

(But don't tell the lady.)

Lol. Yes. Procure with abundant stealth.

Definitely don't rub her feet on your shoes. She'll find it very strange. "But, my dear, this is my fetish" won't work.

 

[Chowkin]

Angulus suede dye is purple based black and left the suede a very dark brown. Feibings is a blue black, but didn't really make much of a color correction towards the factory black suede (far left). It also seemed watered down compared to Angulus.
I'm considering a round of navy dye in the hopes the bluer dye will help to override the brown tones.

Does anyone have any experience getting a more "black" black suede with dyes?

I used this Woly spray:

 

[TenTriply]

X-post from AE thread:



I generally do not shy away from light rain and leather sole shoes given that my walk in to work is at most 100-150 yards. Been like this for a while and haven't had any issues.

Today I wore a pair of black Carlyle for the first time and it was very, very lightly raining. Whatever is just above a mist in to actual droplets. Thought absolutely nothing of it. Get up to my desk and go to wipe away the few specks of rain and the shoes look like they broke out in hives. Rough spots the size of rain drops that look like acid rain went straight through the wax and polish and removed finish, and they were raised up like a rash. 30 minutes later they had dissipated enough to be mostly invisible from 6 feet up, and tonight they're hard to see but still there upon close up inspection.

I was genuinely shocked. Did the same pre-wear new shoe routine with these that I've done with every other.

Since they are new shoes, did you first condition them, then use cream polish and then wax polish?