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CWL317

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should you avoid gravel paths with new leather soles? I’m reading conflicting advice - no, because small stones embedded in the leather sole can lead to holes... or yes, they rough up the sole and provide traction?
I usually wear rubber soles and haven’t worn my leather soled new shoes outdoors yet...
 

marlinspike

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Wear them inside first. Assuming it's a new shoe and not just a resole, a good idea to wear them one hour the first day, two hours the second, 4 the third. Since you'll naturally be giving them more than twice as long than worn between these wears, it can be back to back days. Then make the first few outside wears on dry days. I wouldn't avoid gravel, but I wouldn't seek it out either. The pressure of wearing makes them tougher and the dirtiness of the street makes them hold up to water better, so if you can avoid wearing them in the rain until they've got a dirty wear mark going.
 

CWL317

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Thank you Marlinspike!? - yes new I’m only wearing indoors at the moment to break them in. It’ll be a new podiatric experience as the only leather soled shoes I’ve worn previously were at a wedding rather than regular wear.
 

efta

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Tried the lighter trick and it worked alright, might've been a bit too aggressive with it though. You guys be the judge, might be of some help if anyone else is contemplating it.

20210228_144652.jpg
 

efta

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Has anyone here succesfully stretched a pair of all leather shoes around the pinky toes? I'm in need of this small tweak on a few pairs, but I'm unsure if I should try it myself or take the pairs to a cobbler.

Definitely let a cobbler do it (depending on what shoe it is). If the entire shoe is too small, then you might be able to do it yourself with a stretcher, but a cobbler will most likely be able to stretch the specific part that is pinching. Are they broken in?
 

marlinspike

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Has anyone here succesfully stretched a pair of all leather shoes around the pinky toes? I'm in need of this small tweak on a few pairs, but I'm unsure if I should try it myself or take the pairs to a cobbler.

I've had a cobbler do it, but how much too small? You'll get maybe 4mm of stretch if you just keep wearing it.
 

JFWR

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should you avoid gravel paths with new leather soles? I’m reading conflicting advice - no, because small stones embedded in the leather sole can lead to holes... or yes, they rough up the sole and provide traction?
I usually wear rubber soles and haven’t worn my leather soled new shoes outdoors yet...

The stones will not cause holes in the leather.

A gravel path will rough up the soles very well to give you traction; however, I say a normal wear around the block on sidewalk concrete is best for an initial wear and break in.

Wearing the shoes inside on carpet is more or less just to break in the shoe, but does nothing to mark up the sole.
 

Hurlazza4

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Seeking advice on why I would be getting so much cracking on the toe cap with only one wear. These are new Carmina balmoral boots in brown box calf. I’ve worn them twice. They are polished with saphir cream and polish (a mixture of pate de luxe and the mirror gloss).

they looked great then worn once and all of the cracking on the toe appeared.
Any comments and advice appreciated.
FDF84682-3D53-453F-9539-3FA9B720081F.jpeg
672387A1-A86B-45EF-856C-42E8000C5FAB.jpeg
6EC42A76-5F9A-4CE7-A0B2-A69CA3066F12.jpeg
 

JFWR

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Seeking advice on why I would be getting so much cracking on the toe cap with only one wear. These are new Carmina balmoral boots in brown box calf. I’ve worn them twice. They are polished with saphir cream and polish (a mixture of pate de luxe and the mirror gloss).

they looked great then worn once and all of the cracking on the toe appeared.
Any comments and advice appreciated.
View attachment 1566904 View attachment 1566905 View attachment 1566906

It's the wax, dude. Don't worry: nothing wrong with the shoe.

What you have here is the toe cap is flexing. You need to set the crease BEFORE you wax shoes in order to avoid this, or make sure that it will only crease well before the cap toe.

At this point, you have a few options:

1. You can brush off the very bottom of the wax polish and just let the crease stay there and just, in the future, don't put as much wax where the crease develops.

2. You can melt the wax back to a nice shine with a hair dryer then try to set the crease further down the shoe.

3. You can melt the wax and just accept it will probably crack again.

I tend to find boots do this a bit more often because the way the boot is connected to the foot, it doesn't let the vamp flex as much as a pair of oxfords of derbys.
 

Hurlazza4

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It's the wax, dude. Don't worry: nothing wrong with the shoe.

What you have here is the toe cap is flexing. You need to set the crease BEFORE you wax shoes in order to avoid this, or make sure that it will only crease well before the cap toe.

At this point, you have a few options:

1. You can brush off the very bottom of the wax polish and just let the crease stay there and just, in the future, don't put as much wax where the crease develops.

2. You can melt the wax back to a nice shine with a hair dryer then try to set the crease further down the shoe.

3. You can melt the wax and just accept it will probably crack again.

I tend to find boots do this a bit more often because the way the boot is connected to the foot, it doesn't let the vamp flex as much as a pair of oxfords of derbys.
Thanks JFWR. That's great information. can you say anything more about how I can set the creases in a different place?
 

JFWR

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Thanks JFWR. That's great information. can you say anything more about how I can set the creases in a different place?

What you do is take a pen and press it against the vamp near where your toes bend. You want to aline the pen so it is aligned from your big toe to pinkie, and far enough back from the captoe to avoid creasing. Sadly, it might be too late, as once it creases it is hard to change where it does, but it is worth a shot.

Once you find where you want it to crease, press down hard with the pen and raise your heels so your toes are bending for ten seconds. This will form a crease.
 

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