Dyeing shoes

Originally Posted by Wes Bourne

Click to expand...

I think that's why I haven't attempted this yet (I can be very OCD)! I guess I could apply some blue painter's tape to the liner area that comes in contact with the tongue. Paging Ron!

Sounds like it would work. You could also stuff cotton balls between the tongue and quarters.

I recently came across these pair of Starr shoes at Paul Smith, liked the fit, though not the colour as much. How easy or difficult would it be to dye that to something like this? I suppose the colour doesn't need to be exactly spot on, and I wouldn't mind some variance in between, since it's meant to be a pair of shoes worn for casual use anyway. And how much of a disaster would it be, if I were to just apply a darker shoe cream polish (in say, mahogany or dark brown) over the original off-white pair?

Originally Posted by the_sartorialist

Click to expand...

I recently came across these pair of Starr shoes at Paul Smith, liked the fit, though not the colour as much.

How easy or difficult would it be to dye that to something like this? I suppose the colour doesn't need to be exactly spot on, and I wouldn't mind some variance in between, since it's meant to be a pair of shoes worn for casual use anyway.

And how much of a disaster would it be, if I were to just apply a darker shoe cream polish (in say, mahogany or dark brown) over the original off-white pair?

This would be a job for someone with a lot of experience.
I don't recommend attempting this at home if you've never dyed shoes before.
It would be a very tedious job and great patience would be required.
I would strongly not recommend this particular home project as your first, but it can be done.

Originally Posted by Man Of Lint

Click to expand...

This would be a job for someone with a lot of experience.
I don't recommend attempting this at home if you've never dyed shoes before.
It would be a very tedious job and great patience would be required.
I would strongly not recommend this particular home project as your first, but it can be done.
Understood. Does anyone have any recommendations for affordable and reputable cordwainers(?) in London who can do the job?

i dyed an old pair of shoes i got from my dad using advice i got from this thread. heres a before picture they were a lighter tan than i liked, but I like how slim they are and how thin the soles are, so i tried just rubbing them with a few coats of brown and black shoe polish, but it just took to the creases more, and made them look dirty and old. pic: at this point i was gonna give up and just buy a pair of slim dress shoes, but i couldn't find anything similar apart from paul smiths, which are out of my budget, and since nothing of value would really be lost if these were ruined, I decided to strip them and dye them. My dad didn't have any acetone (he thought he did, but only had lacquer thinner) so being the impatient person I am, I stripped them with lacquer thinner instead, which turned out fine. pic: (yes, one is a slightly different color than the other, dunno why) I decided to go black, because I didn't want them to be darker in the creases, and look older than they are (even though they're older than me, my dad bought them sometime in the mid-eighties). only dye i could find is kiwi leather dye, so thats what i used: I think that sponge applicator on the top was made more for touch-up rather than dyeing whole shoes, because after i got about half way through the first shoe, the dye would clog up the sponge and get foamy, so I would have to wash out the sponge. anywho, after dying pic: I'm gonna give them two days to dry fully, then i'm gonna put some leather cream on them (i've got a jar of beeswax leather cream, is this good to use?) edit- just realized this thread is from MC, i'm more of an SW&D guy, I dont plan on wearing these with a suit, they're just going to be my casual black shoes, so i dont really want them to be shiny.