Care - LaBelle Supply
Keep a closer eye on your shoes when the weather is foul; if it's exceptionally wet outside, you might forgo wearing your shoes outside for that day. Waterlogged leather (which will feel "swollen" and look dark from absorbing water) loses its essential oils quickly as it dries, and it becomes susceptible to brittleness and even cracking. The same advice goes for snowy conditions, where the combination of wet snow and road salt can quickly take years off of the life of your shoes. The tools and supplies you’ll need to shine your shoesShoe care supply How often you have to actively care for your shoes depends not only on how well you passively care for them but also on your wearing habits: how often you wear them, what kinds of surfaces you walk on, how long you wear them each day, and even what season it is. Fitzpatrick noted to us that "one does not need to shine his/her shoes more than once a week." If you are exceptionally hard on your shoes, if you have only one pair of shoes, or if you wear them in heavy rain or snow, you may need to tend to them more frequently. This guide covers five tools and supplies that we have found through our research, our interviews with experts, and our in-store testing with Stanley Mayes to be indispensable components of your shoe-care routine. A shoe brush is an essential tool for cleaning off dust from your shoes and for buffing in moisturizers and polishes. While any horsehair brush will work, our testing found that paying more than the minimum amount to get a more effective tool is a worthwhile investment. A rag is necessary for applying the various cleaners, conditioners, creams, and waxes you’ll need for a full shoe-care regimen; you can also use a rag to quickly wipe down and dust off shoes or to buff polish to a mirror finish. Although you can purchase special rags for your shoes, nearly every guide I’ve read and every professional shoe shiner I’ve had my shoes shined by has used an old cotton T-shirt cut into squares and longer strips (for buffing). I suggest you do the same to save some money. It is imperative that you use a different rag for every different product so that you don’t end up with cross-contamination. I like to pin a label onto each rag so that I don’t forget. A leather cleaner removes any foreign substances and dust that would otherwise get trapped under the polish and damage the leather. It also prepares the surface of the leather to accept the moisturizer and polish by stripping away the excess oils and polish already present.