clean your boots

How to Care for Leather Boots

When someone invests in a pair of the best work boots or the best hiking boots, its important that you maintain them as you use them to keep them good quality and overall extend the lifespan as long as possible. Some of these boots can be very expensive and this can lead to you needing to buy new pairs if you are not keeping up with maintaining them properly.

How to Care for Leather Boots

Oil

My first and foremost tip would be to purchase a high-quality oil such as Obenaufs Leather Oil. Oil is great especially if you are wearing your boots in damp or wet conditions. Applying a premium oil with not only give your boots a great shine but it will massively help with repelling water and any dampness that gets on the boots.

How often – I recommend oiling your boots once a month considering most situations, though if you are wearing them for work and it is raining often doing it fortnightly may be even better.

Brush

Getting a small brush and brushing down your shoes can in fact be a great way to maintain them. Brushing will remove any dirt and grime that may have built up when you are outside with them especially in dirty conditions. Brushing them thoroughly will help remove this dirt and even moisture that may have built up. If you don’t brush them semi regularly this dirt and grime and turn into dampness and mold. This will undoubtedly make your material start to deteriorate a lot faster than if you brush them down properly. If you are wearing your boots through a lot of dirty areas, you will need to almost every day.

How often – For the average user brushing down the boots once a month should be plenty enough though if you are using them for work in a dirtier environment I would recommend brushing them 1-2 times per week if not more in some circumstances.

Air them

When you aren’t wearing your boots, I would advise you keep them in a dry and warm place, this will allow any dampness to properly dry out. If you can have them on a shoe holder than holds the boots upside down this is ideal. That really allows them to air out properly. I personally use this Innoka stand for my own boots.

How often – Ideally if you have a stand anytime you aren’t wearing them you place them on a stand like the one I suggested. This will help keep them dry and will prevent mold from forming which will greatly increase the overall lifespan of the boots.

Wipe them

It may sound basic but wiping them down will a warm cloth will a little soap can be a great idea as well. If you are living somewhere where it’s a warm and dry climate doing this can stop the boots from drying out over a period of months or years. After wiping them down don’t forget to apply the oil after ideally.

How often – If you like your boots to always look like new then doing this every week would be advised but for most people once every couple of weeks should be more than enough to keep them looking stellar.