Ultimate Leather Boot Care Guide [0:00:00]
I'm going to start this video off with a sad, sad story.
So, I was in London I found this beautiful pair of Chelsea boots.
I picked them up on sale.
I loved them.
I wore them with everything until I destroyed them in one Wisconsin winter.
How does that happen?
Well, we get a lot of snow, they put salt on the ground to melt that snow.
Then, you've got the seasons of spring and fall in which, you know, there's slush and
all that other stuff on the ground.
Guys, they fell apart they got cracks in the leather within one winter.
I want to make sure this doesn't happen to you.
So today's video is dedicated to all those boots out there that need love that need care.
Guys, the ultimate guide to taking care of your boots.
[Music] So, let's start this video off by talking
about the enemy.
What is the enemy of your leather boots?
Number one is you neglecting them.
Yes, guys, everything I'm talking about here means nothing if you don't actually take action
and take care of your boots.
So many guys I see them wearing their boots they think, oh, they’re boots I can be rougher
with them, I can be, you know, I don't need to do anything to my boots.
That's true if you don't want them to last if you want them to fall apart.
If you take care of your boots, I can tell you the upper if made from a true leather
can last your lifetime, it looks better over time.
So number one, take care and take action on taking care of your boots.
Next up, water.
Number two, water is going to damage boots.
How does water damage boots?
Because it can enter the leather and it's when it leaves the leather it actually changes
the shape it can basically dry out.
It pulls moisture out when it leaves and when it enters it actually expands the cells.
Yes, leather is skin.
So, think about when you go into the pool what happens?
Or you're spending a lot of time in the bathtub.
You know that -- remember how your fingers kind of look all funny when you were a kid,
it still happens and it happens to this leather as well.
You want to make sure that that's not happening because you are replenishing the oils.
Your skin is going to repair itself, this leather doesn't have that option.
Finally, salt and other types of, you know, chemicals and stuff out there.
Salt will go in and will dry out the leather even faster.
There are certain chemicals if they get exposed to the leather they're going to cause it to
crack and basically start to fall apart.
Next up, let's talk about the different materials you're going to see on the boots and the different
styles.
So, if it's an exotic leather, you want to be very careful with water damage.
That's going to be like ostrich, crocodile, things like that.
When it comes to suede, what you're looking for is a weather-safe suede.
Some boot designs like this one right here use a weather- safe suede, therefore you can
get it wet.
It's just going to be a lot more resistant to damage.
When it comes to taking care of suede though what you want to have is a suede brush.
And there are going to be special sprays out there, look for them they are going to say
that they are safe on suede.
A lot of the items I'm going to talk about here especially the creams things that, you
know, the polishes, you do not want to use on a suede.
It's just going to actually change the texture you're never going to be able to get it back,
so find a good brush and you want to use a lot of preventive basically care for things
like this.
Now, this boot right here some of the other boots I'm going to show -- all the boots I'm
actually going to show you in today's video guys brought to you by Thursday Boots.
I'm going to link to them down in the description.
And let me tell you about Thursday Boots, an awesome company.
They’re the paid sponsor of today’s video and I'll tell you why because I've been testing
and wearing their boots now for almost two years.
I took this pair right here this one right here I wore them through a Ukranian winter,
I took care of them and I can tell you they are – they’re great they're -- I mean,
they held up snow, sleet, slush.
They did a great job.
And I walked a lot of miles on these things, I still haven't had to re-sew them.
It's a great company.
I think you guys are going to be surprised when you see the price of these boots.
They're an amazing deal.
And with that great price they've actually got an amazing selection of different styles
different leathers.
Guys, go check out their website.
What do you think of this?
Check out that Blarney Stone Commander.
Isn't that a good-looking boot?
I really like that.
Now, check out this Black Wingtip.
Isn't it beautiful?
What would you wear this Black Wingtip with?
Go over check out that midnight blue suede chukka, I just used that as one of the examples.
I had them sent to me, I can tell you I'm loving this boot.
Check out the President in brown.
This was the first boot I showed you.
The first boot they ever sent me and I still have them after almost two years.
At the end of the day, gents, these are stylish great-looking boots at an amazing price.
I'm linking to them down in the description.
Go check them out.
And let me know in the comments what's your favorite style, how you would wear it this
winter, how you would take care of it.
And I'm going to be meeting with the founders here in actually a week in New York City,
so I will talk to them maybe I can get a couple pairs sent out, but you've got a comment down
below.
You've got to go check out their website.
Let me know in detail how are you going to pull this look off.
Sound good?
All right, guys, let's get back into the content.
Getting back to talking about the upper, what you're going to notice in dress boots and
these are going to be Chelsea's, these are going to be lace-ups that have a more of a
dress boot design.
You can tell that basically they're going to have a leather sole.
Those you need to be really careful with, oftentimes they're going to use a little bit
thinner of a leather because they're going for a sleeker more elegant type of look, but
that can be really susceptible and can show the damage much quicker, so those you have
to really take care of.
[0:05:04] Now, leathers they are going to be of a lighter
color.
This is a Horween Leather out of Chicago.
What we're going to notice right here is that if we were to bring on dark polish we bring
in a conditioner we bring in a type of oil, it could actually darken the leather.
So, make sure anytime you've got a light-colored leather that you test it any type of product
you're going to put on.
Go to the tongue go down in on the tongue and you want to just apply a little.
Let it sit, see how it changes the color.
Test.
Don't trust that they say, oh, we're not going to darken your boots.
Guys, it has happened and these companies aren't going to buy you a new pair of light-
colored boots.
And the final boot offer I’m going to talk about is that made from a dark heavier weight
leather.
Now, what's great about this is it's dark, it's going to more easily cover up stains.
You actually have a wider selection of different polishes, creams, and things you can use.
You're not so much worried about it actually getting stained.
Where you need to be careful though are salt stains and now let's get into that.
If you live in a winter area and they throw salt on the road to melt the ice melt the
snow, that's great for stopping slipping.
It's horrible for your shoes though because once that salt gets into your boots what it
will start to do to the leather is it dries it out quicker, it starts to create cracking
even after a few months, so you want to take care of this.
That's key.
So, you want to keep a rag where you store your boots and just simply after every time
you wear them wipe them down.
That is going to do wonders.
Also, you want to keep a little brush there simply go through and you want to clean to
remove any type of sediment built up.
If you do that, you are ahead of the game.
But most people won't, they'll forget to do it they'll go a couple weeks until they start
to see that white salt stain on the boot.
What do you do then?
Okay.
So, you want to take one tablespoon vinegar, one cup water, mix it and then you're going
to take that rag and you're going to actually go into it a bit you're going to spend a little
bit of time working to remove the salt stain.
It may take a couple treatments.
And you're also then going to take a specific type of cleaner.
There's a number of different leather cleaners I'll talk about here in a second.
Those can help pull out the salt as well, but you've got to give it more treatment.
Understand, if you're seeing that salt stain, that's not a good thing you want to treat
that immediately.
So, in that last point you saw me hold a brush.
Now, I've got a wide variety of brushes here I'd like to talk about, but I think the key
is for you to have your own system.
You don't want to be mixing and matching brushes and the reason being if one you use to basically
buff the shine after a polish, the other one you use to remove sediment and dirt, if you're
mixing those you actually when you go in to do a polish you're going to take small pieces
of sediment and dirt and you're going to actually rub them right in to your nice polish and
you don't want to be doing that.
So, this one right here because of its size and because of its color I know that this
is my cleaning brush.
I don't want to go with something with two hard a bristles, but I want still bristles
that are pretty firm they're going to be able to get in there in the various parts of the
shoe and be able to remove things.
Now, these smaller brushes which you've probably seen before these are applicator brushes.
I'm going to use these.
This one for a dark polish dark-colored brush, this one for a lighter or a neutral polish.
Now, I do keep one different applicator brush for every type of different polish.
Yes, you're going to have to maybe go buy them in bulk, but I find that for me this
works best.
Now, we've got different polishing brushes.
This one obviously for lighter-colored shoes, this one for darker-colored shoes, but understand
the brush itself isn't what's going to make it darker, it's the polish that you use and
that is what's key.
A lot of people just simply use a rag like this an old t-shirt.
A nice cotton old t-shirt will work.
I've got other rags like this which are going to be in color, so I don't have anyone in
my household coming to grab this think it's a long lost washcloth.
And ones like this that actually use a really nice -- they've got a really nice napped surface.
These can be great for a polish.
Now, where do you keep all of this?
Guys, it's key you have a shoeshine box.
You need to have one central place where everything goes that way you can find it when you're
looking for it.
So, when I look at all the different products out there, to me they break in just three
categories.
First off, you've got cleaners.
Next up, you've got conditioners.
After that, you have polishes.
I'm going to explain how each of them work and why you would want to use each of them.
First off, let's talk about cleaners.
So, in my opinion the best cleaner you can use is simply a damp washcloth after every
wear maybe a wet wipe and a nice brush that's going to remove things.
But, if you want to go beyond that, there are a few specialty cleaners out there.
One of the most common ones you're going to see is saddle soap.
So, like the name implies it was initially used on saddles.
People found, hey, I can use it on shoes I can use it on belts.
Now, understand that some saddle soaps they can remove a little bit of the pigment and
the dye, so they can actually discolor some of the leather make it lighter colored.
But, if you've got a lot of mud build up a lot of stuff and you don't want to introduce
a lot more water and maybe the leather already has water damaged, well, in that case you
can use a saddle soap.
But, a saddle soap is not a conditioner, so that's the next category and one of the biggest
categories I think actually out there.
Leather is skin, over time it starts to crack and fall apart.
It cracks because basically it dries out.
The goal of a conditioner is to reintroduce nutrients moisture and do it in a way that
water can't.
So, there's a wide variety of different conditioners out there.
I've talked about companies like Leather Honey.
They've got cleaners and conditioners.
You're going to find other ones just out there are going to say a conditioner and a cleaner.
I like going with a true just conditioner out there.
Leather balms are oftentimes a conditioner and a cleaner.
[0:10:16] You're going to see rejuvenators out there.
Those have specialty types of nutrients and ingredients in them and they are made when
you want to try to restore an old beat-up leather.
Now, understand if the leathers got cracks in it if it is falling apart, leather just
if it's beyond repair, it get camped, but the rejuvenators are going to be oftentimes
much higher priced.
Now, you are going to see some creams out there and this is where it starts to blur
the line between conditioners and actually polishes.
Creams are specialty made to actually penetrate the leather a bit at the same time they use
a dye or a pigment that is going to actually leave a little bit of a shine, but creams
in my opinion never leave a shine like a true polish will.
Next up, gents, let's talk about polish.
A polish is the outer protective layer.
It's not made to enter the leather and condition it.
A lot of polishes are we're going to use materials which are hydrophobic, so they're going to
reject they're going to push away water.
That's a great thing.
That is your layer of protection.
And over time you can build up multiple polish layers on your shoes that will prevent it
basically prevents scuffing damage, so that's why I love a great polish.
Now, if you're using a polish, that's awesome because most people don't and a lot of people
are going to ask me, okay, what's there between a dollar polish and a twenty dollar polish?
It's going to be the ingredients sometimes the quality of the dyes, are they using more
natural materials are these guys using may be petroleum-based products.
That's going to be the main difference.
Some people will argue, oh, I’ll get a better shine sometimes thinks that's a placebo effect.
But at the end of the day, go with a brand go with a company that works for you.
Now, dyes.
You're going to see there's black polish and brown polish, there are neutral polishes.
I love neutral polishes because basically it'll give you a shine, but it's not going
to give you any color.
But if you have black shoes go for a black polish.
You can sometimes in a pinch if you've got black shoes darker colored shoes, go for a
neutral, but it's not going to do a good job of basically hiding those scuffs.
Now, let's talk about some of the specialty waterproofing and polishing products you're
going to see out there.
So, if you see something that’s saying, hey, we're going to protect you from all the
snow all the sleet, understand that they're probably just using a beeswax.
And if you're doing everything I'm talking about here, you may not actually need that
product it's not going to do too much.
There are a silicone sprays which I think are pretty good.
After you've put on all your layers, yes, you can spray your boots down, but they can
get expensive.
I think a polish overall is going to work.
Other things like mink oil, yes, it will work if you're not using everything else I'm talking
about and you want to use this instead this oftentimes does darken the leather.
But understand a lot of these products evolved or came into the boot industry from other
industries.
So people using them on purses on their leather bags.
And I'm going to say if you're doing everything I just talked about, you don't have to use
all these other products.
Some of them are going to be shortcuts.
This product right here is made specifically to put on and it leaves an instant polish.
So some of those things I think can work okay.
You want to look at the ingredients you want something that's using I think not really
as too many synthetics.
At the end of the day, remember what I said, none of this matters if you aren't actually
applying it and taking care of your boots.
Now at this point, how to apply all this knowledge how to actually put all this onto your shoes?
All right, I'm going to link you over to a video in which I show you how to clean, how
to condition, how to polish your leather shoes.
Now, I said shoes, understand the same rules apply to polishing your boots, to polishing
your shoes.
There's really no big difference here, but with this knowledge with this base guys you
can take care and make sure that your leather boots last.
All right, gentlemen, now it's your turn.
Let me know what you thought of this video down in the comments.
And don't forget, go check out Thursday Boots.
I'm linking them down in the description.
I want to hear from you guys down in the comments your favorite style.
Be specific.
Tell me how are you’re going to wear it, what you're going to match it with, how are
you going to pull it off this winter, how are you going to take care of those boots
with all this information I just gave you.
And, guys I'm meeting with the founders here in New York, I'll mention I want to, hey,
I want to get you guys a few of these pairs, but you have to be specific.
You got to go check out their website.
The link is down in the description.
A good company.
Good quality boots.
Like I said I've got a few pairs I was like thinking which ones should I pull up.
I'm not giving you guys any of these boots.
I love this company I love the boots I wear them all the time and I hope you go check
them out and discover them.
That's it guys.
Take care.
I’ll see you in the next video.
[0:14:31] End of Audio