The Leffot shoe store’s blog share some tips for protecting your shoes from road salt stains this winter:
The best way to combat the stain is to rinse the shoes off while they are still wet. If that’s not possible the salt will dry leaving a white stain, and the longer it’s left on will begin further damaging the leather.
Yes there are products made to remove salt stains, but I’ve always used a 50/50 mixture of warm water and white vinegar. Use a soft cloth and wipe away the stain, after the shoe is dry proceed to a leather balm or conditioner and then polish.
(h/t A Continuous Lean)
I don’t know which special products he had in mind, but I am as likely to use Lexol leather cleaner as his remedy, since I happen to have a big squirt bottle of it. Why? Because I needed some Lexol leather conditioner (rather essential), and thought, why not get the whole kit.
A commenter makes the sensible point that if you keep your shoes polished well enough (polish being basically wax), your shoes will soak up foreign substances less to begin with. Which stimulates my guilty conscience about not having polished my main pair of brogues myself.
As a former vegan I never thought I’d be write a blog post about leather care. More on that another time perhaps.
Something completely different –
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBZ8LzPC48M[/youtube]
