If you own a pair of leather shoes and you want them to last a long time and look new for the time you own them you should aim to clean and polish them at least once a month.

You will need;

• Polish. You can get polish for leather shoes in cream or wax, wax is by far the better product. Make sure to buy the same colour polish as the colour of your leather shoes
• Two brushes, a small stiffer bristled one for applying the shoe polish and a larger soft brush for polishing or buffing up your leather shoes.
• A soft cloth
• A nail Brush
• A sponge
• Bowl of water
• Rubber glue
• A smooth round hard object or pen
• Shoe tree
• Old news paper

Method

Spread the news paper out so as to protect your work surface from get scratched or dirty.

Take your Leather Shoes and remove the laces, this gives you easy access to all parts of the shoe. If your shoe doesn’t have laces but is buckled release the strap from the buckle.

Take the nail brush and remove dirt and mud from the shoe, pay particular attention to the area where the sole meets the upper. If necessary use the sponge with the water to wipe any dirt from the shoe. Once the shoes are clean leave them to dry naturally, never polish damp shoes.

If there are any tears use the rubber glue to stick it back down, use the smooth object to press the tear smooth. Leave to dry thoroughly. Once dry remove any excess glue with an eraser.

Use the smaller brush to apply the polish, take the polish from the edges of the tin as opposed to the middle as this will stop the polish in the tin from drying out. Use a circular motion with the brush and apply the polish starting at the toe and finishing at the heel.

Leave the polish to soak into the leather at least 12 hours.

Use the softer brush to polish the shoes to a high shine. You can get an even greater shine if you take the soft cloth and apply polish to the shoe using your index finger in the cloth working the polish into the shoe in small circular motions, the more you cirle the higher the shine, buff up with the soft brush.

Re-attach the laces or buckle. Store your shoes by using a shoe tree, this will stop the shoes from deforming.

If you wear your shoes every day then they should be cleaned and buffed at least every other day and a major clean as described above once a month.

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