Lessons: How to Clean Leather
Buying expensive boots means making them last, so I learned to take care of my leather
Maybe I’m taking this Substack too seriously for what it currently is? Maybe I take everything too seriously at times? Maybe I think, if I treat this as a professional publication, it will become just that. But tonight, I break from this line of thinking into the informality of online publications. I break away from professionalism which I am bound to 5 days a week, in the office, and instead embrace the casual existence of Substack articles and expressing myself however I so choose through my writing. So tonight, the lesson is simple. It’s clean [pun intended], crisp, and fresh. I’m going to tell you about how soccer taught me to clean leather boots, properly. A lesson is a lesson, no matter how small or big it may seem. Soccer has taught me a lot of significant lessons about life, people, success, failure, etc. But it’s also taught me smaller, practical lessons too, which should not go unnoticed; it’s time to start appreciating the smaller things in life. As someone who is barely 5’-2”, I should most definitely appreciate the small things life has to offer.
Let me tell you about my first love – their name was Nike Tiempo Legend V FG. Sunset orange beauties who lit up my world; composed of soft uppers, sexy textured toe boxes with a bold indigo Nike swoosh down the side. They were hot [the colourway was from a line Nike dropped called the “Heat Pack” back in 2015], they were precious, they were dear to my young heart so that I couldn’t let anything bad happen to them.
These beauties were the first legit pair of football boots I bought – the expensive, top-of-the-line pair that the pros wore, and it made me feel like a pro. But professional footballers have the funds to buy multiple pair of boots per season, whereas I was on a tight budget and these bad boys cost a lot of money for a highschooler. I could not simply let them disintegrate and crumble game after game. No, I had to keep them in prime condition in order to last for a couple of seasons. So, I learned to take care of my leather boots.
Step 1: Spot Clean + Saddle Soap
With a cloth and warm water, clean off any dirt on the surface. Make sure not to soak/oversaturate the leather surface with the water. This could be enough to generally clean the surface but I’ve come across a better method – Saddle Soap.
Now, I use Saddle Soap [something I did not know about 9 years ago as a teenage kid]. I don’t clean my boots since I’m not playing as much footy as I used to, but I do clean my leather Blundstones & Adidas Mundial Goal shoes quite often. Saddle Soap is the best of both worlds because it cleans the surface but also helps hydrate the leather since it contains some natural oils as well. It’s like a nice little 2-in-1. I use a soft bristle brush with the Saddle Soap, lather it all up, then clean the whole surface of the shoe. After it’s lathered up, I take a damp cloth and wipe off any excess soap residue.
Step 2: Dry
Let it dry! from the cleaning process that we just did above.
Step 3: Hydrate/Protect
After you’ve cleaned and dried up, well it’s time to lotion up. Leather is quite similar to our own skin and that’s how I view it nowadays. It was once the skin of an animal, now it resides on our shoes, but we should treat it with the same respect we would treat our own skin. Just as our skin dries out and needs some TLC, so too do our leather products. For my Blundstone boots, I’ve got the brand’s “renovating cream” which I apply by hand to the boots [https://www.blundstone.com/boot-care – don’t trust my post on how to clean/prepare leather shoes, then check out the Blundstone site here]. I also use Dubbin conditioner to finish off the cleaning process [https://www.moneysworth-best.com/dubbin-13601]. This waxy, oil based conditioner helps protect against water and other debris that may come into contact with your shoes when you’re out-and-about in the big wide world. It also adds a nice shine/deep colour to your footwear when applied and buffed with a cloth.
If you hate to read and rather watch [an outdated] video of how to clean leather soccer boots, then here is a cringy video of just that -
The act of cleaning my leather boots brings me joy. They become dry, scuffed, and bruised by the harsh environment I reside in, but with a little extra love, they become new again. Cleaning them is not a quick process but I enjoy that it is slow and meticulous. The process is gratifying; seeing the before and after brings me a sense of accomplishment that I wish to savour. This small, menial task puts a smile on my face, so I must share it with the world. I had a friend say I’d be great in the military because I love silly, little trivial tasks like shining my boots, and to that I say, “Heck yeah, I’d kick a** at cleaning my boots”. Top ranked boot licker; A1 shoe shiner, but always looking to improve my techniques. And so be it, I love to clean my boots and I love how they shine brand new for me each time.
