Universal Casual Shoe Care
I’ve been brainstorming the ideal “universal casual shoe care method” with Leather Doctor products. The thing that all my casual shoes have in common is that I never use cream or wax polish on them.
Some example shoe leathers for this universal care routine:
- Horween Chromexcel Aniline Pull Up. Examples: Alden Indy boot, Rancourt Handsewn moccasins.
- Suede. Example: Alden snuff suede plain toe blucher
- Full Grain Rough Out. Example: WW II style army boondocker boots
- Aniline calf: dress calf, trapper calf.
I have not found products, until now, that both clean & condition all of these types of leather with the same products. So I wanted to run propose a routine to check if it seems advisable for these leathers (not to mention a wide variety of upholstery, jackets, etc.)
This is describing regular maintenance that I’d be performing on all of my shoes, ignoring special problems like removing grease or urine :)
Routine care, as needed:
- spray & wipe with Rinse-3.0 and brush (on suede I use different eraser & suede brush)
- Spray Rinse-3.0 and wipe inside linings, as needed, to bring PH down from sweat from regular wear
- Spay & wipe Protector-S+? Questions about this below. S+ is for all leathers, but suede is in the minority.
Periodic care, as needed:
- Hydrator-3.3 + Fatliquor-5.0 + Protect S+. When the leather seems dry, less supple. Perhaps around Quarterly.
Occasionally, as needed:
- Clean, Rinse, Hydrator, Fatliquor, Protect
- Use Prep-4.4 first if it is a more intensive restoration, or requires a deeper clean (not considering special problems from which the other products might be needed).
My questions are:
1. Does the hydrator need to dry fully before applying Fatliquor, or just dwell or period of time (from a few mins up to 72hrs as needed)?
2. Wipes: I always have on hand the Kimberly Clark WypAll x60 wipes. Would these be suitable to use for every step requiring the paper wipes you sell?
3. Protect: I was thinking I could use Protect S+ for everything, since it can be used on all the above leather types. Would it be a problem to use the silky feel on all leather types? Is using it on the linings problematic? On the other hand, the vast majority of leather I would care for is not suede or rough out, so perhaps I should get buttery feel, which would work almost everything, and all linings. But then I’d have to also get S+ for suedes, or is buttery feel also fine for suede? I have a feeling I might need mostly buttery feel, plus a little silky feel, so not quite universal but close. What would you recommend?
4. Nano protector. I had been using Terrago Nano Spray—a water and stain repellent spray on my suedes. There are many like this on the market. Lasts a couple weeks. Is the protector essentially the same thing? Since I already have nano protector, should I continue to use this as the protector for suedes, and use buttery feel for everything else? Then I only need the buttery feel protector.
5. Lexol: I have mainly used lexol cleaning and conditioner products on all my non-suede/nubuck/roughout leathers. Any product interaction problems I should be aware of? I would probably continue to use lexol on certain items, in conjunction w/ Leather Doctor products, simply because I have a supply that will last a while. (Though I would plan to just use the Leather Doctor routine above on most of my shoes moving forward.)
Thanks for your help!
Armando