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