Taking care of your shoes is perhaps the most important thing you can do to keep your shoes nice and fresh. By doing proper maintenance you prevent a lot of dirt on or in your shoes.
Before you start maintaining your suede shoes, it is important that you are sure of the type of leather your shoes are made of. Each type of leather requires a different maintenance service.
I therefore show you how to recognize the type of leather in shoes and, using our simple step-by-step plan: ‘maintaining suede shoes’, I show you how you can easily maintain your suede shoes.
Why is proper maintenance of suede shoes important?
Let me start by mentioning the various reasons why it is important to maintain suede shoes properly.
- Prevents discoloration of your shoes
- It extends the life of your shoes
- Prevents dirt from soaking into the suede leather
- Prevents your shoes from getting ugly due to rain or water
- Ensures that your shoes stay well ventilated
- Your shoes stay neat and clean for longer
What type of leather are my shoes made of?
As I mentioned earlier, each type of leather requires a different treatment. We will therefore first check whether your shoes are actually made of suede leather. This will prevent you from giving the wrong treatment to your shoes. These are the different types of leather in a row:
- Image one shows suede leather. You can recognize suede leather by the small hairs and the nap in the leather. The leather feels soft and supple.
- On image two you see nubuck leather. Just like with suede leather, there is also a light nap in the leather. Nubuck leather feels soft and sturdy.
- Image three shows smooth leather. Smooth leather can be recognized by the shine on the leather. In addition, smooth leather does not have a nap in the leather like the other types of leather. Smooth leather feels firm and fits directly around the feet.
Supplies for maintaining suede shoes
To start with the maintenance of suede shoes, it is wise to look at the requirements in advance. These are the requirements to maintain suede shoes:
Step-by-step plan: maintaining suede shoes
Follow our simple step-by-step plan: maintaining suede shoes for the best protection and care of your shoes.
- Before you start maintaining your shoes, it is important that your shoes are dry. Are your shoes not dry? Then wait with maintaining your shoes until your shoes are dry.
- You start by brushing your shoes. You do this with the soft shoe brush. With brushing you remove the small dirt from your shoes and ensure that the shoes are ready for treatment.
- Spray your shoes with the color restorer. Hold the color restorer about 12 inches (30 cm) from your shoes to spray a small layer on your shoes.
- Let your shoes dry for about 60 minutes. This way the color restorer can move in properly.
- Spray your shoes with the Magic protector. This is a powerful, environmentally friendly spray that protects your shoes against water and dirt.
- Remove the insole from your shoes.
- Spray the insole and the inside of your shoes with the Magic Freshener. By removing the insole from your shoes, the insole can be properly aired and treated. The spray kills the bacteria and removes the smelly air from your shoes.
- Your shoes are completely protected and cared for again!
You should have not used the suede brush now. You only use the suede brush when there are stubborn stains in the suede leather. If this is the case, first brush the stains out of your shoes and then start with our step-by-step plan.
The image shows the color restorer in a transparent color. If the suede of your shoes has faded in color, you can also use a color restorer in the color of your shoes.
How often should you maintain your shoes?
Wearing your shoes wears out the maintenance of your shoes. As a result, it loses the protection of your shoes. It is therefore important to repeat this regularly.
- If you wear your shoes once a week – maintain your shoes once every month and a half.
- If you wear your shoes two to four times a week – maintain your shoes once every four weeks.
- If you wear your shoes every day – maintain your shoes once every two to three weeks.
By regularly repeating the step-by-step plan: maintaining suede shoes, the protection and care remains good.
Did your suede shoes get dirty? This is how you clean suede!
Maintaining your suede shoes is easy to do with our step-by-step plan. Have your suede shoes gotten dirty and are they in need of a cleaning treatment? Then take a look at my previously written article: ”step-by-step plan: cleaning suede shoes”. This step-by-step plan makes it easy to clean your shoes.
