How To: Revive your worn-out patent leather shoe
- WeiTai Ho
- May 21, 2018
- 3 min read
One of my favourite leather shoe has to be one that is made of patent leather, they shine with little effort and good lord the maintenance has to be the easiest ever; typically you just have to get a shoe brush or cloth to brush off the dust and they're good to go. However, there are times where we have that special occasion to attend - a special date or an important social event, so that patent leather shoe of ours needs a little more shine to dress to impress. Alternatively, it could just be that the shoe looks a little 'dead' and we need to revive it. So here's a short video on how you can do so, I hope it's useful to you!
Note: This post is dedicated to patent leather shoes only, they are easier to maintain and has less steps than non-patent leather shoes. Depending on the leather type of the shoe, they each have similar but different types of maintenance!
You will need one of each:
Clean shoe brush, no remanent of any shoe polish, dedicated to getting rid of dust and debris for all your shoes
Shoe polish in either transparent or the colour of your leather (black or brown)
Any kind of dry lint-free rag cloth or an unwanted tee (doesn't matter if it's stained). This will be used to coat the shoe with shoe polish. This will also be dedicated to coating all your other shoes with shoe polish for future use, best to have one area of it dedicated to each shoe polish colour. There's no need to wash it after use, just leave it to dry then store it.
Small cup of tap water, about the size of a Listerine cup is more than enough
Dry unwanted microfibre cloth, this will be used to buff the shoe to shine. Like item 1 and 3, this will be dedicated to buffing all your shoes in the future, no need to dedicate one area of the cloth to each shoe polish colour for this one. No need to wash it too, just dry and store.
Optional Items:
Damp cloth, either with lightly detergent water or tap water
Damp cotton swaps (those you use to clean your ears)
Unwanted old tooth brush
Kitchen towel or whatever lint free cloth you can use to wipe the shoe dry
Note: Throughout the entire process, make sure your shoe is free from dust or lint by brushing them off with your shoe brush whenever you spot it. Otherwise, it'll stick to your shoe through the entire process and it'll be a pain in your ass to get rid of it later.
Instructions:
Brush off any debris or dust with a clean shoe brush, make sure to do it thoroughly, even between the gaps and the seams! For hard-to-reach places, you can use a toothbrush to brush it off if your shoe brush can't reach it. If you're not taking step 2 and 3, go to step 4 immediately.
[This step is optional] If you have mold on your shoes, use a damp cloth and wipe the entire shoe thoroughly, for hard to reach places, you can use damp cotton swaps.
[If you took step 2] First dry it with kitchen towel then leave it to dry further under the sun for a short while (this is to make sure there's really no water left on the surface of the shoe), the duration is really up to you, proceed after you're sure the shoe is dry. Warning: Do not use hairdryer on heat to hasten up the process as it may destroy the leather!
Coat the shoe with shoe polish, one shoe at a time. I usually use transparent shoe polish for patent leather but because this shoe has severe scuffs, I use black shoe polish to 'paint' over the scuffs and make them look less visible.
One shoe at a time, dip your pinky finger into the small cup of water then use it to put a few drops of water (1 to 3) at whichever spot you're about to buff. Start buffing with the microfibre cloth, you can use any other dry unwanted lint free cloth or buffing dedicated shoe brush too but I personally find microfibre cloth giving best results. Start buffing and focus on one spot at a time, don't be lazy. The heat generated from the friction during buffing will make the shoe shine. There's no need to press down hard on the shoe.
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