Extend the service life of your footwear

An easy way to extend the life span of your footwear is by giving it a helping hand in the form of cleaning and care. It does not have to take long, but the time you spend is paid back many times over with a pair of well looked-after shoes, not least by keeping your waterproof footwear waterproof

Guide to shoe care

Here you can get advice and guidance for the maintenance of footwear in materials such as rubber, top grain leather, full grain leather, suede and nubuck.

Care of footwear in top grain leather or full grain leather

Good leather care means spraying your top grain or full grain leather footwear with impregnating spray before using it for the first time. It can then be treated with impregnating agents at regular intervals to protect it.

You can also rub leather grease into the footwear and preferably into the seams too. It cleans and cares for top grain and full grain leather and helps to make the footwear resistant to water. Be aware that leather grease can make the leather a little darker because it penetrates into the leather and protects it at depth. If necessary, finish by buffing the footwear.

Leather balm or wax cleanses and cares for top grain and full grain leather, makes it water-repellent and has an emollient effect. It does not cause the top grain or full grain leather to become darker in colour as it settles on the surface. The drying time is faster than with leather grease, and you do not need to buff afterwards.

Shoe polish in the same colour as the shoes brings out the colour of the shoes. It is applied with a soft shoe brush unless the shoe polish comes with a sponge. Then the footwear dries and is buffed afterwards. Remember that the brush should only be used for one colour, as a brush that has been used for black shoe polish can, for example, spread on brown or white shoes.

Care of footwear in nubuck and suede

An impregnating spray is good for nubuck and suede because it maintains the rough look. There are different kinds of impregnating sprays available, all of which are intended to care for and protect. If the footwear is water-repellent, an impregnating spray helps to maintain the water-repellent effect. If the footwear has become dirty, you can brush loose dirt away with a clean brush, which also helps to maintain the rough look in nubuck and suede.

Care of rubber boots

Rubber boots in natural rubber dry out over time, becoming dull in colour - perhaps with whitish discolourations. If left untreated, they can get cracks and fissures in the bends that make them leaky. Read here how to prevent cracks in rubber boots:

Clean the rubber boots in lukewarm water and let them dry at room temperature - not directly at a heat source or in the sun.

Then spray the rubber boots with a little Gum Boot Care, rub well with a sponge or a soft cloth and let them dry at room temperature.

Remove excess Gum Boot Care with a soft cloth.

After this treatment, you have a pair of flexible rubber boots with a nice, deep colour. This treatment counteracts drying out and cracks in natural rubber.

We recommend that you treat your rubber boots with Gum Boot Care from the beginning and not only when they are about to dry out, as it will then be too late to save them from cracking. After treatment, the rubber boots are easy to clean with running water after use. Regular care using Gum Boot Care prolongs the life of natural rubber boots and keeps them nice and supple.

If the rubber boots are made of PU or PVC, they can be cleaned with lukewarm water and a brush, and with a little mild soap if necessary. Wipe dry with a damp cloth.

Example of rubber boots with cracks because they have not received care.

Rubber boots before and after care with Viking Rubber Boot Care.

Footwear with a membrane will not tolerate impregnating agents with silicone

If your footwear has a waterproof membrane, i.e. an internal waterproof protection such as Gore-Tex®, do not use impregnating spray with silicone. The silicone can penetrate and cause the membrane to break down. In this case, you need to choose an impregnating agent without silicone.

You can alleviate the smell of mildew and sweaty feet

Footwear with a Gore-Tex® membrane is 100% waterproof and breathable. This means that water molecules cannot get through the membrane, but steam and air can. Therefore, it takes a long time for shoes with Gore-Tex® to dry if you have gotten water in the footwear, or if you have washed them.

It is therefore important that you take out the insoles and let the footwear dry at room temperature. Fill the footwear with newspaper and replace the paper several times until the footwear is dry again.

For normal use, we also recommend that you lift the insole up when you take off the shoes so that the moisture under the soles can evaporate. It helps prevent the smell of mildew and sweat in shoes.

A first aid solution for sweat odour in shoes can be a shoe deodorant that you spray inside the footwear and allow to dry at room temperature. A shoe deodorant has an antibacterial effect and neutralizes the smell of sweaty feet.

Conventional wisdom suggests putting the smelly shoes in a tight plastic bag and putting them in the freezer overnight. The bacteria that cause the bad smell are destroyed at very low temperatures.

A good idea can be to have two pairs of safety shoes to switch between

You might think that a pair of safety shoes is expensive, and that it’s even more expensive having two pairs! But with two pairs to switch between, you considerably extend the life of your safety shoes, as one pair has time to dry completely before they are used again.

You can apply the same procedure to ordinary shoes, thereby preserving them longer.

Are you destroying your heel caps?

Do you find yourself tugging on your shoes or stepping on the heel caps because they are so hard to put on? Trodden down heel caps ruin your footwear and are not a pretty sight. If you have a shoehorn to hand when getting your footwear on and off, you can slip into the footwear easily and quickly without damaging it. Shoehorns are not just for the elderly, they are for those who want to take good care of their footwear!

Feel like starting leather care, rubber boot care, impregnating and maintenance of your footwear? Then take a closer look under impregnating and care, where you will find the products described here in the blog "Footwear maintenance".