How to Care For Leather Boots

Those terrific leather boots cost you good money, you love how they look, and they're so comfortable you could wear them to bed. But in fact, as the seasons pass your boots will end up facing all the harsh elements of life. So what can you do to preserve their original beauty, and keep them looking as good as the day you bought them?

One of the best things about good leather is that as it ages, it develops a special patina. As an organic material, leather will stretch to fit the contours of your legs and in time will feel like a second skin. And just as you wouldn't let your own skin grow tired and dull-looking, you wouldn't want your leather to lose its glow because it wasn't correctly tended to.

Leather, like skin, needs plenty of tender loving care to be properly maintained. regular polishing is one of the easiest and most common ways to keep boots looking amazing. Polishing has a dual purpose: it makes your boots look better and helps to erase scuff marks, and it also weatherproofs the leather so that it can be protected from harsh weather.

One of the best products for waterproofing your boots is a simple tin of a material called dubbin. Made of natural wax, tallow and oil, this traditional leather "food" will condition and soften your boots and make the leather water-resistant.

Unlike shoe polish, dubbin doesn't have any coloring. If the color of your boots has faded, you may want to buff them with a shoe polish that matches the color of the leather. This will bring out the sheen of the original leather and the dubbin will coat the surface with a protective layer. When you condition your boots with dubbin on a regular basis, you will see that the leather is as shiny as it was when you brought them home from the store. Not only that, your feet will remain dry even in bad rainstorms.

Another similarity between leather and skin is that heat can be very damaging to them both. This means you should never use a direct source of heat, like a blow dryer, to dry out your boots. If you do, the heat can cause the leather to shrink and eventually crack, and before long the surface of the leather will be permanently damaged.

At the same time, extreme cold can also result in long-term damage to your boots, leaving the leather brittle and cracked. So if you want to preserve your boots for years to come, don't expose them to extreme changes in temperature.