I'd be interested in a tutorial on knowing what the hallmarks of a well made shoe using quality leather vs one that just is trying to appear to be high quality.
@@itzuzer4851 I like to go to thrift stores and I often find high quality dress shoes in good condition. Restoring them is fun and very satisfying as is knowing you scored a $400 pair of shoes for $10 just because grandpa died and they gave his shoes away that he rarely wore. Best place to find shoe trees too.
Another caution for Acetone, if you wear soft contact lenses, I'd remove them before using Acetone. The vapors can do ugly things to them while in your eyes.. wrinkle/melt.
I've encountered a problem with Allen Edmonds: for some incomprehensible reason they dye the inside of their shoes a very strong dark brown color that starts "bleeding" whenever I wear the shoes, even if my feet are perfectly dry, but especially if they ever get even a little wet. Many pairs of my socks are now ruined with this heavy, dark dye. No other brand of shoes that I know does that! The leather on the inside of shoes is supposed to be natural. Anyway, I wonder if there's a way to take the dye off and expose the natural leather underneath? Thanks to anyone who will be able to share any thoughts!
Be very careful doing this. Some shoes have a finish that will come off using acetone. Even the well known shoemakers have cheaper lines of shoes where the finish is spray painted on top of what appears to be bookbinder leather. Edit: The colour will completely come off!
So what Saphir products did you use after the acetone to get the final finish? I'm also not sure how you cleaned the acetone residue off. Is there another video of yours with more details? Thanks.
Thank you for your informative videos. I've watched many of them and have a question. With Allen Edmonds, I notice that they crease easily and sometimes I see some creasing and imperfections in the leather even when new. These are from my own shoes and from pics posted online. I believe this might be due to sub-optimal clicking and/or using hides with looser grains. I live with it because of its price point. In your videos, you reshape the shoes with acetone and they look better than new. If the restored shoes are well cared for and properly "tree-ed" will the creases come back? If so, I imagine that it won't be as severe. Will they come back in the same spots and with the same level of severity? What's your experience with that? On that note, have you ever done a follow up video where you film the shoes a year or two after your restoration? It would be interesting...
Great video again Preston. You can really make it look easy. Can you do a video on shining a pair of men's spectator shoes. Something with leather and a material. I really want to get a pair and am just a little unsure about how to shine them and not get the polish on the material part. Would like to get an experts opinion on the process. Spectator shoes are usually a summer shoe and it will be summer before you know it.
Preston, creases are one thing to deal with, BUT, what about marring, which happens when a shoe edge on stacked shoes, makes its weight known on the pair underneath. Is there a remedy for removing such mars? Furniture has remedies, but what about leather? I have looked online, and asked, to no avail. Any comments would be welcomed. Thank you for what you do in these videos, .and for your generosity of spirit. Bless you and those you love. DJ in Knoxville TN
What if these were light tan colour and the factory finish got removed with acetone. Would you be able to restore them with multiple layers of Saphir cream polish ? Also how does meth spirits (the purple stuff) fair compared to acetone ?
Great video as usual : ) Two quick questions: 1. Is too much Reno'Mat bad for the leather-mainly while removing old polish? 2. Before applying a mirror gloss, what is the appropriate dry time after each step: a.Reno'Mat b.Renovateur c. Cream polish
T L You should just tip the bottle of Renomat onto your rag then use that and repeat, if you get too much wait for it to dry (15 mins or more as said on the bottle) then you can buff with small amounts of water similar to when creating a mirror shine. For rénovateur and cream polish 5 minutes at least however the longer you leave it the more time for nutrients to be absorbed by the leather.
For the skittish, would Reno-Mat be a potentially safer option to remove some of the factory coating, even if it is perhaps less effective at getting it all off?
Yes, absolutely. If you are nervous I would build up your chops with Reno-mat and graduate to Acetone with experience. Or use Acetone on a couple of pairs where you don't care if they are over-stripped. Acetone is like fire: it can keep you warm or it can burn your house down depending on how you use it. Reno-mat is like a space heater.
Do you store the vintage trees in these shoes permanently or just for the rehab? I have trees in all my shoes, while they do help, i still have some creases in my 5th Aves that I would like to remove.
do all this and wear them 2 more times and get all the creases back... what is the point? Nobody care but you that your shoes are creased. Nobody will even notice. Let go of your OCD and focus on more important things than your shoe creases.
From going on eBay Preston. I believe those Vintage Shoe Trees are old school Shoe Extenders/ Lengtheners w.e. I could not find a Vintage Shoe Tree like that style. in any size. I might be wrong though. Any thoughts?
If any one looking for 7a copies of shoes do let me know, all types of sneakers and shoes available. We deliver international and in india. Legit 7a copies and u can't identify them as copies.
Ah, the AE Carlyles. Man do these shoes love to crease. It's not really anyone's fault. Leather creases. That's what it does. But because the Carlyles are an unadorned plain-toe, it can look pretty gruesome, especially when the shoe is black. I've got these shoes in black and in walnut, and the creases on the walnut just look so much better. It's the same amount of creasing, but I think that it's the way the light catches and reflects off of the creases on a polished pair of black shoes that just makes the creasing so much more noticeable. Still a great shoe though and surprisingly comfortable.
Hey Preston, so I bought some Meermins, and still waiting for them to be made, but I am wondering do you recommend the Meermin Beechnut shoe trees? OR would you recommend sticking with a Cedar shoe tree (as I have a spare one from Allen Edmonds that I was thinking about using. But I am just wondering which of those two would you recommend? Or is there a better option than even those two woods?
I do not like the creases in my navy blue Doc Marten dress shoes. I may try removing the buff finish after securing matching leather dye and good polish. 😁
Thank you for this video. I have 7 pairs of engineer boots. Why?, because I’ve never been able to find the right size, plus my low arch seems to have caused foot issues and allowed my feet to increase in length just enough to not be able to wear 6 of those pairs of boots. :/ Today I received a pair that actually fit well and unfortunately they had wrinkles on parts of the boot. I wondered if it was possible to remove the wrinkles. Now I know. Thanks again! 👊🏻
My Carmina Rain last shoes crease much worse than my other shoes. Maybe because Rain runs bigger and they’re a little big for me? I don’t know, but it’s frustrating.
First thing that makes this hard is getting such a shoe tree that isn't easy to get. Already there many people are cut off... Isn't there another way with shoe trees that are available?
I did "swedish bath" on a pair of brown 5th aves I just got off ebay. All I have are modern, cedar trees, too bad I don't have the lasted momba trees. They came out pretty good after drying 3 days. acetoning and Saphir creme, wax and mirror shine on the toes. I'll send them up to Part Washington for a factory resole and cork. They feel good, but definitely broken in on someone else's foot! Oh, the creases are still there, but definitely less bulbous. in-between them if that makes sense.
Has anyone solved the boot polish cracking issue on boots when you were em the newly applied polish cracks woulda thin layer of shoe grease help make the polish flexible
Help! I have tried everything, first your put in water technique, then your acetone technique, I have even tried to iron out the creases, keeping a damp cloth between the iron and the shoe ofc. Always the creases disappear once the shoe trees have been in for a while but the moment I walk 100m in them they are back. By now I have even slight cracking along the creases. What could be the reason? Bad leather? I would hate to have to give up on the pair that gave me my first break in finance and they are only 5 years old, though I have worn them a lot. Anybody who can help please speak up❤
I have.a question. I have a pair of boots where the creasing is not bad and doesn't really bother me, however one of the toe boxes was stepped on and there a very faint vertical crease running down the front of the toe... it's very very faint, and every so often it catches my eye and really bothers me, because I expect that crease with happen where the feet fold, but the crease down the front (again, very faint) just feels out of place and bothers me. Most people would not see it, but I do. Is there a way to remove that crease? Since the toe doesn't bend, I would not expect it to come back, but I would like to remove it. Would really appreciate some help, thanks!
Hi, does anybody have any ideas on how to remove creases from my leather toe cap please ? I think it occurred when the leather was still too wet from when I used renovator and polished it too early. Now there is a crease mark at the end of the top cap. Any advice greatly appreciated. I have attempted a hair dryer with little success. Thanks. Russ
Thank you so much for the great tip and for all your wonderful videos. I am a big fan! Can you please tell me how many coats of acetone do you use on the entire shoe to remove creases from the vamp? Also after using the acetone do you have to use a colored dye or can you get into your conditioning, cream, and wax again? Thank you!
do creases happen because of misfitting shoes? I opted for a bigger size because the toe box was too narrow on my stacy adams. now i feel im regretting my decision
Hey there,I havea nice pr of lobs, fairly good shape been half soled and heels. Issue is had had some water stains and I had them readied with a solid paint like shoe dye . Light camel color. The finish cracks in the creases and I don't care for the solid flat look. Want a transparent penetration look. Even if some stains show that's ok.Tried solvents and acetone but very difficult to remove the finish. How to remove this and refinish?
What about creases right up near the end of the toe cap? I have a few pair that crease there, and it really spoils the shoe's appearance. I see there's a thing called Crease Protectors (or similar name) that you slip up inside right up to the toes, and they prevent the toe cap from bending so much when you walk. Does anyone here have experiences with these? do they work?
Wow this is a timely video for me! I am having trouble finding out what kind of leather the Allen Edmonds "Green Street" Mahogany uses. It's a long wing. The leather looks really smooth and shiny like you described "corrected leather", so I'm trying to find out definitively. Mainly so I know how to care for it long term. I didn't really want to get a 'corrected grain' if that's what these are, but I was just looking for a nice long wing and didn't think twice about ordering from AE. I just ended up with something very different than I am used to.
Hey, Rob! The Green Street is not made for corrected grain. I have the Broad Street in the same mahogany leather and while its different than regular AE calf, it’s full grain.
My shoe has a ceased at the ankle part it scratches a lot i cannot even wear that anymore will this work for that too the cease literally bend it at that place
Curious if you used black dye on these after the acetone. I'm thinking with black especially you could use some black cream and polish and be done with no dye required.
@@TheElegantOxford Thanks for sharing this Preston. This is what I figured but I've only stripped a black pair once and that was for a patina vs trying to preserve the color. I also found on the dark brown AE Cornwallis in particular that after a light strip the leather underneath looks shockingly better than before the strip. It does lighten up a bit on those though so some extra caution is needed.
I use a product called Sno-seal to waterproof my shoes and boots. It repels water really nicely. Added benefit is that it smells terrific, like you're in an old shoe repair store. I have also used a liquid silicone spray, last one I used was made by Peak. Also repels water. All bets are off if you step in a puddle of water.
Hi I just got some Thursday boots dukes (Chelsea's) in black and I was wondering if you have ever worked on them before? I wanted to get the factory finish off. I saw that you use acetone to get off the factory finish off regular calf skin shoes but from my understanding, Thursday uses more of a chrome leather. Any thoughts?
I just used a heat gun to improve the fit of my Mephisto's and to my surprise all the creases vanished , if I get another pair with creases ill make a video to get it out , my shoes use good leather , so that may matter .
@@TheElegantOxford yes they did change color matter fact it’s just bare leather a little paint left on it and also shoe trees left supper massive lines on the upper side
Thoughts on removing factory finishes on newer Johnston and Murphy's so shoe cream can be applied? Have heard multiple places that using shoe cream doesn't work well because of whatever factory finish they use. Worry that finish might be the only thing making the shoes look decent/normal.
Yeah I wouldn’t remove the finish. It will look bad. I figure use them and take care of them until they are falling into disrepair and get rid of them. They are not make to be taken care. Most people buying new JMs don’t take care of their shoes.