Shoe Maintenance

After a few hours of dancing on the forest floor at a recent wedding my trusty Allen Edmonds McAllisters were looking quite rough around the edges. They were covered in dirt and scuffs and needed some serious attention before they were going to be work-appropriate again. Fortunately, it’s not that hard to breathe life back into a nice shoe.

I discuss my polishing routine for cleaning heavily-worn shoes here, but this was my method for the above pair:

  1. Remove all dust and dirt with a brush and cloth
  2. Apply leather conditioner (I used Saphir Renovateur)
  3. Brush off remaining conditioner, apply creme polish
  4. Buff out creme polish, apply thin layer of colored wax polish
  5. Polish with a horsehair brush and then a cotton cloth
  6. Touch up edges with edge and sole dressing

Don’t forget to wait at least 10 minutes between each step and you should be golden.