LoveMyHats2
I’ll Lock Up.
- Messages
- 5,196
- Location
- Michigan
I recently grabbed up two NOS pairs of shoes. The leather was perhaps the most "dry" leather I have ever touched before. The leather was rock hard and felt actually like a thick potato chip, if I would have wanted to, I could have snapped it into pieces. What I used to bring the shoes back to life? Cadillac brand leather conditioner. Each pair of shoes drank an entire 8 ounce bottle of the conditioner, I carefully applied the leather conditioner inside the entire shoe as well as on the outside of the leather. The leather drank the conditioner up in two days time, I was gently rubbing the conditioner in with my hands. End results, the leather feels brand new. It is now soft, supple, and if you did not know I had used all the conditioner on the leather, you would not guess the leather had been as dry as a dog biscuit. These shoes also had a crepe sole that was dry very badly, stiff, and in serious bad condition even though they had never been worn. I used a clear silicon spray that is made to give car tires a shine, but as it is thin I felt it would absorb into the crepe shoe soles, and yes, it worked far better than what I would have guessed.
Just my personal opinion, if your shoes are dry and suffer from age, before you do anything else to them, I would (if they are dirty) use the saddle soap but then condition them if not dirty use the conditioner. I could have used any product made, lexol, picard, whatever, but I was informed by my local cobbler that nothing "sucks" into dry leather faster or better than the Cadillac leather conditioner, and I have to agree after using it. It is noted that there are leather "oils" that can be used to preserve leather and condition it, however, if you have anything other than a dark colored leather, you may not like what the oil does to the leather, thus a leather conditioner is preferred. Lastly you have to consider when refurbishing a shoe, if you use a product to bring leather back to life, be aware of anything in the construction of the shoe that may be "glued" together and that if the glue is dried out, it may not like the oil or conditioner you use and the glue can give out, separate, etc.
Just my personal opinion, if your shoes are dry and suffer from age, before you do anything else to them, I would (if they are dirty) use the saddle soap but then condition them if not dirty use the conditioner. I could have used any product made, lexol, picard, whatever, but I was informed by my local cobbler that nothing "sucks" into dry leather faster or better than the Cadillac leather conditioner, and I have to agree after using it. It is noted that there are leather "oils" that can be used to preserve leather and condition it, however, if you have anything other than a dark colored leather, you may not like what the oil does to the leather, thus a leather conditioner is preferred. Lastly you have to consider when refurbishing a shoe, if you use a product to bring leather back to life, be aware of anything in the construction of the shoe that may be "glued" together and that if the glue is dried out, it may not like the oil or conditioner you use and the glue can give out, separate, etc.
