As with all quality footwear, your shoes will last longer if you take good care of them. Follow our hints and advice on how to clean and care for your suede shoes.
Caring for Suede Shoes
Suede is a beautiful material that looks great although requires a bit more care than flat leathers, where you can cover stains, scraps and cuts with polish. With a few simple steps though you can keep your suede looking fantastic for years and years to come.
Prevention is the first step so when you purchase your suede footwear, also purchase a protector spray, this will put a silcon layer onto the suede which will help repel stains and dirt. Apply before you wear the shoes, let dry overnight, do not put in front of a heater or near direct heat as this could cause the suede to crack. Also do not put in direct sunlight as this could cause the colour to fade.
Brush your shoes with a suede brush regularly to remove dirt and also to revive the nap, do this with a proper suede brush, follow the grain of the leather and use gentle motions. Respray the shoes each time you do this and also between time.
The above steps will help protect your shoes. If you do get stains then if the stain is minor the best thing to do is to buy a shoe gum eraser block, which you can rub gently on the footwear to remove the stain. For bad stains take them to a good quality cobbler
Additional Care tips:
Always brush the nap in the same direction, this will keep the shoes looking clean and stop you just brushing dirt around the shoe.
Do not leave your shoes in the sun, this will fade the colour. Keep them cool, dry and well aired.
Make use of shoe trees, these will soak up the extra moisture from your feet and help to maintain the shape. If you don’t own shoe trees use white paper rather than newspaper, as this will avoid any of the print seeping into the material.
If your shoes do get wet, try to absorb as much moisture as possible before leaving to dry naturally. You can then deal with water marks once they are fully dried.
If you get mud on them, leave it to dry before brushing off in a sweeping motion, again so that you don’t just brush the dirt around the shoe
Avoid harsh chemicals, these will damage both colour and material; keep it as natural as possible