How To Take Care Of Work Boots: A Complete Guide For Everyone

A common question might appear in your mind – How durable the work boots are? In the case of durability, work boots last from months to years. That long-lasting varies on your carefulness. The better you treat them, the more they will last.

In general, work boots are built to be tough. With a bit of gentle care i.e. a few minutes per month, it will last longer than your expectation. Pretty sure that such informative guidelines will help you to do the proper maintenance of your work boots.

How To Take Care Of Work Boots-

Break-In Slowly

It’s normal to feel a little bit uncomfortable with your new work boots. A few boots are good to go from the very first day when you get them. You have to use lightly at least a week before they are fit for long shift works.

Most of the people want to get rid of the painful feet issue. That’s why they use it roughly and rush with it thus they can get relief from the pain earlier. But doing this can lessen the durability of your shoes.

The best way to reduce break-in period safely is to use conditioner which will naturally soften your work boots.

Water-Based Waterproofing

The next step is waterproofing only if your boots are made of leather. Most probably this is the cheapest and easiest process.

Limit yourself to waterproofing products that are themselves, water-based. There are multiple reasons for this:

Water-based products let your work boots to breath. As well as repelling water on the outside, they will still allow sweat to dissolve on the inside.
Water-based products safer as they don’t contain petroleum. Petroleum can stretch the leather of your boots. They don’t require heat to apply which can warp leather.
There’s no need to apply heat which can warp the leather of your work boots.
They’re more effective.
Water-based products never attract dirt.

It doesn’t matter which product you use, for maximum results you have to apply a minimum of three coats. The first should be applied when you first get them. The second 2 weeks later. And the third, 2 weeks after that.

Regular Cleaning

Bought work boots of thousand dollars? It doesn’t matter even, it won’t last long until you never bother to clean them. There’s no need to clean them daily. Definitely, none has the patience for cleaning the shoes every day after a long shift.

But don’t forget to do a quick scrub at the weekend. Five minutes of scrub will extend the lifetime of your work boots and also a great look.

The water-based cleaning agent is mandatory for almost all kind of leathers except suede leather. As a scrubber, a nylon brush is so effective in general. A pencil eraser can be used for suede leather.

In terms of cleaning inside of your boot, you can use a shampoo. Keep in mind that a lower PH shampoo is more preferable.

Regular Conditioning

If you realize that your boots have started to stiffen, apply some boot conditioner after every couple of months or whenever it’s needed.

The lather gets dehydrated by its nature and that’s why the conditioner is so important. Due to higher dehydration, cracks start to show off. And the leather also prone to scratches.

Remove Scratches

Using can’t make the leather scratch proof. If your work boots are already scratched and you don’t like those scratchy boots, here are some tips and tricks to minimize the damages. Keep in mind that removing all scratches might be impossible.

Grain Leather

Clean and condition properly as described above.
Use extra conditioner to smoothen smooth the scratches i.e. try to compress the part that’s been lifted up from the scratch.
Dab the scratch with white vinegar, again trying to compress the part that’s been lifted up. White vinegar naturally causes leather to close up.
Apply shoe polish.

Patent Leather

Clean as described above.
Buff the scratch using shoe polish.
Cover the entire boot in a liquid silicone finish. It looks like the way when the leather is first coated with by the manufacturer. It will help to hide the scratches, hide the shoe polish and even it’ll give a new look of your entire boot.

Suede Leather

Always keep in mind that suede leather is the most delicate.
Clean it up using a pencil eraser.
Raise the grain around the scratch by gently buffing it with a toothbrush.
Condition the scratch using conditioner as described above.

Leather Boot Polish

Long lasting of your shoes don’t depend on shoe polish. But it is included as it may have some effects on how long you decide to use them. Keep in mind again, these tips are not applicable to anything made with suede.

Clean the boots as described above and let them dry.
Apply the shoe polish slowly, with an area of small circles and obviously with pretty much anything soft.
Use a shoe brush to remove any excess left over.

Easiest three steps, a five dollar can of shoe polish, and now your boots look like new.

Consider Insoles

Most of the time we blame the soles of the work boots don’t survive for a long time. Wearing a high-quality pair of work boots for forty hours per week on the rough and tough surfaces will might damage the soles earlier. This isn’t a design fault. It’s the natural way of anything being stepped on repeatedly.

Whenever it happens, replace the insole, not the boot. Replacing insoles is a very simple way of buying the best insole.

Wear as Intended

This should be maintained strictly. But unfortunately most of us don’t maintain it, we wear the work boots where we shouldn’t be.

Use the work boots during your work time, not on the weekend. Again you’re being warned – If your boots are made of suede, avoid water like the plague etc.

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