If you wear boots for work, you know how important it is to keep them up. Whether you wear law enforcement boots, work boots, combat boots or the best steel toe boots, you want to keeping them looking and feeling great as long as you can. Here are some tips to help you with that.
1. Clean your law enforcement boots with a brush. If you are like most people, you brush you hair and your teeth. The same principle is at work when you are talking about your boots. If you happen to have boots with suede, that should be brushed with a metal bristle. You need to take a more gentle approach to this material. If the leather is a full grain leather, take a stiff brush to get ride of all of the dirt and dust that will accumulate on your boots.
2. Use a wet cloth and cleaner. If you have the full grain leather, law enforcement boots, you can take a wet cloth to clean them. This can be good to get any finer gran dust and mud that has been caked on. Cleaning this way is also good for the waterproofing process. Use only a tiny amount of cleaning gel. Never use this kind of cleaning process on suede. Nylon boots can cleaned with water. The water should be warm and polish should never be used on them.
3. Put on waterproofing. If you wear your law enforcement boots at work, and that is the point of the boots, they will get wet. You may have thought ahead and gotten waterproof boots but whether you have or you have not, applying waterproofing on your boots is almost always a good idea. Even waterproof boots can be damaged by the water. Luckily, there are a lot of products out there that can waterproof your boots.
- Clean your boots thoroughly.
- Apply the waterproofing product to the boots.
- Massage the waterproofing product into the boots.
- Let dry.
- Remove any excess waterproofing product.
If you have suede, there are special products to waterproof that material. Usually, those products are just sprayed on.
4. Keep your boots polished. What self respecting owner of combat or law enforcement boots does not know how to polish them? Take a silicone polish and use that to soften the leather. Mink oil is a popular option for boots.
- Massage some mink oil into the boots.
- Massage the boots with a soft, dry cloth.
- Buff them to the desired shine level.
- This is only something people with full grain leather should do. It does not work on suede.
5. Keep your law enforcement boots conditioned. Full grain leather boots need to be conditioned. You need to do this or your boots will crack or flake. What you need to do is get some leather conditioner and massage it into the boots. Let this sit overnight. This will keep the leather in good shape and the boots will look and feel a lot better.
6. Let them air dry. When your boots get wet, and they will, you may be tempted to do a host of things to get them dry quicker. You can invest in a boot dryer but, beyond that, the best way for them to dry is to let them air dry. If you use a hair dryer or put them in the oven, you will dry out the leather. Let them dry in the sun or air.
7. Restore your boots. If your boots have gotten out of shape, so to speak, you can restore them to their former glory. You need to have this done professionally but it can be done. Take them to a professional boot restorer and you will get the boots you bought back. They can handle restitching, sole replacement and redo any hardware. They will also clean and polish the boots.
8. Have more than one pair. If you can switch out your boots so when one pair is wet, you can let it dry and wear the other pair, you will be in better shape. Both pairs will last longer when they are not the only one you are wearing.
You need your boots to last and feel great. These tips will help with that.
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