Warning-bit of a ramble:
Historically, I have been a black or cordovan dress shoe guy almost exclusively with Allen Edmonds as my long time preferred brand.
I decided to buy a pair of medium brown shoes from proof of concept re the color off of ebay. Leather upper, man made the rest, Goodfellow (Target brand) at 25 ish shipped.
They were quite shiny in that spray on shine kind of way such that neither cream (TRG) nor paste (Lincoln) polish did much for them.
Reading about the advisability of occasionally stripping polish off of a shoe, I decided to do that with these as the cost of failure would be relatively low.
Further research indicated that simple rubbing alcohol would work so I used the 70% compound I had at the house. I made two passes with the alcohol
I then "reconditioned" the now "stripped" leather with 2 applications of Bicks # 4.
I then applied two coats of TRG Brown Polish all over and two coats of Lincoln Light Brown to the toe caps.
Take-a-ways
1. Rubbing alcohol works. Perhaps a 90+% solution would work better
2. I could have been more methodical in the stripping such that their are subtle differences in the amount of polish etc stripped over the surface area of both shoes
3. My polish/wax on hand certainly moved the present color of the shoe toward a more brown brown v a tan/red brown.
Any tips/tricks for the next time/next set of shoes are always appreciated.
Pics to follow directly:
1. Original look
2. Stripped
3. Conditioned
4. Restored
Historically, I have been a black or cordovan dress shoe guy almost exclusively with Allen Edmonds as my long time preferred brand.
I decided to buy a pair of medium brown shoes from proof of concept re the color off of ebay. Leather upper, man made the rest, Goodfellow (Target brand) at 25 ish shipped.
They were quite shiny in that spray on shine kind of way such that neither cream (TRG) nor paste (Lincoln) polish did much for them.
Reading about the advisability of occasionally stripping polish off of a shoe, I decided to do that with these as the cost of failure would be relatively low.
Further research indicated that simple rubbing alcohol would work so I used the 70% compound I had at the house. I made two passes with the alcohol
I then "reconditioned" the now "stripped" leather with 2 applications of Bicks # 4.
I then applied two coats of TRG Brown Polish all over and two coats of Lincoln Light Brown to the toe caps.
Take-a-ways
1. Rubbing alcohol works. Perhaps a 90+% solution would work better
2. I could have been more methodical in the stripping such that their are subtle differences in the amount of polish etc stripped over the surface area of both shoes
3. My polish/wax on hand certainly moved the present color of the shoe toward a more brown brown v a tan/red brown.
Any tips/tricks for the next time/next set of shoes are always appreciated.
Pics to follow directly:
1. Original look
2. Stripped
3. Conditioned
4. Restored
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