How do I maintain my hiking shoes?

Just like with outdoor clothing, is it important to maintain your hiking shoes, so that you can keep enjoying them for a long time. This will not only keep your shoes looking great, but also keep the quality of the shoe high. You will thus extend the life of your hiking shoes.

It is advisable to impregnate your hiking shoes with a water-repellent spray that is suitable for shoes with a membrane before using it for the first time. When purchasing a pair of walking shoes in our store, we do this the first time.

It is recommendable to clean your shoes with a brush and lukewarm water after every walk. In addition, it is occasionally necessary to treat your shoes more extensively. You can do this through the following steps.

Link maintenance products

Step 1: Remove laces and insoles

• Let your hiking shoes dry if they are wet and dirty.
  When doing so, it is important not to put them too close to a heater or stove. This is because if you do, the leather dry out and crack.
• Remove the laces and insoles from the hiking shoes.
  Often, dirt is left behind where the laces are or the impregnation material does not reach the areas where the laces are over that area. Therefore, it is important to remove the laces from the shoes when cleaning and treating them.
  Removing the insoles from the hiking shoes allows the inner part of the shoes to dry better. The insoles in particular absorb a lot of moisture.

Step 2: Clean

• Once your shoes are dry, you can brush off the dirt with a brush.
  Use a soft brush so you don’t damage the leather.
• Once you have removed the course dirt, you can clean the outside of your shoes with lukewarm water.
  When cleaning leather hiking shoes, it is better not to use soap. Soap can damage the leather and bad for the impregnation. There are special detergents for cleaning hiking shoes, but it is not necessary to use those.
• If you also want to clean the inside of your shoes, it is best to do so with lukewarm water.
  With a textile lining, you can use a little bit green soap. This will help to remove perspiration air from the shoes and restore the breathability of a GORE-TEX membrane.
• If you don’t want to impregnate your shoes, you can let them dry in a well-ventilated area after cleaning.

Step 3: Treat

Over time, hiking shoes become less water and dirt repellent. Impregnating your hiking shoes will restore its water and dirt repellent qualities. Usually on the back of the impregating spray it is described how to impregate the hiking shoes with the spray.

• Your shoes should usually be slightly moist when you inject them with impregnation spray.
  This is because most impregnating sprays are water-based and soak into the leather better when the hiking shoes are still damp.
• If you use an oil-based agent, it is important that the shoes are thoroughly dry before treating them.
  It is best to spray the impregnation spray onto your shoes outside at a distance of about 30 cm.

Other maintenance

For leather hiking shoes, after prolonged or intensive use, the leather dries out, becomes brittle and may crack. To prevent this, you can treat the leather with a wax or conditioner. You can also rub the shoe’s bumber with the same maintenance product. It is often mentioned on the product itself how it should be applied. Using a cloth or brush, you can rub the wax onto the hiking shoes. Excess wax can be removed with a brush.

Note: The rough surface of suede and nubuck leather becomes smooth, shiny and dark by waxing it. If you do not like this, it is better not to wax your shoes. You can use a suede brush to roughen the leather slightly again, but it will never be quite the same as it was.

Do not use oil or grease! Oiling or greasing the leather will make it soft and waterproof, but your hiking shoes will no longer be stable and breathable. The leather will become limp, the pores of the leather will be closed and glued parts of the shoe may come loose.

Storage

Store your hiking shoes in a dry, well-ventilated place. So do not put them in the car or near the heater. In humid areas, the shoes can get mouldy. You may want to put a wooden shoe tensioner in your hiking shoes to keep them in neat shape.