CARING for your ATHEIST Shoes & Boots

Here are a few tidbits, which should help you keep your ATHEIST beauties looking tip-top and dapper

First off...

At the end of a long day, it may be tempting to pull your shoes off with your feet, with or without untying the laces. But we highly recommend that you RESIST this urge, as it may shorten the life-expectancy of the leather at the base of the heel cup. Much better you take a few seconds to go down on your knees and remove them with good-old-fashioned fingers & hands.

And...

Give your shoes time to breathe. Every now and then, they’ll be grateful for a day’s rest, which will allow any dampness to dissipate more thoroughly (on the inside and outside), giving the leather a longer lifespan.

If you have nubuck shoes, sneakers or boots...

Nubuck sure feels soft and suede-like to the touch, but it's definitely not suede... and it's a good deal higher quality and more robust. Suede is made from the inner-facing side of a cow’s hide, whilst nubuck is a top-grain leather, made from the outer-facing part of the hide, and so it's strong, durable, and more suited to confronting the elements than the velvety, buffed finish might suggest. As such, your shoes will cope well in the rain and the snow*, and should keep your feet dry as long as any other leather shoes would.

We typically don’t protect our shoes with “impregnating” sprays, but it will do no harm, should you wish to do that. To clean the shoes, we don’t recommend normal shoe-cleaning fluids, nor waxes, nor creams. Rather, a gentle wiping with a dry sponge, nail brush or towel will remove surface dirt & dust, and that may be all you need during the lifetime of your shoes. A a pencil eraser or “magic eraser” can be used to remove more stubborn dirt. And a gentle washing with soap and water (ideally just a drop of dishwashing liquid) can also help.

If you have napa shoes, sneakers or boots...

We use a high quality napa leather, which is akin to a traditional glove leather. It's very soft and smooth, but will still perform well in rain and snow*, keeping your feet as dry as you would expect from any leather boot.

As with our shoes, it is not necessary to proof or protect the boots against the elements. And nor do we spend much effort in cleaning them. However, a wipe with a slightly damp cloth every now and then will remove surface dirt and dust (though you don't need to be too vigorous in your cleaning and don’t use citrus-based cleaners, as this may lead to undue discolouration).The finish to our napa leather is more smooth than for our nubuck leather and has a certain waxiness of consistency. As such, you may find that a neutral shoe cream (perhaps with bees wax) or a simple shoe wax will help to revitalise the appearance of the boots.

If you have cognac pull-up shoes, sneakers or boots...

Our COGNAC shoes are a slightly different leather again; a full-grain, pull-up leather, heavily waxed to produce a gorgeous finish that will readily adopt an aged and lived-in appearance, proudly wearing the scratches and impact marks you accumulate, through their wear. Again, a neutral shoe cream or shoe wax is your best bet for revitalising these boots, and simple massaging of the leather will remove bothersome scratches. You can even warm them with a hair dryer to melt the wax and make the leather more malleable, as you seek to smooth out imperfections. But a slightly scarred and aged appearance is something we see as a virtue.

* snow, in some towns, invites the appearance of  salt. We can only testify that your nubuck shoes won't be harmed by the salts we've experienced in some snowy parts of Europe. But, if your locality uses some particularly caustic stuff to get rid of the snow, then we don't honestly know what will happen to the shoes... by all means, let us know!