After wearing your boots for a few months, you may notice the leather drying out. Now is the time to care of your boots, as the saying goes "Take care of your boots and they will take care of you".
Clean Boots
1. First things first, make sure your boot is clean. It doesn’t make any sense to apply a conditioner to a dirty boot. If your boots are clean, just skip to Step 2. If not, follow below.
- Take out your laces
- Brush off any loose debris (you can use a soft bristle brush for this)
- Partially fill a glass with warm water and Red Wing’s Cleaner or mild dish soap (like Ivory) and mix it to create suds.
- Using a sponge, begin to clean the boot.
- SIDE NOTE: Be sure to create suds while cleaning the boot, as that is what lift any dirt away from the leather as opposed to rubbing the dirt deeper into the leather.
- Use a paper towel to clean off the suds and remove the water. You can also run your boot under water if you’d like, either method will work.
- Repeat cleaning process as many times as you see fit, then let the boot completely dry.
Condition the Boots
2. Now that the boot is completely dry, clean, and ready for some conditioning, let’s get to it. There are a few things to keep in mind while doing this:
- You can use your hand or a soft rag to apply the conditioner.
- Be sure to apply the Naturseal to all of the nitty gritty spots, like between the upper and the sole, and also on all of the seams.
- Don’t be afraid to apply the Naturseal more than once. When leather dries out, it will often soak up the Naturseal quickly so applying it a second or third time isn’t going to hurt it.
- Naturseal will leave a white film on the leather if it is not rubbed in enough. Don't be alarmed, just continue rubbing it into the leather and it will go away.
Dry Boots
3. Let the boot dry.
