section heading hidden

Why a Bit of Boot Care Pays You Back

A good pair of walking boots is one of the few bits of kit you will genuinely mourn when it dies. Get it right and you can expect several hundred miles of bog, gritstone and chalk downland before the soles wear through. Get it wrong — or simply ignore it — and you will be replacing them every couple of seasons, usually halfway up a Lakeland fell in horizontal rain.

The good news is that looking after boots takes perhaps twenty minutes after a big day out, plus a longer session once or twice a year. Most of the damage we do to boots is entirely avoidable: baked-on mud that cracks leather, drying them on a radiator, or letting grit grind away at the stitching and rand. Treat them well and they will keep your feet dry and comfortable for years.

Cleaning Off the Mud

Clean boots while the mud is still damp if you can. Leave it to set like concrete and you will be picking at it with a blunt knife for a fortnight.

• Rinse the worst off first. A garden hose on a low setting, or a bucket of cool water, shifts most of it. Never use a pressure washer — it forces water past waterproof membranes and blasts away the treatments you have paid good money for.
• Use a stiff brush on the uppers. A dedicated boot brush or an old nail brush works well. Work along the seams and around the rand, where grit collects and slowly saws through stitching.
• Dig out the lugs. The tread is where grip lives. A blunt stick, a spoon handle or a purpose-made tread cleaner will pull out compacted mud and small stones that would otherwise wear the sole flat from the inside.
• Wash the inside occasionally. Lukewarm water, no detergent, and a good rinse. Detergents strip the natural oils from leather and leave waterproof-breathable linings compromised.

If your boots are fabric and mesh, a soft brush and cool water is plenty. Fabric uppers dislike scrubbing as much as they dislike mud.

Drying Them Without Ruining Them

This is where most boots are quietly killed. Heat is the enemy: radiators, woodburners, hot airing cupboards and car footwells in summer all cook the adhesives that hold soles on and shrink leather until it cracks.

Instead:

• Air dry at room temperature, ideally somewhere with a bit of moving air.
• Remove the insoles and laces. Both dry faster separately, and the insoles are often the smelliest part.
• Stuff with newspaper. Loosely crumpled, changed every few hours. It draws moisture out from the inside and helps boots hold their shape.
• Open the tongue and cuff so air can circulate down into the boot.

Never dry leather near direct heat, and never leave boots drying in full sun — the leather will go hard and brittle, and there is no coming back from that.

Reproofing Leather and Fabric

Any boot that has been cleaned will have lost some of its surface treatment. Water should bead and roll off; if it soaks in and darkens the leather, it is time to reproof.

For full-grain and nubuck leather, a wax or wax-and-oil conditioner is the traditional choice. Warm the boot slightly (a sunny windowsill, not a radiator), work in a thin coat with a cloth or bare fingers, paying attention to seams and flex points at the toe, then let it absorb before buffing. Two thin coats beat one thick one every time — a heavy layer clogs the leather and traps grit.

Nubuck can also be treated with a spray-on proofer after brushing up the nap. Suede-like finishes respond best to sprays rather than waxes.

For fabric and mixed boots, use a spray-on water repellent designed for synthetic uppers. Apply outdoors or somewhere well ventilated, in thin passes, and let it cure overnight before you wear them. Remember that most fabric boots rely on an internal membrane for waterproofing; reproofing the outside is about keeping the fabric from becoming a wet sponge, which makes the boot heavy and cold even when the membrane is holding.

Leather boots also appreciate a conditioner now and then, particularly if they live near salt water or get used on gritstone. A little oil or cream keeps the leather supple and stops it cracking at the crease across the toes.

Laces, Insoles and Other Small Wins

Laces are cheap, and replacing them is the single easiest way to make tired boots feel new. Frayed laces jam in eyelets, break at the worst possible moment, and the stretch that develops over time means you can never quite get the fit you want.

• Replace laces at least once a year if you walk regularly, or as soon as you see fraying near an eyelet.
• Carry a spare pair in your pack. A bootlace is a multi-purpose bit of kit — it will also fix a rucksack strap or a broken tent pole in a pinch.
• Check the eyelets and hooks. A burred metal eyelet will shred a new lace in a single walk. A few strokes with fine emery paper smooths it out.
• Wash or replace insoles. Lukewarm water and a gentle scrub freshens them; replace them when they go flat and stop supporting your arch.
• Look at the soles. Once the tread under the ball of the foot is smooth, it is time to think about resoling or replacing, before you find out the hard way on wet rock.

Storing Them Between Adventures

Boots that sit damp in a bag in a shed will grow mould, crack, and smell like a wet dog. Before you put them away, make sure they are bone dry, clean, and reproofed. Store them somewhere cool and airy, standing upright, laces loosened so the uppers are not under tension. Do not stack anything on top of them, and do not seal them in a plastic bag for months on end.

If you walk all year round in the UK, build in one proper boot-care session at the end of winter and another before the autumn rains arrive. Half an hour with a brush, a tin of wax and a new pair of laces will keep your boots going for far longer than you might expect — and there is something quietly satisfying about putting on a pair of well-tended boots at the start of a long day on the hills.