You can make your shoes last months after you buy them by taking steps to help preserve them. It takes some time but it’s worth it. There are shoes with different materials that will need different ways of taking care of them but they will look as if you bought them the day before and will help you keep them for longer. There are a couple of household materials that you can use and some products that you have to buy. I’ve seen YouTube videos of people making potions, as I like to call them, when they mix many ingredients together to make the same solution that an item may already have in store. I don’t like to do it this way because it is time consuming and may not work as well as products on store shelves. White shoes I think are the hardest to keep clean, for obvious reasons, and there are times when the weather can be bad and you shouldn’t wear them, but there are also products to help keep them clean and crisp. There are also products that help prevent shoes from creasing where the foot naturally bends at the front.
Let’s start with how you can help preserve before you even wear the shoe. You can buy shoelaces to help the shoe hold its shape and so that it doesn’t lose its shape over time when you’re not wearing it. You can easily find them online for little money or go to a shoe store. I have found them at IKEA too. I also like to keep the shoe box, but some people get rid of them and put them in clear plastic containers. This helps keep them clean and dust free when in storage and you can easily see where the shoes are, rather than in a box, if you can’t remember the name of the shoe. When buying a shoe, especially one with leather material, at the register or in the store, they usually have ForceFields. ForceFields prevent wrinkles where the foot bends in the front. These help tremendously because leather shoes over time tend to wrinkle much more easily than other materials. These take up a bit of space in the shoe so I would suggest maybe buying a half size larger so you don’t feel uncomfortable walking with extra padding in the shoe. I know from experience because I made the mistake of buying my normal shoe size and putting on the ForceFields and it was uncomfortable to even walk a couple of steps. I had to loosen the laces and that still wasn’t enough to be comfortable.
In addition, you should also consider buying a soft brush and a hard brush, for different materials. Materials like the Adidas NMD PrimeKnit need a soft brush because the texture is extremely delicate and you can ruin it if you use a hard brush. Another problem you may run into, if you have a sweaty foot, is that the shoe may start to smell a bit strange. So it’s important to buy shoes that help your foot breathe, but there are ways to help prevent odor from getting into your shoes. You can start by taking out the soles and putting a fragrance on them. You can also find a product like this in the shoe store. This is important because you don’t want to walk around and your shoes smell like a locker room. Also, one way to protect your shoes if you know you’re going to be walking on dirt or in the rain is to buy the Crep shoe polisher. This will help any type of material by repelling any liquid and will help prevent stains on your shoes because it is an invisible layer. Again, they usually have them at the store when you buy your shoes. They work very well with soft and delicate materials because they need more care since anything will dirty them. Another product that can help keep your shoes clean is Jason Markk Shoe Cleaner. It is a liquid solution that you put in a bowl with water and stir until it is mixed. You then dip the brush into the solution and once it starts brushing the shoe, it creates a white suds that helps clean the shoe. This was the first cleaner I bought for my shoes and I have been buying it repeatedly because it has helped save many pairs of my shoes. In addition to storage, you should keep your shoes out of sunlight, and if you don’t want to leave them in their boxes or plastic containers, make sure they have enough space for them to breathe. Not having enough space between your shoes will cause them to lose their shape as I mentioned, and you’ll have to spend more money in the future to help restore them, so why not start from scratch? Also, after using your shoes you should clean them, don’t wait for them to get very dirty to clean them. A light cleaning before storage can also go a long way in increasing their lifespan. If you wait until they are completely dirty, there may be stains that have already set deep into the material and will be difficult or irremovable.
All the products I have mentioned cost no more than $10 and will help you keep your shoes for much longer. On the other hand, you can also do these solutions at home, but be careful because they may not work as well. If you go this route, check out previous YouTube videos of how other people have worn them, how they did it, and how their shoes fit. All of these steps will help extend the life of your shoes and keep them looking their best.