Guide – How to prevent and fix water stains on shoes
Water streaks and stains on shoes in leather or suede is a common issue that most of us have experienced in various ways. Here I go through how to best prevent your shoes from having stains from water, both ahead of, during and after use, but also how one best remove them in the case they still occur.
Why do waters stains occur on leather shoes
Water stains on leather occur because when water is absorbed into the porous material, it can dissolve and redistribute the oils, salts, dyes and other components within the leather. As the water evaporates, it leaves behind these concentrated deposits, causing discolouration and potentially also slight changes in the leather fibres.
How to prevent water stains on shoes ahead of wearing them in rain
The best ways to treat shoes to make them withstand water streaks and water stains is classic shoe care. Worth noting here is that it differs how regular smooth leather and embossed grain leather is to be treated, compared to suede and nubuck. Leather shoes are to be treated with shoe cream and ideally also wax polish. The wax in these products will go into the pores of the leather and create a natural barrier towards water. Do apply several thin layers, and it’s only positive that you continue to regularly build up the layers with your shoe care routine, it makes the protection stronger. That’s why one shouldn’t strip off old cream and polish too often.
Important to note is that if you have proper full grain leather, you should not use waterproofing sprays. Even if this makes shoes more water resistant it hinders necessary nourishing ingredients in especially the shoe cream to go into the leather next time you are to polish them, and may risk the leather drying out over time instead (read more about that in this article).
For shoes in suede and nubuck, the waterproofing sprays are to be used. Here you don’t have pores that can be clogged, and no grain area that one want to remain supple. This also means that in general it’s easier to have really good waterproofing on suede shoes, and due to this they are less sensitive to rain, contrary to what many still believe.
How to prevent water stains on shoes during and after use in rain
Also during the actual wear when you end up in harsh weather, you can do a lot to hinder water marks to occur. A very common type of water stain, especially on smooth leather full grain leather, is small round marks from rain drops that have been laying still on the shoes for longer time. Mainly happens when it rains just a little, and if you make it a habit to wipe off your shoes on the back of your leg the drops don’t gets to stay in the same place and cause stains. Just to move around the water is enough, you don’t have to get it fully dry.
If it rains more heavily and / or you happen to step in puddles and you have parts of the shoes more or less soaked, it’s a bit of a different story. It’s common that that causes larger water streaks and sometimes whole areas of the shoe becomes discoloured. It may feel contradictory, but the best way to prevent that type of stains is to make sure that you soak the whole shoes when you come home, either with a very wet dish cloth or simply by having it under running water. When the whole shoes are wet you don’t risk differences between areas in the same area, and decrease the risk of bad looking stains.
