Suede leather is an important part of men’s shoes, and the most common model with this leather is Chukka Boots. In recent years, all styles of shoes in spring and summer have fallen in love with suede.
Compared with smooth leather, suede is made of the same material. Smooth leather uses the outer surface of cowhide, while the suede uses the inner surface.
When buying leather care products, we will find that Nubuck is often written with Suede. What is nubuck? This word means matte. That is, it is still made of the outer surface of cowhide, but the process is to add a matte after tanning, that is, to deliberately grind the shiny leather into this texture. So for these two, Suede is true suede and Nubuck is false suede.
In terms of care, it is more difficult to care for suede or nubuck than smooth leather. Suede is more prone to deterioration, because the surface of the cortex has been “destroyed”, so water and dirt are more likely to penetrate. Although smooth leather doesn’t like water either, liquid is almost a disaster for suede leather.
The care steps of suede are generally as follows:
- Wipe with cotton cloth to remove dust.
- Use suede brush to remove the inner dust embedded in the concave and convex surface. There are two kinds, one is a copper wire brush and the other is a rubber brush. In comparison, copper wire brushes focus on the dirt in open pore, while rubber brushes remove all sticky dirt on surface. Sounds like both of them will cause damage to the skin, right? In fact, it’s okay, because suede leather is tanned to become a more durable leather, so don’t worry about brushing it.
- Clean up the oil that has penetrated into the cortex with detergent. In this step, spray products are generally selected, because this can ensure that the amount of liquid will not be too large, and at the same time it will be more fully dispersed on the leather. This step, usually once every two months, is enough.
- The last step is conditioning and protection. Obviously, suede leather is in great need of waterproof, and there are many products with excellent waterproof effect on the market, and these products all show strong versatility, no matter what leather or even cloth. To put it simply, there is nothing wrong with the principle that a polymer membrane separates water from the surface, but the problem is that our dress shoes are made of leather. In addition to this waterproof, we need to condition.
Personally, I think that on the one hand, suede leather is more casual than smooth leather, and it is not as luxury as smooth leather visually. On the other hand, from the perspective of care, its application procedure is not as historical and ceremonial as smooth leather.
As far as care is concerned, it is not complicated, and in comparison, the use of sprays may be simpler and more modern.
Wish everyone will use a pair of suede shoes that look very stylish.