British Shoe Company

Ashwood Harold

£165.00 GBP

A beautifully crafted spacious holdall from Ashwood. Crafted from vegetable tanned leather with a hand buffed finish.

100% genuine leather
Easy carry leather handles
Detachable shoulder strap
Concealed side pocket
Additional side zip pocket
2 large internal leather trimmed zip pockets
Fully lined
Five metal stud base
Dimensions approx: (l) 56cm (h) 29cm (w) 31cm

Good leather shoes of the type we sell, if regularly maintained can last for years. Having personally owned and worn some of my shoes for well over 20 years I’ve certainly found this to be true. If looked after properly you can keep your shoes looking great and lasting longer which in turn keeps your feet healthy and dry. There are many different ways to clean your shoes, but after years of cleaning my own and customer’s shoes this is the method I find works best.

All the products are available via the link below.

Daily (all shoes regardless of material & style)

*Remember to use a shoe horn.

Rotate your shoes. Leather shoes often take a full day to dry out fully whether from rain or natural perspiration (250,000 sweat glands in your feet can excrete up to half a pint of moisture a day), so where possible leave a full day between wears.
Use shoetrees. Put wooden shoetrees in your shoes as soon as you take them off, the trees are most effective whilst the leather is warm. The trees will absorb moisture, help to iron out creases and maintain the shape of the shoes.
Quick brush down and bag them up. Gently brush the shoes with a soft horse hair bush to remove any dirt or dust from the day’s wear, and put them in their Shoe Bags. This is not essential but worth doing if you want to prolong the shine or aren’t going to wear the shoes for a day or two.

Weekly

Polish your shoes. There are many ways to polish your shoes, most get a similar result; the important thing is to use the right polish. To that end you can’t go wrong with Saphir Medaille D’or, Pate De Luxe which contains 9 different waxes and is available in 12 different colours.

Below is a small step by step guide on how to polish your shoes.

Remove the laces, but keep your shoetrees in the shoes, I find this makes it easier to apply the polish.
Use a soft brush to gently remove any loose dust, dirt and old polish from the shoes.
Using a soft polishing cloth apply a thin layer of polish to your shoe using small circular motions, don’t forget the tongue.
Allow to absorb into the leather, approximately 10 minutes.
Once dry brush vigorously with a horse hair brush.
For extra protection repeat steps 3-5 again.
If an even higher shine is required use Saphir Mirror Gloss. Apply with a cloth and then give the dry polish a fine spray with water, then buff with a clean soft polishing cloth.

Suede and Nubuck shoes. With Suede and Nubuck the mantra should be “prevention rather than cure”. These need to be brushed with stiff bristle suede brush and sprayed with a good water repellent spray.

Waxed or Oiled shoes. This type of leather shoe are designed to pick up knocks and scratches, but to keep them looking good and to prevent them drying out and cracking rub in some Saphir Dubbin.

Fortnightly

Cream your shoes. Using shoe cream on your shoes is often over looked but is vitally important. Leather is a skin like ours so needs to be moisturised to be kept really soft and supple. Without cream even if polished weekly the leather will start too dry and the polish can flake off. Use the same steps 1-5 as above to apply the cream.
Suede and Nubuck shoes. Spray your shoes with a foam cleaner, allow the foam to sit for 30 seconds then rub off any remaining foam with a clean cloth, gently brush with your suede brush and allow to dry. Once dry re apply your protector spray.

If storing shoes for any longer than a week make sure you clean the soles before storage, contaminants like diesel and oil are easily picked up whilst walking around town and if left it can destroy soles very easily.