Taking Care of Rugged Boots for Fall

Back in one of my very first (and admittedly shitty) posts, I included a picture of a pair of “vintage” W.C. Russell Moccasin boots. I say vintage in quotations because I found these at my grandparents house (they were given to me, I didn’t steal them), but they were my grandfather’s, and I have no idea how old they are. I’m guessing they’re old as shit. After getting some compliments on them, I decided to keep them, and actively work towards restoring them. 

When I first got them, the leather was dry and cracked. I’ve been using a cheap leather conditioner I got at a local store (I won’t say which brand), and it’s done a decent job at restoring some of the natural oils and color of these boots. If you don’t know anything about leather care, it’s not hard to Google some quick informational posts (here’s two, #1, #2, though biased in favor of the brand). Suffice it to say, leather is the skin of a formal animal. When that animal was alive, producing oils and vitamins and poop and what-not, that skin protected the animal from the elements. People buy and wear leather for that same protection in garments, but now that the animal is dead, we need to continuously work to re-apply those some oils and nutrients so the leather remains supple and in good condition. 

On Sept. 3, Derek at Put This On had a post on how to take care of rugged boots. This is all still a learning process for me, and I just ordered a can/jar/whatever-the-fuck of Obenauf’s Heavy Duty Leather Preservative (they call it LP, but that’s easily confused with “limited partnership”). In a week or so, it should be here, and I should have a post up on how the stuff worked. Derek’s post did a pretty good job of explaining the process, and the pictures he links to show remarkable improvement. 

This is one of those products (leather protector, not necessarily Obenauf’s) that you can definitely justify buying because you will use it, and it will extend the life and beauty of the things you own. Regardless of whether you’re blowing fat stacks on #menswear accessories, or you’re scrimping like me for the essentials, it’s important to take good care of your stuff. It will extend the life of your property, ultimately saving you money. And a penny saved is a penny earned in my book, although I typically throw pennies away because they're worthless anymore.

See you next week,

MD