Advice on care of shoes

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33058, 27 October 1972, Page 15

Advice on care of shoes

Periodic washing of men’s shoes can increase their life by up to 50 per cent, according to research carried out by the New Zealand Leather and Shoe Research Association. The association’s director (Dr G. W. Vivian) said that shoe washing every three months-—to remove harmful perspiration deposits of acid and salt—should be as common as washing socks.

“We have established beyond question that ingredients of foot perspiration are harmful to shoes,” he said. Organic hydroxylated acids were particularly harmful, attacking leather and causing it to deteriorate so that it became brittle and cracked.

Another ingredient of perspiration was common salt, which could accumulate between leather fibres, also causing them to become brittle.

Each year, the Leather and Shoe Research Association examines more than 100 pairs of shoes, noting the effects of perspiration. Dr Vivian says the public does not like being told that perspiration is responsible for shoe damage. “But it is a normal function of a healthy person to perspire, and perspiration from the soles of the feet is greater per unit area than any other part of the body. “The harmful damage of perspiration on footwear is not justifiable grounds for complaint to footwear manufacturers and tanners,” he said.

Dr Vivian said that a regular change of footwear giving shoes a chance to air would eliminate many of the problems of perspirationattack on leather.

But he emphasised that washing played a key role in maintaining footwear. Lukewarm water should be used in washing and the shoes stuffed with paper for drying.

Research had shown it was desirable to keep shoes on trees to prevent creasing, from which most damage occurred.

Investigations were being carried out into methods of tanning to produce a leather which had increased resistance to perspiration—and some encouraging results had already been obtained.