Beiträge von nowon

Given that the Collections Cream has had roll of creating a “patina”, what’s the thought behind adding a “neutral” variant? How does this cream differ from the standard Boot Black neutral shoe cream?

Thank you, urban! Yes, it’s very easy for the specific details to get lost in translation and, just as you say, “what does it mean for the customer”.

So my favorite Boot Black product is the Rich Moisture and I use it basically all the time for basically everything related to leather. Recently, I read on Columbus’s online shop that it’s not meant to be used for “finished Nume leather” and “enameled leather”, see attached screenshot. Now “Nume leather” is apparently another name for vegetable-tanned leather and“enameled leather” is rather broad term that could cover patent leather, sneaker leather, and similar. Now I can understand that Rich Moisture isn’t ideal for vegetable-tanned leather and patent leather, as it contains quite a bit of wax that might not look great on these kinds of leather and the “emulsifier” that it contains might react with the finish of these leathers as well, but I’m a bit surprised by the use of the term “enameled leather” rather than “patent leather”, as Columbus does have specific creams for patent leather, so they do use that term as well. Do they actually mean that one shouldn’t use Rich Moisture on shoes made with heavily coated leathers such as that found on sneakers?

urban, do you know what’s being used as an emulsifier in the Rich Moisture? (Do you have access to Safety Data Sheets for Boot Black products?)

So in a recent post, Narita posted about having re-pigmented a shoe. Does anyone have an idea of how he did that? It looks very nice.

Has anyone been able to find a place that stocks these and are able to ship internationally. I have so far been unable to do so, but I really like the design.

Should I perhaps leave the leather lotion on the area for a little bit instead of just wiping?

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I broke my left hand and dislocated my right shoulder last week and I’ve avoided typing as much as possible. I have tried basically all products, but the issue seems that this part of the leather won’t accept the shoe cream. If I try putting BB white shoe cream on it, it just slides. The rest of the leather takes the cream, but not that part. If I put a very thick layer on and let it dry, it works, but it looks ridiculous and I can’t touch it or the cream falls off again. I have tried multiple times cleaning with the high-shine cleaner followed by all BB lotions before applying it, without any improvement. I also tried Brift-H’s strong cleaner, but that removes more of the original color, so that’s no good. Anything else I should try to clean it before applying the white cream?

I think that what many of these videos show (and much of what you find on YouTube make clear) is that if you don’t put a bit of flare into the routine, shining shoes looks really, really lame, boring, and even stupid. What the Japanese contingency did, with Yuya Hasegawa as the front runner, is make it look a bit cool and flashy. I think that most people realize from the start that a lot of what he and many others do is mostly for show – the throwing of the brush, the exaggerated arm movements and swinging of the shoe being polished, the twirling of the cleaning cloth and the unnecessarily complicated wrapping of it, the constant repositioning of the shoes when switching from left to right or right to left, and so on, but there’s more to it than that. He also, for example, shows you that you hold a brush as if it’s a part of the hand and then brush the shoe with intent. So many of the other videos one sees is someone lamely holding a way too large brush at one far end and lightly brush the shoe with the other end, as if they’re carefully brushing off a bust standing on a pedestal trying to avoid causing any harm (while also not getting rid of any of the dust) and then taking what looks like an old dish rag, sticking a finger in the middle like a child plays “ghost” by dressing in a bed sheet, and then wiping it over the shoe without any real idea of what’s going on. And no fancy video editing or high-quality equipment will hide the fact that someone like Kirby isn’t particularly good at polishing shoes. (One can’t help but enjoy his rather over-the-top unawareness to his own person. He’s sort of a pastiche of himself – if that makes any sense.)

I sometimes wonder if the stylish shoe shiners avoid polishing gloves (as Boot Black’s videos use) (or something like Urban’s hand technique) for polishing simply because they don’t look as cool as dabbing a goat hair brush on a water dispenser, brushing the brush over one’s other hand, and then vigorously brushing the shoe with it to then follow that up with yet by another retying of the polishing cloth for a final “super polishing”.

After trying some experiments to clean up some minor imperfections on the toe box of my off white John Lobb Levah sneakers, I of course made it much, much worse, please see attached images. I honestly can’t remember what did what, but the two-face plus lotion is a bit too strong for this kind of painted leather, it seems, or perhaps I rubbed it too hard when using it. I also did some cleaning with Saphir Medaille d’Or lotion and that’s too strong as well. Anyway, I’ve tried covering up the now naked leather with cream, but it won’t stick to the leather. I’ve tried Boot Black shoe cream in white, Saphir Medaille d’Or pommadier in white, even Siegol’s white cream, which I bought just to try to fix this issue (can’t recommend), Boot Black Sneaker Line whitening cream mat, and Columbus Sneaker care bright whitening lotion, all without success – nothing sticks. I’ve also tried painting over it with Boot Black repair cream, but I think that my tube of white repair cream has gone bad, as it’s a bit chunky and won’t stick to the surface in a nice way, plus I’ve not been able to mix a matching off-white color with it. I also tried leather “dye” (seems to work more like paint than dye, though) similar to Boot Black’s repair cream without, but that too didn’t quite stick to the surface in a nice way and I wasn’t able to mix a perfect match using that either.

Is there a way to fix this in a good way or should I just strip the color, invest in an airbrush, and repaint the whole toe box?

I was also considering getting La Lumière shoe cream in ivory (or similar color) to see if it would work better, but I’m not at all positive that it will.

(Or I could just learn to live with it, but I want to at least try everything first.)

I’m sorry to have to write this in English, but my German simply isn’t good enough to share.

I only own sneakers, that is, no shoes with a leather sole (and absolutely no heels!) I have quite a few John Lobb (Paris) sneakers and I think that they match their price point quite well. I have no idea who actually make them, but the quality of work has always been as expected and the leather, both outer and lining, is very nice – I don’t think a Hermès-owned brand would dare to skimp on the leather quality. They have all held up very well and the outsoles are all still going strong.

I have two things to note on them, however, and that is that the lining leather will transfer dye to socks in sweaty conditions and that they are mostly made with corrected grain pigmented leather.

I do agree that you pay a premium for the “privilege” of buying from John Lobb (Paris), but compared to what you get when you buy from Common Projects or similar brands, I don’t think that there’s really a contest.

I also own a couple of Dior sneakers that of course don’t match their price point. Workmanship isn’t on point, but at least the overall quality is good and the leather is very nice, at least in its category. With Nike pushing their price points upwards, I would rather pay the premium of having my shoes made in the EU.

I would really love to hear if anyone has tried a pair of Hermès sneakers. I would like to see how they compare to John Lobb (Paris)’s offerings.

I actually ordered one. I’ll report back on how it compares.

Have you tried this brush? It looks very nice.