Safety Shoe Care

Safety shoes are extremely important when it comes to protecting your feet. If you work with heavy items, machinery, electrical items, or even in busy environments then a good pair of safety shoes is a must have staple for your wardrobe. There are a number of different types of safety shoe, and each of them serves a great purpose in the workplace.

Despite the many benefits of safety shoes, they are still shoes, and they will eventually wear out over time. This is natural and is going to happen to any pair of shoes that you wear on a regular basis, and when it comes to work boots this can happen more often than we would like.

However, the good news is that knowing how to look after your safety shoes effectively can hugely extend their lifespan and help your favourite pair last as long as possible. In this article, we’re going to show your how to wash safety footwear and how to preserve their practical use.

How to Clean & Maintain Safety Shoes

If you work within an environment where your safety shoes are likely to get dirty, scuffed, or generally in contact with any materials that you would want to remove, then learning how to properly clean and maintain your shoes is incredibly important for preserving their condition.

We’re going to look at the do’s and don’ts of cleaning and maintaining your footwear to help you make your pair last as long as possible.

How to Clean your Safety Shoes

As the majority of safety shoes use either leather or suede material, we’re going to look at the best practice for cleaning these styles:

Cleaning Leather Safety Shoes

So, firstly you need to ensure that any large chunks of dirt are removed from the shoe. Then you want to apply a leather cleaner to a clean cloth and gently rub this into your shoes to remove any stains on the leather. Then you need to wipe the shoes down with a second dry cloth and leave these to dry naturally.

To add extra protection, you should then rub mink oil into the leather; this will help to preserve it. Rub the shoes again with another clean cloth to remove any excess mink oil. Then you should apply a weather-resistant product, in the form of a spray or gel, to the leather and allow the shoes to dry.

Anti-collision shoes

Cleaning Suede Leather Shoes

You need to begin with running a dry suede brush over your safety shoes. Pay special attention to any areas with dirt on to remove this from the material. Then you want to pour a small amount of baking soda over oil stains/wet stains, leaving overnight to allow the footwear to absorb the powder.

In the morning, you need to brush the powder from the boots and ensure that no powder is left in the material, use your suede brush for this. Finally, spray your safety footwear with a weather-resistant spray created specifically for suede material.

Maintaining your Safety Shoes

Now you know how to clean safety boots, let’s look at the best practices for maintaining your footwear.

How to Maintain Safety Shoes

• Clean on a regular basis
• If the shoes are leather, polish and treat with a leather preservative
• If the shoes are suede, brush first and treat with a water resistant spray
• Brush and wash the soles to remove any dirt and contaminants
• Keep your shoes stored in a cool, dry location away from sunlight

What to Avoid

• Don’t clean with solvent
• Don’t force dry
• Don’t leave in direct sunlight (especially if your shoes are leather)

It’s important to note that the information above is a useful guideline for safety shoes as a whole, but in order to fully understand how to clean your safety shoes it’s best to check with the manufacturer’s specific advice.

One final piece of advice when washing your shoes is to ensure that they are fully dry before wearing them as this can lead to mildew forming and leave you asking, “why do my work boots smell?” which is not something you need whilst on the job.