How To Shrink Leather Shoes

After all this time do you want to know how to shrink your favorite leather shoes back to their original size? Leather is a soft material, although very durable, and over time it inevitably stretches out. When this happens to your shoes, they become sloppy, loose and slip off of your feet. Regaining the comfortable fit of leather shoes can be done by a professional or by you at home.

• Take your shoes to a cobbler. A shoe cobbler is professionally trained to work with leather shoes. They will be able to either shrink the leather or rebuild your shoe to the proper size. A shoe cobbler comes with a price tag, but this is the best guarantee that your leather shoes will be back in the condition you want them in.
• Go to the dry cleaners. Dry cleaning shops are also professionally trained to work with every kind of material made, even leather. Just because it is a shoe doesn't mean it can't be dry cleaned. Taking your leather shoes to the dry cleaners is a guarantee that the leather will not be ruined or stained in the shrinking process.
• Before attempting to shrink your leather shoes at home, pretreat the leather first. You can purchase leather protector anywhere leather is sold. It is fairly inexpensive and it works. Leather protector works like scotch guard and will eliminate the possibility of discoloring or staining your leather shoes. Make sure to let it dry completely before your proceed.
• Wet your leather shoes. You have been told to avoid getting your leather wet because water shrinks leather. In this case that is what you want. Using clean water, you can either spray your leather shoes or soak them until they are saturated.
• Set your leather shoes in the sun to dry. If you live in an area where the weather permits sunshine you can dry your shoes this way. The heat from the sun will tighten the leather and make it shrink in size.
• Put your shoes in the dryer to dry. Set you dryer to the lowest heat. Tumble dry your leather shoes. If your dryer comes with a drying rack put this in place and set your leather shoes on it to dry. It is not necessary to have a drying rack, but it is useful in keeping the shoes from banging around in the dryer.
• Use a hair dryer to dry your leather shoes. Put your hair dryer on the lowest heat setting. Most hair dryers have a air speed setting as well. You will want to be drying your shoes on the slow setting. If the air flow is too fast your leather shoes will not dry evenly.
• Soften your leather shoes. Wherever they sell leather and leather protector they sell leather softener. You can purchase this for a low price. Wetting your leather shoes will successfully shrink them, but it will also stiffen and possibly crack the leather. Read the directions and simply apply the leather softener and conditioner to your shoes. Your once old and sloppy leather shoes will be soft, crack free and brand new again.