Top Tips to Remove Creases From Leather Shoes

Leather boots and shoes are one of the most comfortable forms of footwear, allowing the material to stretch to the shape of your foot to provide the perfect fit. However, this flexibility can lead to creases and/or wrinkles, making your shoes look worn. There are a variety of ways to remove creases out of leather shoes and leather boots, and below you’ll find the top tips to eliminate creases.

Why Does Leather Shoe Creasing Occur?

As you walk, your foot bends and pivots at the ball of the foot, causing your shoes to bend in the same way. Shoes made with low-quality materials will not bend as much and will, in turn, cause pain to your foot, placing pressure on the bend and rubbing against your skin. Leather shoes and boots consist of higher quality materials, with the leather being able to bend as your foot flexes and creases.

Additionally, creases are likely to occur more often if your shoes are too big for your feet, allowing the additional space between your toes and the shoes to form creases. Furthermore, despite individuals possessing different arch types, shoes every where wrinkle and crease across the top of the toe area. It is also recommended to use shoe trees inside of each shoe when they are not being worn, enabling the shoe tree to stretch the leather and keep it stretched at all times.

How to Remove Leather Shoe Creases

The easiest way to get creases out of leather shoes is by dealing with each crease separately. Whether you wear the latest leather fashion, professional running season footwear, or leather sneakers or dress shoes, our tips remove all wrinkles and creases that you want to remove from your best pair of shoes. Search the site online to discover more about us, privacy policy disclosure, and more top tips.

Remove All Creases with a Clothes Iron

Whether your stylish leather shoes are accessories, fashion, professional running tools, or work necessities, all leather shoes contain areas to lose shape and cause creases. Take a bunch of newspapers and pad out your shoe by crumpling up the paper and inserting inside of the shoe. Use as much newspaper as you need to completely fill the inside of the shoe, adding strips of cardboard if desired to enable the shoe to hold their shape and then get creases out of leather. You should then take a cotton cloth and dampen it and gently touch the washcloth with water, folding the cloth to ensure that the material is a couple of layers thick.

Place your folded, damp washcloth over the toe area of your shoe where it creases and set your iron to warm to around 60 – 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  Iron the cloth on top of your shoe for a few seconds, repeating once you have checked that the crease of the leather shoes or leather boots are decreasing, checking the temperature constantly to prevent burns.

This is one of the super easy ways that you can eliminate creases from leather boots and shoes with a clothes iron and is additionally a suitable method to use on suede material, although ensure that there is not much water retained inside of your damp cloth.

Alternatively, you could perform the same process with your leather boots and shoes using an alternative to ironing, especially if you want to avoid applying too much heat, placing your shoe on a box when the steamer is working. A particular tool that may be used on leather shoes, a clothes steamer, works beautifully for this enterprise and avoids using too much direct heat.

Remove Creases From Leather with a Blow Dryer or Heat Gun

If you have a steady hand, you could try removing creases with a heat gun or blow dryer, offering a quicker result to combat wrinkles. However, avoid using this method on your expensive or special shoes. Ensure that you are careful and avoid using too much direct heat, applying the heat lightly at first, building up the heat used. To adopt this method, place a cedar shoe tree inside the shoe to stretch the leather and place the shoe on a flat surface.

Positioning 8 – 10 inches away from the area where your foot creases are, applying the heat inside to side actions, repeating where necessary. Once you are finished, and whilst the leather is still warm, apply a layer of shoe protection or polish so that the leather does not dry out. If you are already using shoe protection with your leather shoes and boots, then they should be perfectly primed for applying heat to the creases, although they would still benefit from an extra layer.

Remove New Creases with Leather Oil or Conditioner

If you would prefer to use a different method to remove creases from your leather boots and shoes without the use of heat, then you may be able to apply either a conditioner or an oil solution. Use a shoe tree to keep the shape of your shoe at all times. It is also recommended to use a shoe tree to keep a firm grip of the shoe whilst carrying out this process.

It is best to massage the conditioner or oil into the leather by hand, enabling you to reach all corners and each wrinkle and crinkle. Once you have completed the task, keep the shoe tree in place to keep the leather stretched, allowing you to place the shoe down and to let the conditioner or oil continue to work to remove creases.

Removing Newer and Older Creases with Alcohol

Running season footwear sports shoes are likely to develop creases due to regular wearing, and so this method may be better on sneakers due to the intensity of the crease that appear at this stage. It is important to always choose snug fit footwear when purchasing your shoes to address the bend in the area of the foot that causes creasing occurring across the leather.

Once you have your bottle of rubbing alcohol, take a clean cloth, and begin to massage the alcohol into the leather. This method works wonders on small areas of crease and ensures that your shoes are their best for every occasion. This method may work better on sneakers and works wonders on small new creases that have recently appeared.

Expert Tip by Alexis DeSalva Kahler

The method of removal will depend on the type of shoe and the amount of creases. If using heat, start low and build up as needed