Equipment Shoeshine
Stanley Mayes and I tested the leather conditioners on my Allen Edmonds Clifton bluchers. Due to a series of circumstances (including, but not limited to, vacation and laziness), I’d last had them polished about three months prior, and I’d worn them only several times thereafter. They weren’t cracked or flaking, but they did feel as if they could use some conditioning.Shoe care supply As I watched Mayes work Renovateur into my shoe, I recognized the ease of control that Nick Horween had attributed to the product. It didn’t sink into and darken the area where Mayes initially applied it (unlike Venetian Leather Balm). Instead it remained malleable, and it spread easily and evenly across the leather. Mayes told me that Renovateur’s superior spreadability allowed him to get more coverage out of a single dab compared with an equivalent amount of Lexol Leather Conditioner or Venetian Leather Balm. We noticed that Renovateur took longer than the other products to fully absorb; this is good, however, because it gives inexperienced home users a larger margin of error. As Mayes closely examined the shoe and ran his fingers alongside the vamp and quarter that he had treated with Renovateur, he commented on how nourished the leather felt—that’s what polish-ready feels like. I also took the liberty of flexing and feeling the Renovateur-treated vamp and quarter, and in comparison with the results from using Lexol Leather Conditioner and Venetian Leather Balm, the Renovateur-treated side felt more naturally moisturized. The leather no longer felt as dry, and I didn’t detect as many micro-wrinkles as I had before. All three conditioners, according to Mayes, did an adequate job moisturizing the leather, but he and I preferred Renovateur for several reasons. The Lexol Leather Conditioner–treated side felt moisturized, but much like the Lexol cleaner, the conditioner left a perceptible tack to the surface. Moreover, Mayes said that he felt the Lexol product failed to penetrate as deeply into the leather—for your shoes, this means that the conditioner’s effects won’t be as long-lasting. Venetian Leather Balm also left the surface adequately moisturized, but Mayes and I noted that it too left a perceptible residue on the surface—not tacky like the Lexol product’s results, but more of a plasticky, artificially smooth feeling akin to the feeling of a laser-printed image on paper. Under longer-run testing, Mayes confirmed the conclusion that Renovateur was the best conditioner for home use, even given its higher price. Mayes told me that he discontinued testing Lexol Leather Conditioner on his customers’ shoes because he found it to be inferior to the bulk conditioner that he was already using in the store. He then pulled out a surprise for me: He had gone ahead and cleaned, conditioned, and polished the Allen Edmonds Cliftons I had left behind, but had used Venetian Leather Balm on one shoe and Renovateur on the other. He directed my attention toward the toe caps; on any shoe, the toe cap is especially vulnerable to scuffs and scratches when you drag it against the sidewalk, say, or stub it against the teeth of an escalator. "A good conditioner," Mayes told me as I looked closely at the toes of my shoes, “should fill in minor scuffs and scratches and prepare the surface to receive an even polish.”