Welcome to the Hutton of Northampton Maintenance & Care Guide. Please refer to the appropriate section and don't hesitate to contact us directly with any questions you may have.
Maintenance and Care of Hutton Footwear
When it comes to the care and maintenance of our footwear, there are no requirements. Brand new, out-of-box, our boots are ready-to-wear and created to be worn and used for years to come.
Our leathers are vegetable tanned, all natural, and the highest grade we can get, all from Italian tanneries, and as such, they will age gracefully.
That being said, there are questions you may have about maintenance and care that we hope to explain as best we can here.
Maintenance and Care of Our Suede Footwear
In terms of care/maintenance with your suede footwear by Hutton, we do not typically recommend any sort of product for spraying a finish on the suede, as these often change the appearance of the boots.
There are two factors to consider, however:
1. Water / Getting Wet
The suede finish should not be affected by being wet.
And yes, you can wear our suede boots in the rain.
If the suede boots get wet, dry them with rolled up newspaper inside and make sure they are away from any heat - this is important. Once thoroughly dried, if they need it, brush them with a suede brush.
In particular, we use Saphir's crepe suede brush in the warehouse exclusively, so that's exactly the brush we recommend. No need for any others.
2. Oil / Grease Stains
Really, the only time we suggest abrasive cleaning options or maintenance of any kind is when there is a mark (rubber, tar, etc.) that one of our customers wants it off.
But in those cases as well, a high quality suede brush is all we'd recommend using first and foremost.
From our personal experience having worn the suede boots in environments as trying as even house renovations, a high quality suede brush is all that's typically needed to get rid of stubborn spots.
We have an article here on how to clean suede if it has an oil/grease stain that's a bit more stubborn than a suede brush can handle: How To Clean Suede Desert Boots
That being said, when it comes to prevention of oil stains, grease stains, foods dropping, or more intensive cleaning options, there are a number of products that look to be viable as options.
Again, whilst we do not recommend using these - as our suede footwear often holds up astoundingly well in even difficult environments and these types of products typically change the appearance of the boots, if you are especially concerned about the environment you will be wearing your suede footwear in leading to oil, grease, and food stains, we wanted to list options that are less likely to be problematic than others.
These include:
Full disclosure - we have not personally tried and tested these and so cannot tell you from personal experience how optimally they work, or how much or little they change the appearance of the shoe.
That being said, when it comes to finding products that clean and protect footwear in a manner that does not damage the integrity of the shoe (aesthetically or otherwise), we trust Saphir and their products above other alternatives, and this is absolutely a space where the company who makes a particular product makes an incredibly large difference in the result you get, so we would advise against using other brands if this is at all possible.
Maintenance and Care of Our Leather Footwear
Our leather footwear, which are easily identifiable visibly, but are also colourations of our footwear that have "Leaf" in their name (see our Leaf collection here), and thus are not suede on the outside, can technically be polished/waxed, although it is not necessary, as again, our boots come ready-for-wear even when they are out-of-box and brand new.
That being said, if you would like to use a polish or wax on your leather Hutton footwear, either initially or to change the look after having worn our boots for some time, there are various products that are called different names sometimes although they are the same thing, all work:
1. Waterproofing and color restoration of leather
2. Cleaning and nurturing leather
-
Saddle Soap
This will clean and nourish but may leave matte finish, so it is good to use a wax or oil after when dried - Nikwax
- Otter Wax
Some products are animal derived so check ingredients.
Waxes generally are based on Carnauba wax, whereas anything named "grease" or "oil" most likely has tallow, rendered animal product.
Questions & Further Clarification
While we've done our best to anticipate any questions on care and maintenance you may have, and provide as comprehensive an answer as possible, if you do have any more questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us to let us know.
To do so, visit here to contact us directly.
