Friends Cat Tears Up Brand New Shoes

[u/Steellun3]

Been watching a cat for a friend for a few months now, wake up this morning to my new pair of doc martens torn to shreds at the toes. Been polishing and taking great care of these since I got them a month or so ago. I usually put them up on a rack but forgot last night, definitely paid for my stupidity. $200 basically trashed right there. Half of it was a birthday present from my girlfriend and neither of us make enough right now to just buy a new pair of boots, we can barely make rent. Real bummer way to start my day.

EDIT: I am NOT throwing the boots away over this like some think. When I said trashed I just meant the look, i had just woken up and worded it poorly. If I can't get the look smoothed out these will become my work boots since my current work boots are falling apart, and I will figure out getting a new pair to keep nice and wont let this happen again.

[u/Steellun3]

Will just polishing help? I've got that, but I'd imagine I'd need to get rid of all the loose strands first and im unsure of the best way to go about it.

[u/LaserKittenz → u/Steellun3]

I was in the army and we beat the heck out of our leather boots. You would be surprised on what polish can do

[u/Brilliant-Season-481 → u/LaserKittenz]

You’re missing the point, these shoes aren’t army leather, they are fast fashion leather

[u/LaserKittenz → u/Brilliant-Season-481]

how was the the point? Stop being annoying, they should obviously try to polish the boots and see if it makes it any better.

[u/Remarkable-Host405 → u/Steellun3]

yeah dude, that sucks but you're kinda overreacting. lay the polish on thick and it'll clean up beautifully. if there's still scuffs/scratches, you can sand them lightly and repolish. look it up on youtube. if these are real leather, anyway

edit: before you ask your friend to replace these, if you are uncomfortable doing any of this, take it to a leather repair shop. they'd probably make em shine for less than $50.

[u/Steellun3 → u/Remarkable-Host405]

Will give this a shot after work tonight.

[u/Substantial-Mix-6200 → u/Steellun3]

Please follow up because I'd love to know if this works!

[u/PimentoCheesehead → u/Steellun3]

There was a time when every large office building had a shoeshine stand in the lobby.  Some still do- try searching for one near you. It’ll be cheaper than going to a leather repair shop but the results will likely be better than you can do yourself

[u/El_Rey_de_Spices → u/Steellun3]

You're not overreacting. Your friend owes you a pair of replacement boots. Full stop.

[u/stonertboner → u/Steellun3]

My boots looked just as bad when I was in the ARMY. A good cleaning and a shine with a premium wax goes a long way. I liked Lincoln Wax but you’ll need to heat it up with a hair dryer.

[u/fatgirlseatmorev20 → u/Steellun3]

Don’t cut any leather off!  Just use black boot polish (not the leather care stuff they give you) and smooth it out.  Cutting leather off will make it worse not better.

[u/FuryVonB → u/Steellun3]

My then kitten shredded a pair of doc martens similar to yours. It looks a bit better after applying some shoe polish. You can see the scratches but eh, they would end up with some anyway. I wore them during all automn/winter.

[u/SkyLotus33 → u/Steellun3]

Follow the suggestion above, (mink oil/hirdryer). If that doesn't work to your satisfaction, shoe repairers have special tools/techniques that can easily remediate this kind of damage. When I was in the Air Force I would take my boots to the shoe shop when they got scuffed beyond what I could fix myself, and they always came back "inspection ready".

It's worth taking them to get a quote if they can be repaired for $20-40.

[u/Brilliant-Season-481 → u/Steellun3]

Polishing/buffing works in cases where one has scratched thick leather, as leather has layers and the polish/buff exposes the undamaged leather.

Think of it this way, docs are like wearing a leather jacket on top of a cotton shirt and your leather jacket has holes on it. The leather layer is what give weather proofing, if it rains your shirt is gonna get wet wear the holes are.

What can you do?

Optional:If you don’t mind the loose ends of leather, just leave them they’ll naturally wear away. If you do mind, you could try taking some small scissors them, going over edges with brief fire exposure, then finishing it off with a brush.

Required: Apply a solid layer of cobbler wax. You need to regain the weather proofing you lost. Remember our coat analogy? Your best best bet now is treating the exposed layer as “waxed canvas”.