So I have a badly scuffed pair of leather shoes. Do you have any suggestions (commercial products?) that will make the scuff marks look slightly less terrible and/or help to prevent future scuffing? (Besides endeavoring not to be constantly tripping over my own two feet, that is… )
You might try an application of mink oil to help diminish the marks. However, that’s not going to prevent new marks; you gotta be more careful when you wear them to do that. Then coat with a wax polish.
For more sever damage, seek out a professional at a repair shop.
In the future, start with the above measures immediately after you purchase the shoes. You’ll may notice that the same abuse won’t have the same effects.
If a good polishing doesn’t help there are Kiwi “scuff cover” products you can buy that are essentially a thin liquid shoe polish with a strong dye component. It will reduce the notice-ability of fresh scuffs, but the abrasion damage to the leather cannot be healed, only hidden. Hard leather shoes allow much more effective scuff hiding with polish, than soft leather shoes like classic Rockports etc.
There is no magic protector to prevent scuffs. Just be more careful or get more rugged shoes.
Last year I literally “tripped over my own feet” (in public, in front of a construction site, with about 50 construction workers watching :rolleyes: ) and really trashed a pair of my fave 9 West shoes - scuffs as well as leather on the toes lifting off. I took them to a shoe repair place, and I don’t know what they did but now you can’t even see the scuffs - I think they charged about $8, so if you can’t find a comercial product, you may want to try that.