Soft Scuffs on Suede Shoes

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If you're a shoe-a-holic, you've probably ordered a new pair of suede shoes online that arrived with scuffs. When it happened to me, being a worst-case-scenario kind of person, I immediately assumed my shoes were secretly worn, cleaned and resold. Maybe even some government conspiracy at work in there too. Or at the very least I assumed my shoes were tried on and returned.

But after doing some research, I found out that the scuffs actually were most likely to have occurred in the mail on their way to me. Know how suede is super soft? Suede is made up of lots of very very short hairs sticking up called the nap; if you rub some of those hairs the opposite direction, it will look different in that spot - lighter or darker.

Unfortunately, mail carriers will not guarantee your box never gets flipped or tossed no matter how many "this side up" notes are written on it. Those scuffs are really just from the suede rubbing against something else, like the inside of the shoebox. This is why suede shoes often arrive with a plastic bag around each shoe as well as lots of cardboard separators and tissue paper bumpers - it's all to prevent those almost inevitable light spots. Similarly, wearing your suede shoes just once can cause these scuffs. I was shocked once when I realized just crossing my feet in a chair made my two shoes rub together and totally destroyed them (temporarily).

Luckily, all is not lost if you see a suede scuff, and trust me, it'll happen. The one thing you should have in your arsenal is a suede brush. Suede brushes usually have both coarse (brass, metal, rubber, etc) and soft bristles (horsehair, synthetic fibers, etc). These different bristles may be  mixed together in a single surface or they could appear separated on a multi-sided brush. Depending on the type of bristles, some suede brushes can be quite rough though (more for cleaning up suede work boots than suede evening heels) so be careful not to assume that any old suede brush you find will be a one-size-fits-all solution. For the most delicate suede shoes, you may want nothing more than a dry toothbrush.



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Once you have your suede brush of choice, just use the soft side to brush the suede in a single direction to conceal most of the scuffs I mentioned above. For stubborn, matted down scuffs, you can try using the rougher side of the suede brush - but do it carefully or you risk removing the suede nap altogether. However, if you do over-brush an area, you can always rough up the rest of the shoe to help hide it.

Hint: If you have a dark mark on your shoes that isn't being brushed away, try using a suede eraser or pencil eraser on the area. And using a waterproofing suede protector spray before wearing any suede shoes is always a good idea.