Life is a journey as they say, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to look great while we hurdle its ups and downs. Aside from a great pair of knickers, a fabulous pair of shoes is every Cosmo gal’s weapon of choice.

However, just like your pet and, well, yourself, shoes need some good TLC. Whether you have shoes that come in real or faux leather, suede, or even canvas, allow us to share some nifty tricks:

STORAGE:

1. Save the world, one shoe at a time by stuffing your shoes with old newspaper. This helps absorb excess moisture from sweat or rain and helps retain their shape. Should your shoes get wet in the rain, stay away from the blow dryer unless you want your shoes to shrink. The heat may also weaken the glue and other materials used to reinforce the shoe.

2. Most shoe purchases have silica gel packs inside the box. DO NOT THROW THEM AWAY! These little babies, just like newspapers, absorb excess moisture, which prevent mold from eating away your beloved shoes! For best results, try to have at least four packs per pair and try to replace them every three months, especially if they’re kept with shoes you use often.

3. Store shoes in boxes. Although boxes take up space, they also protect and prolong the life of your shoes.

4. Regardless of storage space concerns, keep leather, patent, and canvas shoes AWAY FROM EACH OTHER! Even more so when there’s too much humidity, as this causes paint/color transfer.

SHINE:

1. Control the urge to wear your new shoes without spraying on a water protector. This helps ensure that rain or any liquid won’t be able to seep into the shoes. Refresh your shoes by spraying them every three months, but if your shoes got wet, spray them again to give a new coat once they’ve dried at room temperature (refer to #1 ) in storage.

2. Just like our body, shoes can only take so much sodium, which has damaging effects. When our sweat, which contains salt, dries up, this causes the leather to dry. So treat leather shoes as you would your skin: Polish leather with a leather conditioner to keep leather soft and supple.

You can use several household items as shoe cleaners:

1. Apply vinegar on a rag or cloth to shine patent material on bags and shoes.

2. Rub in petroleum jelly on patent and leather shoes. Allow it to be absorbed before wiping off the excess with a dry, clean cloth. This will not only keep them shiny but can also prevent them from cracking.

3. Even a dab of moisturizing hand cream (not oil-free) can serve as a make-shift shoe polish. Apply a small amount on leather shoes (not suede) and buff with a clean, soft cloth.

4. No shoe polish stashed in your travel bag? In your hotel when you travel, ask housekeeping to lend you some trusty furniture polish to keep your shoes in tip-top shiny shape! Buff away as usual.

5. Use a light coating of spray starch on new fabric tennis shoes before wearing them—dirt can’t become embedded in the canvas, and the shoes will always be easy to clean.

6. Rely on hairspray to give your shoes a nice sheen by spraying on a coat, which also seals in the polish.

7. Didn’t we tell you fruits were good for your body and sole? Keep those damn banana peels off the floor by using the inner lining of the peel as a shoe polish and cloth. Work at buffing the shoe as you would with a normal cloth.

MAINTENANCE:

1. Just like in a relationship, we all need a chance to take a breather and have some space from our significant other. So do our shoes (they do come in pairs, don’t they?)–they need time to rest to recover and retain their shape. As much as possible, don’t wear the same pair daily. At most, wear that same pair twice weekly to make them last much longer.

2. Clean the insides. This is especially important if odor is a problem. Swab them with alcohol or a drop of tea tree oil, an antifungal agent. Take care not to splash to avoid staining the leather.

3. Although wearing panty hose isn’t as popular as it was years back and tights are usually worn as a trend (especially in tropical countries like the Philippines), wearing stockings or sock liners act as a protective barrier between your feet and sweat. The salt in our feet’s sweat weaken the insoles of our precious shoes.

TIP: To give you more reasons to wear stockings, wearing control hose actually helps prevent varicose veins caused by wearing high heels, standing too long, and repeatedly crossing one’s legs when seated.

4. On the other hand, although salt from our sweat can cause shoe damage, a sprinkling of some table salt and letting it sit overnight can help control moisture and, ultimately, bad odor from your feet!

5. As you would with your refrigerators, ward off the funky smell from your feet by putting a dash of baking soda into shoes.

QUICK FIXES:

1. Hate those nasty zippers that get stuck? Here’s a trick: run a lead pencil down the zipper. This’ll help the zip run back and forth smoothly.

2. Frayed laces can be such a drag when trying to put it through holes! Tip: Dip it in clear nail polish and leave to dry or burn the ends with a lighter or candle to melt the fibers together.

3. If you need to give your shoes a revamp, simply replace the laces with new ones! Even better, try different colors and/or prints for the feel of a new pair of shoes!

More importantly, as much as you gals are such shoe-a-holics, at the end of the day, priority must be given to your feet. No matter how pretty your strappy stilettos are, they’d only draw attention to your fugly feet, if it’s not taken care of.

You’ve got to let your feet walk the talk: if your feet are suffering, then it’d be best to reconsider the long-term results of your shoe choices.

In a country that consumes 95 percent of its leather footwear production, maintenance is important. Be it dust stains and black scuff marks on leather boots or flattened suede, a little care can go a long way in preserving your favourite winter shoes.

“For packing away leather boots, it is important to wipe off the dust properly, especially from the soles. Make sure you clean it with damp cloth, then stuff the shoes either with shoe trees or tissue paper. Wrapping them in a non-woven bag with naphthalene balls is also the ideal way,” footwear designer Swati Mehrotra of SwatiModo told IANS.

Space crunch is another factor to be considered while preserving your stylish and expensive footwear.

“First and foremost don’t stack boots with any other footwear. Place loosely crushed paper inside the boots to provide strength in case you don’t own boot jacks,” said Geetika Handa, who owns a dozen pairs of leather boots.

Suede boots are expensive and difficult to care for and cannot be cleaned with water. In fact, the weather can transform the smooth, velvety surface to make it harsh and uneven.

Designer Swati Mehrotra of Swati Modo says, “If we talk about leather boots, how can we miss suede boots. The old adage – an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure – definitely applies to such boots.

“For heavy stains on suede boots, use a suede cleaning block which is great for removing deeply embedded dirt. The texture of suede can be restored by using a suede brush.”

Special kits are available to clean leather and suede shoes. Or you can buy a battery powered leather cleaning kit that has everything – applicator brush, polishing brush and buffing pads.

Before packing away suede shoes, make sure they are clean and dry. To maintain the shape, use boot shapers, wrap the shoes in tissue paper or a soft piece of cloth and put them in a shoe box. Always keep them away from humidity and sunlight.

Leather and suede have become a wardrobe staple for fashionistas in India.

According to Council of Leather Exports report, India is the second largest global producer of footwear after China, accounting for 13 percent of global footwear production of 16 billion pairs.

India produces 2,065 million pairs of different categories of footwear – 909 million pairs of leather footwear, 100 million pairs of leather shoe uppers and and 1,056 million pairs of non-leather footwear. India exports about 115 million pairs. Thus, nearly 95 percent of its production goes to meet its own domestic demand.

Designers are not missing the opportunity to woo their patrons by adding a hint of leather in their footwear. For instance, designer duo Abraham and Thakore, Gaurav Gupta, Manish Arora and many more are following the trend while designing exclusive footwear.

If Abraham and Thakore are known for encompassing a different variety of shoes on ramp which varies from slip-ons in leather, suede and various fabrics that are textured with Trapunto quilting, Gaurav Gupta’s footwear can be described as experimental and they usually use high quality leather.

Designer Rohan Arora, who presented an exclusive line of footwear at the last season of Lakme Fashion Week, said: “It’s true that leather and suede boots are considered the best trend-setters for winter season and there are so many designs to die for, whether it’s ankle length, cow boy, calf high, knee high, thigh length, or moccasins in dark colours,” he said.

Brush shoes by small toothbrush with soft bristle brush gently coated with transparent soap, but the brush will not take too long, brushing the foam immediately after the rinse with water to reduce the chemicals on the Jordan shoes erosion. After cleaning the water must be wiped with a dry cloth, especially the visible parts of air to prevent the partial decomposition of water will cause air glue a plastic or leak. To you’re your shoes in good condition, you should put the shoes at a dry and ventilated place. And you should avoid direct sunlight on it, because direct sunshine cause leather cracking of. When shoes not worn, you should put a soft paper ball in it, which not only can help to absorb the moisture in air Jordan fusion shoes, but also help maintain the shoe-shaped.

As a high-end sport shoe, cheap Jordan shoes will cost you a lot. So, know how to keep it in good condition is very important for you. Believe no body wants to threw it out soon after get it at a high price due to your abuse.

2.The upper leather shoes worn fading and dull, can be used instead of water into the raw egg Yanchi, deep color with ink ink ground, then repeatedly applying the brush dipped in ink upper and faded with wiping a few times where more cracks, and then shoes, cool, well ventilated place to dry. Shoes painted renovated shoe polish, wipe, leather shoes, the ink will glow, turning the old as new, since even get wet, the ink will not fall off.

3.When cleaning shoes, and a little toothpaste and shoe polish at the same time cleaning, shoes will be bright as new.

4.plastic foam slippers to wear for a long time, will appear above the yellow stamp. With soap, detergents are not removed. Only scrub with scouring powder, slippers can be as white as new.

5.To prevent the white lace was dyed black hole can be around new Air Max 90 shoes eyelets put some colorless nail polish, so to maintain the white shoelaces.

Shoes often don’t last long because of the poor quality that they bear and if you maintain them carelessly so, shoes quality should always be given some extra importance while making a decision of purchasing one for you.

Paying attention to the shoes maintenance and taking good care of them is important in order to keep them in style and shape. Given here are some of the helpful tips in this regard.

If you bear some patent leather shoes then these could be prevented from cracking if rubbed with olive oil, petroleum jelly or some milk. This might look like something weird but will bring some good results to you.

For making the leather shoes to be waterproof, it will just need you to coat these with the boiled linseed oil and you should do this two times before letting them dry prior to your use. This is one good method to be tried.

If you have some white leather shoes then you will find it difficult to clean them. But now this problem can be easily dealt with. You are required to put little amount of cleansing milk on some cotton wool pad. This should then be applied to the shoes and then these should be polished with some dry duster. Prior to polishing let them dry for around 15 minutes.

For keeping the boots in some good shape you will be requiring two supports for the shoes after that these should be put in the boots for keeping them in their original shape.

There can definitely be maintained in so many different ways and appropriate method should be chosen by you in response to what you actually need.