Shoes get dirty. But before you queue Captain Obvious, consider the profundity of that statement in relation to how frequently you clean your shoes. If you are like most people, shoe cleaning is a rare exercise. If and when you do engage in it, you probably find it tedious. To clean or not to clean: that is the ultimate shoe question.
How you clean your shoes depends on the type of shoe you’re cleaning. But we have a better solution: just avoid it by wearing waterproof shoe covers. A good pair of shoe covers protects against dirt, debris, rain, salt, etc. They minimize the amount of cleaning you have to do, if not eliminating the need altogether.
Cleaning Is Time Consuming
We can suggest a number of reasons to utilize waterproof shoe covers to avoid cleaning. The first one is all about time. Simply put, cleaning your shoes is time consuming. Furthermore, some kinds of shoes take longer to clean than others. You could spend hours on a pair of suede shoes after spending just 10 minutes in the rain.
Who has time for that? You are a busy professional with a long list of tasks more important than shoe cleaning. And when you are not working, there are plenty of other things you would rather do. The nice thing about shoe covers is that you can put them on and take them off in seconds. A few seconds on either end of your trip is far better than an hour or more spent cleaning.
Cleaning Isn't So Easy
If saving time is important to you, consider the next reason for wearing waterproof shoe covers: cleaning shoes isn't always easy. Take suede, for example. Cleaning stained suede is a multi-step process involving some sort of stain remover, a gentle brush, and your washing machine. Even after you put in all the work, there is no guarantee the stains will be gone.
Salt stains are especially egregious. Why? Because road salt is tough on all sorts of materials. If it's nasty enough to eat through the body of your car, imagine what road salt can do to leather. Suede shoes deeply stained by road salt can take a tremendous amount of effort to get clean.
Cleaning Can Damage Your Shoes
The ultimate reason for wearing shoe covers is the fact that cleaning can damage shoe materials. Maybe you love your black leather oxfords. They are your favorite pair. Walking two blocks from your law office to the courthouse can do a number on them, thanks to snow and dirt.
The amount of scrubbing and brushing required to get the shoes clean could scuff the leather quite a bit. If you scuff it too much, no amount of polish will help. You will end up with shoes that look like you purchased them off a secondhand rack.
Shoe Covers Are the Solution
To clean or not to clean: that is the question. From our perspective, the answer is not at all complicated. It makes no sense to us to continually clean your shoes when a pair of shoe covers will keep them from getting dirty. Shoe covers are such a simple concept. It's amazing more people don't use them.
You can keep spending precious time cleaning your shoes. You can continue working extremely hard to keep your favorite shoes looking like new. You can even keep risking permanent damage to your shoes every time you clean them. But if you want to eliminate all of that, the simple solution is to invest in a good pair of shoe covers.
