Suede shoes
The lower split of the hide, napped on both sides and porous. The trade calls it the most difficult of the leathers to clean, and starts with a powder rather than a liquid.
Start here
What this is, what goes wrong with it, and where CleaningHQ can help.
What tends to go wrong
The one stain where the first move is mechanical and the chemistry barely matters — and where the folk advice to let it dry first is not what the trade body says.
The stain where the trade guidance switches from water to solvent — and the switch brings a warning the water route does not have.
Why it is difficult: Why oil resists water, Penetration into fibres, Why old stains are harder
What hard water leaves behind when it evaporates instead of being wiped away. A mineral film, not dirt, and the fix is at the drying stage.
Why it is difficult: Water hardness, Evaporative deposition
- Road salt· no method established yet
A white tidemark on boots, carpet and car sills that is also actively corroding whatever it is sitting on.
Why it is difficult: Chloride attack, Evaporative deposition
The science behind this: Dye migration and colour bleeding, Capillary absorption
In detail
Suede is not finished leather. It is the lower split of the hide, distinguished by a nap on both sides, porous, dyed in the way aniline leather is, and the leather institute describes it as the most difficult of the group to clean. Two consequences shape everything. It has no protective finish, so a liquid is absorbed rather than sitting on the surface — and any cleaning agent will immediately darken nude leather. And the appearance depends on the nap standing up, so anything that mats or flattens it changes the look even where nothing is stained. The trade's method for an oil or grease mark is therefore a dry one first: cornstarch is placed over the area and rubbed gently with a finger until it coagulates with the oil, repeated as necessary, and only if the mark survives is a cloth dampened with odourless mineral spirits used. Water-based soil is treated by dampening a cloth rather than soaking it, rubbing gently and feathering the edges so no tidemark forms. Deionised water is specified, because hard water minerals leave rings. Brushing to lift the nap comes after drying, and the drying is at room temperature with no heat.
Related
- Suede shoes is made from Suede
- Suede shoes is made from Nubuck
- Suede shoes is commonly affected by Mud
- Suede shoes is commonly affected by Road salt
- Suede shoes is commonly affected by Oil and grease on textile
- Suede shoes is commonly affected by Water marks
Sources for this page
Sources
Leather Care and Cleaning Guide
The Leather Institute, 2011 · Trade or professional body
Relied on for: That suede is the lower split of the hide with nap on both sides, porous and dyed like aniline, described as the most difficult of the group to clean; that cleaning agents immediately darken nude leather; that oil or grease is treated first with cornstarch and only then with odourless mineral spirits; and that deionised water is specified because hard water may cause rings. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — General care and cleaning instructions, basic and advanced cleaning technique, and the Suede section. Supports the claim as stated.
Last reviewed by a person on .