Water Damage to Shoes

[Guest]

My shoes were recently exposed to a bit of rain and slush; not soaked, walking through deep puddles, abused nor anything out of the ordinary other than exposure to a lightly rainy day.

To my surprise, the color drained out of parts of the leather and the thin layer of leather on the sole started to come undone at the edges.

Is this expected, considered patina or a fault?

The photos below illustrate the situation after several polishings.

What to do?

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[Guest]

I find that using desalting solution will help smooth that down, even though there is no obvious salt ring. Also, if you treat it with Lexol leather cleaner, and then Lexol conditioner a few times, it will help. Lexol is in my opinion the best of the shoe leather cleaners. A few coats of like color cream and paste polish over the affected areas should help restore the color.

[Guest]

Ouch, that does look painful. Please post "after" photos if you have the opportunity.