How to restore leather boots

Hey everyone, I just wanted to make a short post. I have recently gotten into thrifting. Emily recently celebrated her 24th birthday and we went to several thrift stores looking for hidden gems. I was able to find Vans that were like brand new and a set of burgundy woven dress shoes that were well maintained and taken care of. These shoes must have been previously owned by a caring and thoughtful owner. As I reflected on this imaginary man that was the previous owner of these shoes, I thought about my own shoes and how I was taking care of them. When we got home, I restored a pair of Vans, that I picked up thrifting using Dawn Powerwash and a hydrogen peroxide baking soda to gently bleach the fabric. It worked great, so I thought about my old Clark desert boots. I got these boots in high school and I haven't done any maintenance on them at all. As you can see below, the leather is brittle and need to be worked on. So I looked into what should be done to restore these boots.

The first thing is there were some salt stains due to the wearing these boots through the winter. I made a 1:1 to solution of vinegar and water. This pulls out the salts from the leather and allows for an even absorption of any future treatments on the leather. The picture above is the shoes after the vinegar treatment. Now these shoes were ready for some deep TLC. I used  Fiebing's Saddle Soap to wash and treat the leather. The purpose of saddle soap is to clean the leather and to renew the oils. I was working to rehydrate the leather and Fiebing's did the job amazingly. To use, you wet a rag or microfiber towel, then you create a lather and then work that into the leather of the boot. The results are amazing, check out the difference.

After this I took Otter Wax leather salve to the leather. It took a couple of passes but the results are amazing. These shoes look great. They look brand new. 

I am planning to add a wax sealant to the boots in preparation for the winter. Reworking and restoring these boots was super fulfilling. If you are thinking that you need new leather shoes, but you have shoes with wear and tear, try these steps and see how your shoes change.