Protec cleaning - Product Care
The maintenance treatment will differ depending on the leather type, there are three main categories,
- leather with a finish coating
- oily natural leather
- Nubuck leather (velvet or fine suede surface)
1. Leather with a finish coating
For the finished leather most waxy nuggets or repellent sprays would be ok, I would tend to avoid the traditional greasy dubbin or saddle soap type as these may contain emulsifiers which penetrate and actually reduce the performance. The waterproofing from dubbin type is solely due to impregnation of raw greases, to physically block the path of water, the modern systems rely on charge repellency to maintain the breathability of the leather. There are relatively few greases and oils compatible with the modern systems, you are better to use a protective spray such as scotchguard or silicone type.
2. Oily natural leather
The oily leather can have either a silicone type or a modern waxy/greasy type, we are unable to specify an exact brand as there are many different products in different markets. It will depend largely on what is available at the point of sale and the advice that the retailer gives. If they are the more traditional type products they may say that they will waterproof the leather but often this is for standard leathers not the modern waterproof type.
Protec is a waterproof treatment given through the full cross section during manufacture it will repel surface water and stop it from penetrating, if after prolonged or extreme use water finally penetrates a flex point the leather will absorb minimal water, remain light and dry easily.
After use the boots should be dried thoroughly but not with too much heat. If the boots are wet turn upside down allow air to venterate though when dry, brush to clean up, then a protective surface spray or wipe to renew the surface repellency.
3. Nubuck leather
Nubuck requires drying/brushing with a stiff brush and silicone or scotchguard type spray. As Nubuck ages and becomes polished down it may be revived by lightly sanding with a medium/fine sandpaper.