How to clean dirt from white felt boots?

Shoes made from felted wool are perhaps the warmest and most environmentally friendly in the world. But it’s not so easy to care for them - in order to clean white felt boots, you need special products and, preferably, pads. It is not recommended to wet felts: they shrink. General cleaning is carried out once, maximum twice per season.

Normal cleaning

Felt boots are worn in dry weather, so they do not get dirty as quickly as ordinary boots. However, they require regular care, literally after every wear.

How to clean such shoes correctly?

1. If your felt boots get wet, you should dry them first.
2. Dry shoes are cleaned of dirt with a brush (rubber or medium-hard bristles).
3. At the final stage, the felt is lightly patted to knock out dust.

If your white felt boots are very dirty...

As with all light-colored things, the slightest dirt is visible on white felt boots. Even if you brush them off in time, the overall appearance deteriorates over time. Dirt particles penetrate into the deep layers, making the shoes appear yellow-gray. To return it to its original whiteness, a general cleaning is carried out. It is better to do this with the help of special products - cleaning foams for suede, nubuck, and felt.

You can also resort to washing in soapy water. Nothing will happen to felt boots if you take all precautions:

1. Before washing, remove surface dirt from felt boots.
2. Pack tightly with plastic bags or insert into size pads.This will help avoid shoe deformation.
3. Fill a basin with cold water.
4. Dilute liquid laundry detergent according to instructions. Not powder! It dissolves less well and often does not work in cold water. You can use shampoo (1 tablespoon per 2 liters of water).
5. Soak the felt boots for 10–15 minutes.
6. Rub gently with a cloth or rag.
7. Rinse with clean cold water.
8. Place the felt boots in an empty basin to drain.
9. After an hour, transfer them to a warm, well-ventilated area to dry.
10. Do not remove the pads (packages) until completely dry.

The main enemy of felt boots and other wool products is hot water. If you do not want your shoes to become a couple of sizes smaller, when washing and cleaning, always use exclusively cold water no higher than 30 degrees.

Cleaning products for felt boots

To care for white felt boots, it is recommended to acquire special products. At home you can use:

• Saphir Omni Nettoyant. Effective cleansing shampoo for shoes made of nubuck, suede, textiles, felt. Comes with a brush. To clean felt boots, it must be diluted in a ratio of 1 to 2 with water, applied to the dirt with a brush and foamed. Next, the foam needs to be washed off - and you can dry the shoes. The product costs about 1200 rubles. Bottle volume – 100 ml.
• Universal foam cleaner. It can be used to clean nubuck, suede, leather, membranes, felt, and the inner surface of shoes. Does not require rinsing. The foam is applied to the stain and then removed with a brush or cloth. The approximate cost is 300 rubles per 150 ml bottle.

Folk recipes

The history of shoes made from felted sheep's wool goes back 1.5 thousand years.It was worn by many peoples of Eurasia, but Russian felt boots, which began to be mass-produced at the beginning of the 19th century, won particular fame. It is not surprising that they managed to come up with many folk recipes for cleaning them:

• White felt boots should be thoroughly sprinkled with any of the indicated products, rubbed with a brush and knocked out.

• Shoes need to be stuffed with bags, moistened with water and rubbed with soap. The best solution for cleaning light felt boots is 72% white laundry soap. Leave it on for 10 minutes and then wash off with cool water.

• Soaking in a peroxide solution helps to whiten felt boots. Dissolve a 30 ml bottle in 3 liters of lukewarm water, place shoes filled with bags in a basin. Rub it with a cloth 2-3 times within 30 minutes. Rinse and dry.

Felt boots are back in fashion - no wonder. And it's not just about modern design and original decoration. Shoes made from sheep wool have a thermoregulatory effect. Even when wet, it continues to warm your feet. But in order for such useful boots to serve as long as possible, when you come home, you need to brush them every time. Remember that it is not advisable to wet felt shoes, and squeezing, heating, or twisting them is completely contraindicated!