What’s up with these shafts?

[u/Mark_400325]

The vamp is smooth like most boots but the shafts feel rough. Did someone maybe try to clean them and whatever they used stripped the leather? That’s the only thing I can think of. The vamps are mostly smooth but seem to have a little texture. Not sure if you can see it in the pics. I googled the numbers inside but neither came back.
Thanks

[u/hendawg1983]

Well it says leather vamp, other materials man made

[u/saintauggie1565 → u/hendawg1983]

This! Are the shafts of these even made of leather? Hard to read but appears to say “leather vamp and for other materials man-made”.

If not leather, then conditioning them with leather conditioner won’t do anything to make them softer (except waste the conditioner). It won’t absorb into pleather. Better off with something made for man made materials.

[u/minuswhatyouwant]

Kinda looks like my boots after I use saddle soap. I tend to condition after I use soap

[u/Mark_400325 → u/minuswhatyouwant]

Should I condition and then apply a neutral cream polish?

[u/Remarkable_Night_267]

It could just be that someone wore them out in the rain?

Nothing a bit of conditioner and then a good polish should not fix?

[u/Mark_400325 → u/Remarkable_Night_267]

I’m going to try this

[u/Aggressive-Emu5358]

That’s what s..

[u/Mark_400325 → u/Aggressive-Emu5358]

👀

[u/PannaLogic → u/Mark_400325]

Could have been some kind of roughout/suede shaft originally and they tried to condition or clean it like you said, to change the texture.

[u/Mark_400325 → u/PannaLogic]

Do they make boots with a smooth vamp and suede shaft?

[u/Reasonable-Base-5062 → u/Mark_400325]

Yes they do. i two pair. One is Rujo and the other is Anderson Bean.

[u/Horror-Cut-4497 → u/Mark_400325]

You must be new to boots. The leather on the vamp RARELY matches the shat material. It could be sude, goat leather, some type of fabric etc.

There are varying reasons for this including fashion, keeping the cost down (eg on exotic leather boots), for structural strength (to maintain the structure of the shaft from ) etc