Are your shoes creasing over time? Or they’ve already developed wrinkles all around? You buy a nice pair of shoes so that it goes a lifetime. But while walking, creases are sure to make your shoes look worn out.
Each shoe wearer dreams of a pair of shoes that look new with no crinkles and adds no slight discomfort. But it’s irony that shoes ultimately create crease and lines over repeated use when you wear and walk or run.
So what should you do? Do you know how to keep shoes from creasing when walking? Well, add a full stop to all the queries. This article covers all small to essential details that can help you keep the shoe crinkle issues at bay!
Why do your shoes crease while walking?
As you know, learning the root cause helps to find easy solutions. That’s why let’s get a deep sight of the facts that cause this issue.
Foot anatomy while walking
Walking needs your feet to bend at certain zones that put pressure on the shoes. Such as:
- Ball of foot
- Toe joints
- Your heels
- The ankles
The bending process manages a pain-free walking. But shoes develop curved profiles and wrinkles at the places that stretch more than often over time.
The material of the shoes
The material quality of shoes is a crucial factor that decides if your footwears are prone to creasing or not. For example,
- Leather shoes offer more flex and tend to crease when you walk.
- Whereas, fabric shoes with mesh and elasticity tend to fold rather than squeeze on your feet’ pivot points when you walk. So, they slow the creasing tendency.
Size and fitting of your shoes
When you walk, your shoes bend to put up the changing pressure on the footwear. If you’re wearing shoes that don’t fit the size of your feet, you’ll face two cases:
- Big size loose fit shoes cause excessive bending
- Tight fit small shoes can’t offer enough flexibility
Both create intense pressure on the upper and sole of your shoes, and you’ll find ugly crease on those spots sooner!
Wearing wet shoes
If you buy a pair of new shoes and put them on in wet or damp conditions, it may eventually crease, especially the leather shoes. Thinking why? The two prime reasons are:
- During the initial break-in period, leather shoes can quickly soak water when wet
- Wet shoes weaken the material causing it to become loose
As a result, creases start to appear, eventually making your new shoes look uglier.
How to prevent the shoes from creasing?
Now you know what led to the unwanted wrinkles on shoes when walking. So let’s get to the steps that can erase the reasons of creasing on your excellent looking pair of footwear:
1. Alternating shoes to avoid repeated use
Creases and wrinkles on shoes are inevitable when you are wearing it each day repeatedly. It is because, unlike your skin, your shoes don’t repair itself.
Prolong use of the same pair of shoes reduce the lifeline making it wear out pretty soon. So, instead of putting on a single footwear every day, make scopes for alternation.
This way, your shoes get the time to retain its original shape avoiding the chances to create crinkles. Thus, your shoes give you better daily wear!
2. Reducing heel creasing with shoe horns
The heel areas are prone to creasing as you pound the ground while walking. But a shoehorn can fight the crease.
A shoehorn is an essential footwear accessory with a flat and long surface made of metal or plastic. Adding shoe horns give your shoes a rigid heel counter aiding you to walk, minimizing the heel pressure.
You won’t need to flex shoe heel unnecessarily if you have shoe horns slipping over the feet. Thus, your shoes don’t break down at the backside, having heels and maintain their shape forming no crease.
3. Adding force fields
A potential step to leave no room for creasing on shoes is to add force fields in your footwear. What are the force fields? Well, they are the inner shoe padding made of flexible plastic materials.
If you insert force fields right on the toe box, they allow your feet to modify as per your fitting and walking steps. Hence you get the right fitting around your feet with no cramping.
As you know, cramping is one of the reasons that create large grid lines and wrinkles on the shoe upper. So, with force fields, no cramping means no crease at all!
4. Maintaining shape with shoe trees
Every shoe demands proper storing to keep up its shape as a new pair. If your footwears get curved when stored, they are sure to worn out quickly, creating crinkles on the top.
So what to do? A simple solution is to store it, adding shoe trees. It’s a moisture-wicking shoe shaper. It expands by the toe area as you push by the heel area of the shoes.
As a result, shoe trees prevent shoe shrinking. Thus, it flatters the creasing lines making it supple and keeps the shoe in shape.
5. Spray on water repellent
When you are wearing your shoes for the first time, remember to spray shoe water repellent. Why so?
Shoes can absorb water and moisture from the surrounding. But the disturbing fact is that shoes, when they are new and not waterproof, are more susceptible to forming a crease.
So, make sure to apply water repellent. For better results, reapply once a year!
Also read: How to Dry Wet Work Boots in Dryer
6. Putting on crease protectors
Prevention is better to cure. So why wait for the crease to form? Instead, end it before it develops! How?
Make room for a semi-rigid yet flat crease protecting surface inside your shoe. It is one of the best and cozy methods. This add-in encourages each pair of shoes to keep the upper flat with no unnecessary bending.
Hence, you can diminish the cause of crease creation while walking with the shoes on!
7. Ironing or blow drying
Have your shoes already formed creases? No worries. You can still treat them and erase the wrinkles.
You can’t iron it like your dresses. Instead, get yourself a wet towel and dress it around the areas of the shoes that have creases.
Later on, iron the towel at the creasing spots keeping it in the shoes. You can even go for blow-drying or steaming!
8. Conditioning shoes
If your shoes are in the tip-top shape, they won’t catch creasing lines. So to avoid those cracks, you can condition your pair of footwear.
You can rub alcohol or conditioning oil over the shoes once or twice a week. The step will moisten the creases and keep them from further deterioration.
But the oil you will use t condition depends on the material of your footwear. So take care of this matter. More tips to add, you can stuff your shoes with rolled-up socks and stores. Hence it reduces the chance of creasing!
Conclusion
When you buy any shoe, you promise to yourself that you will take the utmost care. But over time, your shoes tend to wear out without any prior notification.
The creases on the footwear come in a way that taints your impression and brings in walking discomfort. But does that mean you won’t wear the shoes again and let it crease?
No way! Now know how to keep shoes from creasing when walking. So, treat the crease and have a smooth walking that suits your personality too!