How to Clean Leather Sandals

If they’re just cheap summer sandals and they get dirty, just wipe them off with a damp rag the same way you would clean off any other kind of normal shoe. Don’t use too much water, water and leather don’t mix.

Even if only one sandal needs it, clean them both. Cleaning can change the color of leather, so you need to clean both sandals at the same time and in the same way if you want them to match the way they’re supposed to.

Don’t ever try to clean suede or rough leather with water. Get a suede cleaning kit and clean your shoes with that. If the suede gets wet, use a towel to soak off as much of the water as you can without rubbing. Once the suede is dry, then you can follow the directions in the cleaning kit to finish fixing it up.

Use a cleaning wipe, not the kind with alcohol. Just don’t use the wipe to scrub at the leather, if you do that it’ll make a wet spot that will turn into a stain.

If you can’t get dirty white leather sandals completely clean again, use white shoe polish to cover up the stains or even to re-whiten the whole sandal.