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Pleather is just shitty plastic lined fabric. Its lifespan is only a few years tops, after which it falls apart faster than a single parent with medical bills. It's less likely to happen with real leather.
[cries in American freedom]
Leather dries out over time when left to sit and becomes brittle. It must be treated with some thing like a leather oil rub or "saddle butter". Fake leather is similar.
When you wear them regularly from new before they dry out, the sweat and oil from your skin goes a long ways towards keeping the leather pliable.
Artificial fabrics obviously don't have this problem, unless exposed to sunlight.
I've used mink oil on some of my leather items (belts, knife sheathes) and I found it softened them up quite a bit
Linseed oil is good too, but be careful disposing of the rags. 🔥
Don't dispose of the rags. You can set them on a hot radiator to dry out and they'll be good as new!
Mink oil is good to have but I've never found anything to top Bicks #4 conditioner. It took me years and several thousands of dollars of leather products to cave and buy a bottle and I'll never use anything else. If you're serious about leather care, I'd recommend it highly
Interesting! As a fellow leather nerd, I feel the same way about Obenauf's LP. Have you heard of it?
Leather needs to be maintained (oiled or polished), even if you're not wearing them.
Suppose that depends on what exactly you mean by broken. I'm a shoe cobbler, as the name suggests, and broken means a lot of things to me lol
Probably not what he meant, but it has happened twice now to me that I wear shoes that had been stored for a year without use, but in good condition. After I used them for half an hour or an hour, the rubber sole crumbles literally in little pieces.
Also the sole completely detaching
Well if it does that then it isn't actually rubber its a synthetic material that has a shelf life. It will happen over time regardless of what you do but keeping them in cardboard or plastic shoe boxes will accelerate the problem especially with those silica packets still in there.
When I say broken I probably meant unwearable (removed heel, sole, etc.)
You just have to maintain the material.
Others have already covered it, but I figure a repeat is part of why people crowd source answers.
For leather, it's easy. You just use one of the many leather conditioning products. Oils are the norm for that. Leather will otherwise dry out and harden.
For other materials, you run into more difficulty because they tend to not to have many options.
Fake leather, only PVC has any options at all afaik. You just have to find PVC moisturizer. Other types (polyurethane is going to be the only other one you find commonly), there's nothing at all. However, you may have some degree of success with mineral oil. And that's not going to be much success PU pleather is a shit material for anything.
Truth is, though, the fake leather absolutely will degrade over time, no matter what you do. It's inevitable because the plastics used just aren't robust. They have to be flexible, so it limits how tough they can be (don't ask me to explain why, I got this from a guy that works in plastics). You really can't store them and expect them to last more than maybe a year or two in normal conditions.
Even the best fake leathers have a life span that's much lower than real leather. If nothing else happens, the bond between the plastic and whatever fabric underneath it will degrade.
What's worse is that using (wearing) the shoes isn't going to make it any better. You still get the chemicals degrading, and now you're adding wear and tear. So your best bet is to just wear them and save up for better shoes while they last.
Do you mean the upper, the sole, or some other part?
For the upper, leather needs to be taken care of. I'm not an expert on that as it's never been worth it to me to deal with that. Fake leather has certain additives that eventually break down and then the material becomes less supple and resilient. That's the same reason midsoles typically have a limited lifespan even without use as well.
Leather needs to be maintained with conditioner - over time the oils dry out, leading to cracking.
Polish helps protect conditioned leather (as well as putting a shine on it.), but it’ll still eventually dry out. Look up guides on YT for how to recondition leather
Vinyl (which is frequently used for glossy fake leather,) will start cracking as it oxidizes. Not much you can do about it
Polyurethane (PU) will gather humidity by hydrolysis in storage if not used regularly, especially if stored airtight, and will crumble in half an year.
It's used as sole material in sportswear, Scandinavian outdoor and military gear, and several Indian shoe manufacturers. Especially the military boots are funny, because they literally crumble off the shelf.
Also used as vegan / synthetic leather and has to be dried properly if wet.
Take good care of your gear.
Fast fashion is disposable garbage not made to last