How to care for RM Williams boots

We receive a lot of questions about shoe trees and shoe care for chelsea boots of the brand RM Williams. As a result of that we would like to share some information and advice on how to take the very best care of your RM Williams boots.

RM Williams was founded in 1932 in Australia by Reginald Murray Williams. The purpose in the beginning with their manufacturing of shoes and clothes was to provide the people living and working on the countryside in Australia. Their chelseas are nowadays also very popular here in northern parts of Europe since they are very robust in their constructions and suitable for our quite unstable weather.

If you take proper care of your RM Williams boots they will last for many years to come and we hope that we by this guide we will give you some basic knowledge on how to care for your boots.

Shoe trees for RM Williams

Always use shoe trees when you don't use your shoes. Our shoe trees in red cedar wood fits perfectly to the RM Williams boots. We advice to choose one size down, so shoe trees in size EU41 goes for RM Williams shoes in 42 (UK8). For women's shoes we advice two sizes down, for example size 35 of shoe trees for shoes in size 37.

Shoe care of RM Williams

Always clean your boots after use to remove dirt and dust. A shoe brush in horse hair is a really good investment. A brush of high quality will also remove dirt that is hard to remove by hand close to the welt of the shoe.
Use shoe cream without silicon and other ingredients that can cause the leather to dry out. A good product that consists of natural products is the Saphir Creme Pommadier wich is available in different colours. A coloured shoe cream will give your shoes a nice shine and cover scratches and marks that has occured during wear.

Once a year we recommend that you clean and do a small renovation of your shoes that we will explain below. Please note there is many ways in doing this, however this is the way we prefer it.

Step 1 - Cleaning

The boots in this guide is 4-5 years old and has never been cleaned before. Layer upon layer with shoe cream over the years has been applied. On the below picture you can see the picture before our work.



As you can see they are dirty and have some pretty big scratches. They also have some very old shoe cream on them. That's why we need to clean them properly from dirt and old shoecream. To clean them we use gall soap and a sponge (the soft side of the sponge).
Take some water and gall soap on the sponge and start rubbing the boot until you feel that all the old shoe cream and dirt has been washed of.

If you have shoe cream that you are not able to remove you can use Saphir Renomat. Saphir Renomat is a stronger liquid that will remove shoe cream fast and easy.
After the cleaning proccess the shoes should dry for at least 24 hours. Use shoe trees or newspaper inside while they dry.

Here is how our boots looked after cleaning:

 
 

Step 2 - Reconditioning

Step 3 - Shoe cream

A good shoe cream like Saphir Medaille d'Or Créme Pommadier will not only protect the shoe but will also cover scratches and marks. Since the boots is black we choose the black Pommadier and apply it to the shoe with a cotton cloth. Just apply a small amount of shoe cream each time. The shoe cream should be absorbed by the leather and not just applied in a thick layer on the surface.

Leave the shoe after you have applied a layer of shoe cream and let it dry for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes - brush the shoes with a shoe brush to remove the shoe cream on the surface.

Depending on the shoes condition you may apply several layers of shoe cream if needed.
After two layers of shoe cream our shoes looked like this:
 

Step 4 - Polish