Do you own a favorite pair of sneakers, boots, or dress shoes? Are your leather, sheepskin, or suede items a source of pride and fashion? Taking care of these items is paramount when you spend a minor fortune when splurging. If someone gives you a luxurious gift, then you want to know it will remain clean, vibrant, and beautiful for a long time. How can you keep your special things safe and clean?
Cleaning, brushing, and applying restoration products to fine leather and suede is a useful way to lengthen the life of your most precious items. When you have several top-end bags, briefcases, or belts, then it is essential to find a versatile product. This Best Five Cleaning Products for Suede Items may be useful for these applications. We invite you to take a deeper look into these products to decide whether you can use one or more of these items for your favorite accessories and footwear.
How we pick the dominant products
This selection of stain removal and restoration products contain unique features. Most of the items on the list are kits. Each cleaner offers additional benefits we feel our readers will enjoy and find helpful. To find out more about each product, please continue reading our comparison section for a quick overview of the features for each selection. Afterward, we dive into the specifics for all five items to give you a comprehensive look at the way each cleaning solution can be useful in your life.
At the end of this post, our section guide will help answer any questions you may have regarding these erasers and stain removers. We attempt to expand on any unclear instructions or explain uses of these products to give you a sense of how to use them in your house, office, or recreational lifestyle. Finally, we will wrap up how we feel about the stain removers and the best ways we think consumers may want to use them.
Premium Shoe Cleaner from Jason Markk – Best High-Quality Stain Erasing Product
Do you spend hours cleaning up cleats and sneakers? Are football cleats and gym shoes dragging dirt and mud throughout your space? You may need an intense clean with a safe solution to protect leather products. With the stiff bristles and dirt removing solution in this kit, you might find the messes a little less cumbersome.
| Pros | Cons |
| Made in America | Not a protective or restorative product |
| Top quality solution for erasing stains | Requires a separate premium suede brush for fine items |
| Enough liquid to remove stains from as many as 100 pairs of shoes | – |
When you want to use products safe for the environment, then cleaning with this shoe eraser and stain cleansing equipment is useful. It has nearly 99 percent natural ingredients. It is 100 percent safe for the environment and biodegradable.
Kiwi Shoe Cleaning Eraser Block – Best Traveling Sneaker Cleanup Bar
Do you work in places where you get stuff on your boots or shoes all the time? Does your job take you out in the environment and the wet, rainy, or snowy conditions? If you find you deal with gritty, slimy, or oily stains regularly, then you might find using the Kiwi stain removing block convenient.
When the warehouse is always dusty, or you work with a ton of cardboard, then you know how easy it is to mess up your work boots.
| Pros | Cons |
| Compact design | Not for use on harder fabrics like stiff leathers |
| Cleans about 50 pairs of dirty sneakers | – |
| Works on any color material | – |
If you travel to places where there are several inches of snow a year, then you might want to invest in one of these Kiwi bars. These stain removal blocks are small enough to fit into a carry on bag. You might like the way these bars take out oil stains from cooking or working around vehicles. We recommend keeping one in the car for work, and one at home for household or yard messes.
Gear Aid Revivex Care Kit – Best Overall Stain Removal Kit for Breathability
Do you have shoes or boots with a mesh material or fabric allowing air to get through the material? These leather products work well when you use a cleaning product that does not fill in the tiny holes in the material.
You might like the Revivex erasing kit because it comes with a bar to get rid of hard stains and a brush to wipe away the gritty messes. A liquid cleaning compound gets to ground-in stains while a water repellent treatment for use after removing stains will protect your boots and other favorite leather items.
| Pros | Cons |
| Complete leather cleaning kit | Primary use is for Nubuck or suede items |
| Water repelling protective spray | – |
| Works for any weather conditions | – |
If you like having a combination of items at your disposal, then the Revivex kit may be what you should buy first. This package works best on premium leather items. It is not a sneaker cleaning tool. The cleaning package includes a water protection spray to repel water and keep your favorite items from soaking up liquid stains.
Angelus Liquid Cleaning Solution for Shoes – Best Versatile Item
Do you prefer cleaning materials you can use on a multitude of items and materials? If you want a flexible option to clean several shoe types and outdoor items at once, then you might prefer the cleaner from Angelus.
When you work in an area where newspaper ink or pen marks are common, then you might want to try this product for removing marks on your shoes. When an ink pen drags the inside of your favorite leather purse, then you can try using Angelus to get the deep stain out of your bag.
| Pros | Cons |
| Safe for using on Gor-Tex leathers, Nubuck, sheepskin, and suede | The product sells as a single bottle item with no cleaning accessories like brushes, bars, or applicators |
| Large, eight-ounce bottle of solution | – |
| Works on shoe soles, sneakers, sides of shoes, vinyl, plastic, and other materials | – |
The cleaner provides some restoring effects brightening fabric and removing dull marks. If you have leather uppers and rubber soles, then this product is effective for use on both materials without changing products or covering the leather when working on the hard parts.
Pedag Sheepskin and Nubuck Stain Erasing Combo – Best Kit for Boot Cleaning
When you work in a dirty, muddy, or dusty environment, then you want a product that will get large and small particles out of the creases and tread of your boots. Work grime can buildup making it tough to dislodge gravel, cardboard, staples, and screws. It is annoying to walk around with a stone stuck in the rubber sole of your shoes.
Instead of letting these little problems tear up your favorite footwear, you might want to choose a product like Pedag to clean up and restore your boots. The metal brushes get rid of hard items like rocks while the softer, rubber grips on the other side of the brush loosen mud and lighter debris that collects in the tread of your shoes and boots.
| Pros | Cons |
| Fluffs up materials with a longer nap | Not for deeply inset stains |
| Contains color restoration solution | Must use the bar for erasing stains |
| Complete kit with dual-use rubber and metal brush | – |
This full kit includes all the tools necessary to remove hard or dried stains. Cleans and repairs the color and texture of the nap. International product using German and French innovations.
Buyer’s Guide
This area of the post serves to answer some of the most inquisitive questions about erasers for suede and leather. We will list the questions and give the best answer for each. You can use this section of the article to decide which one of the top products you might want to purchase.
How to clean suede shoes
Step one. You will need a suede protector spray and a suede cleaning brush. You might also need a small knife, a nail brush, a sponge, a shoe tree. If you don’t have one of these, you will need some white tissue or newspaper and a small crepe rubber or a pencil eraser.
Step two. Suede is a kind of leather with a soft ray surface called a nap. It can spoil more easily than leather, so it needs a special level of care. It makes sense always to spray new shoes with a protective spray.
Step three. Protection spray can be bought from footwear shops and will protect your shoes from water damage and staining. Before applying the spray, lightly brush your shoes to remove any dust or dirt. Always brush in the same direction to lift the nap. Make sure you follow the manufacturer’s instructions on the side of the aerosol can. And as with all aerosols, only use in a well-ventilated area.
Step four. Even with a protection spray, shiny marks can still appear if you scuff suede shoes, flattening down their surface. Restore by brushing back and forth with the suede brush. If the shoes are very worn, scrape with a sharp knife to lift the nap. If your suede has dirty marks, try removing them with one of the sides of a suede brush. Top tip. Recommended using a little crepe rubber or even a pencil eraser to lift the marks from your shoes, from the suede to the rubber.
Step five. If your shoes get muddy, wait until the mud dries, then use a stiff brush like a nail brush to remove the dirt. Move with a sweeping action and keep all your strokes in the same direction. Work all the way around the shoe, including the edges of the sole. Pay special attention to any dirt stuck in the detailing.
Step six. If parts of the shoe get wet, the water can leave a tidemark and dry a different color. Wet the shoes all over, sponge off any excess water, and insert a shoe tree to keep the shoe in shape as it dries. If you don’t have a shoe tree, stuff the shoe toes with white tissue paper, or any white paper to hold them firm. Warning, don’t use newspaper if your shoes are very wet as the print may leach into the boots. Leave the shoes to dry overnight, then gently brush to restore the texture.
Step seven. Stains like oil and grease are almost impossible to remove. Work into the area with a suede brush to see if that lifts the stain, treating it as you would a scuff. If not, remove the laces and wash the shoes with a little water and a stiff brush. If this doesn’t work, it may be time to say goodbye to your dirty shoes.
Step eight. When you’re not wearing the shoes, wrap them in tissue paper and put it in a shoe box. Heel to toe. Don’t keep them in plastic bags or airtight boxes and avoid humidity, which can make them moldy, and avoid bright light, which can discolor suede. Keep them in the dark, dry place.
Can you use these products to protect the leather after cleaning it
The Gear Aid Revivex comes with a water repellent spray to put on your favorite items after cleaning them. The Pedag kit contains a color restoration spray that will brighten and fluff up the nap of suede after it sits for about ten minutes. The other three products on our countdown only offer cleaning solutions for leather.
Will these cleaners darken my suede items
No. None of these five items will discolor your suede or Nubuck leather. Be cautious when using the Jason Markk cleaner because it can cause suede dyes to leech onto other colors on the product. Most items look dark when you apply them, but they dry clear.
Do the cleaners leave an oily residue or yellowish tint after using them
You may not realize this, but all of the products in this piece will help you get rid of any discoloration on your sneakers or a favorite pair of Uggs.
Which are better, bars or liquid removers
The answer depends on the stain you want to remove. If you have an oily mess, then a bar is not likely to get to the deeper layers. A liquid can penetrate the stain allowing you to blot it up with a clean rag. You can use a combination product like the Pedaq kit which contains a cleaning bar and a liquid. When you have a surface stain like a powder on your suede boots, then a shoe brush might be all you need to swipe away the mess.
Can you use these products on furniture like suede couches
Yes. If your furniture calls for cleaning with a suede stain remover, then you can use the items on our list to get rid of spills and messes. For powdery spills, a bar or solid eraser is the most convenient option. You can try to remove oily stains with a bar, but we like using a liquid with a brush to get down into the material to remove it from the bottom of the stain up to the surface. You can also combine techniques to see if it improves the effects.
Do you need to mix the cleaners with water
You do not need water to dilute the cleaning solutions. You can use a small amount to rinse the brush or clean off the item as you are working, but no water is necessary for removing the stain.
What works best for mesh materials and breathable fabrics like Gore-Tex
For this application, we recommend the Pedag or the Angelus Easy stain removing cleaners. These products have a specific, lightweight compound that makes cleaning mesh fabric easy and leaves the material open to continue allowing air to flow through the fabric. The Gear Aid is another product which the manufacturer says will work for breathable materials keeping the perforations open after cleaning.
Can I use these cleaners on things other than suede
When you want to use a cleaner on more than leather, then we like the Angelus Easy stain eraser because it is just as safe for canvas as it is suede. You can use this product on virtually all your shoes without worry about staining or fading.
Video Guide: Cleaning Suede & Nubuck
Concluding thoughts
Choosing a favorite eraser for removing stains on your precious leathers and suede items is not as simple as a quick Google search. It takes some reading and research to find the right product to ensure you are getting the best results. When you have a tough cleaning job, then going with a kit that has several items in it may be the better choice. If you need a general cleaner, then any item should do the job. Remember to look at our quick-glance chart at the beginning of this post to get a basic comparison between the five products.
To choose your favorite item, we suggest you look at each of the manufacturer’s instructions and guidelines before making a purchase. We feel these items will give you a diverse range of options allowing you to care for unique and high-quality items as well as your everyday products like sneakers and sports equipment. While there are two items with protective solutions in the kit, we do not mean these items as restoration or protective materials. These products offer the most cleaning capabilities. This is why we feature these stain removal solutions in this post.
If you are satisfied that your lighter has ignited the shoe shiner properly, extinguish the fire and remove the lighter. Then clean the surface with a cleaning cloth dampened in water.
Hello, Robert! Thanks for your comment.
Kiwi has pretty much always been my go-to brand for suede and leather care. I like their suede cleaners because it is easy to use and very convenient. You can find it at most major retailers.
By far the Angelus Suede Cleaner is the best cleaner I have ever used. For anyone looking to clean leather I highly suggest using the cleaner, it works well and gets rid of all the wear and tear.
Hello, Jack! Thanks for sharing your experience.