Reuse Recipe: Dyeing Leather Shoes

Both hubby and I had some shoes that needed a spruce up.  Mine were a pair of birks that felt great on my feet, but the color was annoying.
I read up on how to dye shoes a new color and used these as the test pair.

 I taped off the soles and filled them with brown paper to keep the dye from going anywhere I didn't want dyed.

 I used a deglazer first, to take off any protective coatings and to make sure that the dye would take evenly. It stinks like super strong nail polish remover. I just rubbed it on with a clean rag. I was careful to get in and around the stitching.
The dye color is chocolate, which is supposed to be a very dark brown. The dye comes in a bottle and has a sponge paint brush.  It was very simple to use. Just paint it all over and voila. I wore gloves and did it outside based on others recommendations.

 I love the color.  I only used about a third of each jar to do these and probably could have gone a little lighter on the dye.
After the dye dried, I applied Fiebling's Mink oil to soften and waterproof them. Unlike the other products, this one smells good.

I showed my shoes to hubby and got his permission to fix up the dress shoes that he wears 6 days a week, to work and church.  I have tried to polish them a couple of times, but that is very short lived. Polishing shoes is so common in other countries, but not a habit among Americans it seems. In any case, this dye is a penetrating dye so it goes down into the leather rather than staying on the surface. 

Here is what hubby's shoes looked like at the start:

 I figured that my efforts could not make them much worse than they already were!   And luckily, using the same technique, everything worked great again.

 A nice dark chocolate.  These are taken after he had worn them for a couple days.