Treating your vellies
At Strassbergers we define our shoes as “velskoene” and not “veldskoene”, an important distinction that we like to make. Vel is the Afrikaans word for “skin” while veld means “field” in English. The Velskoen has its origin from indigenous Khoisan people who used animal skins to cover their feet to protect against the heat, cold, harsh terrain and other threats. As we make our shoes from genuine leather using animal skin, it is the description we prefer.
While leather is remarkably durable, proper care ensures that it will last much longer. We recommend that you treat your Vellies to a pamper session at least once a week, especially hardworking farmers who are known to wear their vellies every day of the week. When shoes are made with a more natural grain leather, they tend to show ‘marks’ sooner than the others. For these we recommend applying our Bootfood balm before wearing. This balm protects the leather and extends its life. The leather in this category is referred to as having an “Anneline finish”, e.g. CH Dark, CH Tan, African Kudu and especially Cabretta.
A few tips for shoecare
- Treat your shoes before you wear them with the above mentioned Bootfood balm or polish.
- Treat your shoes at least once a week if worn every day.
- When shoes are used for farming, we recommend buying 2 pairs and using a different pair in alternate weeks to extend their life.
- When purchasing a pair of Vellies, rather size down instead of up. Leather can stretch and mould to your foot. If they feel too small, soak them in cold water for about 5 seconds, then put on 2 pairs of socks and wear them for an hour or two. After this, your Vellies should fit like gloves wearing only one pair of socks.
- We recommend purchasing a size smaller than normal for our men’s shoes.
- Try not to use Dubbin on our Vellies, as we have found it to have a chemical reaction on the stitching on some occasions.
- Do not tug on the loops at the back of the shoe, they are added as a visual element and not for assistance in pulling on the shoe.
With these tips we invite you to start (or continue) your Strassberger journey and we hope that our Vellies will provide you with a comfortable experience for many years to come.
With compliments, from Strassbergers.
