In this guide, I’ll show you how to stop shoes from creasing when walking. I’ll outline and explain 12 of my favorite approaches, which I’ve used for months to keep wrinkles away from my shoes.
The best part?
These techniques are incredibly simple and should take you less than 2 minutes to implement.
And look:
Creases do the most damage to a footwear of whatever kind. In fact, they make sneakers and leather shoes look weak, old, and unattractive.
But your shoes will always crease anyway, and that’s completely normal. What you don’t want to do is wait until the creasing gets work and become unsightly.
Before we get to the techniques that you can use to remove wrinkles from your leather shoes and sneakers, let’s look at why they crease in the first place.
What Causes Shoes to Crease
The first reason why your shoes crease is pretty much obvious.
You!
Surprised, aren’t you?
Let me explain:
As you walk, the ball of your foot acts as the pivot forcing a bend at the toe front. While this is necessary for proper foot balance, it’s also the reason for the creases on your pair of sneakers and dress shoes.
The second cause of the wrinkles is the material used to design the footwear. More often than not, shoes made of high-quality fabric will outlast their inferior counterparts.
For example, poor quality leather shoes crease much faster than high-quality leather shoes.
Also, shoes size can be another cause of the creases. In fact, wearing shoes that are too big leave extra space between your foot and the shoes. That space gives the material the freedom to form wrinkles.
How to Stop Shoes from Creasing When Walking
Now that you know what causes your footwear to crease, let’s look at ways to prevent creases as you walk.
Here are the options:
1. Choosing the Right Size
The best way prevent creases is to make sure they your pair of shoes fit from the very beginning.
The right size shouldn’t leave a space too big between the shoe and your foot.
Now, there’s an approach that you can use to be make sure you buy shoes that fit. And that involves buy shoes in the afternoon when your feet are somewhat wider.
As you do that:
- Carry a pair of socks with you to the store and wear them over the shoes
- Walking around the fitting area to get the hang of the shoe
- Feel the inside material
- Turn over the shoe over and examine the soles
The above approach is great, but it’s simply not suitable for you if you buy your footwear online.
In fact, when shopping on the internet, chances are you may get shoes that are either too big or too small.
But this isn’t really a bigger problem if you ask me. All you have to do is to know your feet’s size and finding a pair of shoes that fits will come easy after that.
2. Use Crease Protector
Crease protectors present themselves as the perfect solution to stop your shoes from developing creases. Besides, they’ve proven to be the real game changers in the footwear arena.
The protector holds the upper part of the shoe steady so that creases don’t form from the arch to the front toe as you walk.
For more comfort, make sure that the upper part of the crease protector lines with the top of the inside of the shoe.
3. Tighten your Shoelaces
It’s actually a no brainer that lacing your walking shoes right can help fix the creasing. In this case, all you have to do is run the laces through every eyelid and then tighten them properly.
Of course, you can tie the laces any way you like. But make sure the shoes snuggle up tightly against your feet.
Run them twice through every eyelid if you must or try to perform a surgeons’ knot in any case.
4. Walk Properly
Try to maintain an upright posture as you walk. Doing so will help to distribute the pressure from the upper parts of your body to your shoes evenly. Ultimately, parts like the toe front won’t develop creases as easy.
Also, try as much as you get to lift the whole foot from the ground when taking a step.
5. Wear Shoes in Normal Conditions
You can protect new shoes from creasing by exposing them to stable conditions at first. It means not exposing the pair to excess heat, water, and other elements.
I suggest that you wear your new shoes around the house for about 24 hours before taking them outside.
Also, remember to keep them dry all the time, especially if the pair is made of leather. More often than not, water tends to loosen the leather, eventually causing creases and making the material weak.
6. Use Toe Taps
When the tip of the sole wears out, it leaves the upper part deformed, making the shoe crease.
But when you place a toe plate at the tip of the sole, you reduce the wear in that area.
Why toe taps?
Because they’re really good at what they do.
By just protecting the tip of the front of the sole from wearing out, these plates go a long way to stop shoes from creasing as you walk.
If you’re serious about getting some toe taps on your shoes, then find a professional cobbler to do it for you.
7. Use Some Moisturizer
Have you ever heard that there’s nothing a good old moisturizer can’t fix?
That might be true to some extent, and more so when it comes to crease prevention.
In fact, you can remove crease from your leather shoes by applying some moisturizer on the fabric. Just make sure you massage it well to make it saddle enough to work.
5 Ways to Remove Creases Out of Shoes – Without Using an Iron
Now you know the right way to stop your shoes from creasing when walking. But there’s one more thing I need to show you before we wrap up.
So in this section, I’ll highlight 5 of the most effective ways to remove creases out of shoes without using an iron.
You can:
1. Use Shoehorns
Although shoehorns only work for the upper back of shoes, it’s one of the best options that you can use to fix creases fast.
In other words, they hold the upper back hill fabric in place, preventing it from getting any wrinkles.
The good thing about shoehorns is that they come in different sizes. You can choose the 24-inch shoehorns for boots or the 7-inch for flat shoes.
2. Use a Shoe Tree
If there’s one thing that’s for sure about shoe trees, it’s that they make life easier for shoe owners.
The fact that a shoe tree protects your shoes from creasing is good. But it’s the way they clean smelly shoes that’s magical.
Generally, the trees help to maintain your shoes’ form and easily absorb moisture, which would otherwise worsen the creasing.
Plus, it’s very easy to use.
Just remove your shoes when you get home, put a tree in each, and then keep them in the rack until the next time you want to wear them.
3. Try Alternating Your Shoes
You shouldn’t wear your walking shoes for two days in a row. That’s because they’ll develop moisture, which tends to not only weaken the material build but also cause creasing.
The right thing to do is to alternate your shoes.
Besides, I assume you have more than one pair of shoes. And if you do, it makes less sense to walk in the same pair every single day.
And here’s the thing:
Alternating your sneakers or dress shoes from time to time gives the pair in your shoe rack enough time to dry and recover.
4. You Can Use Rolled Up Socks
A quick question:
What do you do when you don’t have a shoe tree around the house?
I don’t know about you. But I would simply roll up some socks and put them inside my shoes.
And I suggest you do the exact same thing.
Rolled up socks are thick enough to hold the material in place long enough to prevent creases.
However, unlike shoe trees, socks don’t absorb moisture from shoes. If you put them in wet shoes, they may turn out to be the breeding ground for bacteria.
So make sure your shoes are completely dry before placing rolled up socks in them.
5. Use Water Repellent Spray
It’s no secret that shoes and water don’t necessarily sail in the same boat. That’s even more apparent when the shoes in question are made of leather.
So to protect your new shoes from the ripple effects of water, use a water repellent spray.
Water repellents prevent your shoes from coming into contact with moisture from the environment or water from the ground.