Leather is a textile that lasts for generations, and often fades due to sun exposure, friction or wear. Below we outline all the ways to restore the color of leather items including bags, jackets, and footwear. At Awl Together Leather, we can help restore the color of your item using a variety of low-toxic, low-scent environmentally friendly options. If you are seeking a cleaning on your item, such an oil stain, mold, or scent removal, then check out our cleaning options here.
A common misconception is that to restore the color of leather, you need to fully redye it. Unlike most fabrics, leather’s color can be rejuvenated using cleaning and conditioning techniques, without using toxic and variable dyes. A truth behind leather coloring is that leather takes color similar to wood stain – darker areas are likely to come out darker while lighter areas stay lighter. This depth of color and pattern of wear is called a patina – and just like denim heads love their fades, leather-lovers value a good patina.
Conditioning leather jackets is a great way to restore the color, add softness and flexibility back into a garment, reduce the risk of holes and tearing, and increase water resistance. Oftentimes, when leather jackets are faded a good conditioning is all the is needed to restore the color, not leather dye. Most items will go quite a bit darker upon being conditioned and then return to within a shade or two of their original color overnight. Most leather items should be conditioned once-four times a year (our default is twice, when your wardrobe changes between summer and winter).
At Awl Together Leather, we only use trusted products that do not expire and do not have silicone or petroleum-based chemicals (which seal leather and damage their longevity). We offer two types of conditioning: tinted color conditioning and weather-proofing conditionings.
Tinted Color Conditionings are available in black, light brown, dark brown, and clear – these are designed to primarily help color restoration while lightly rehydrating the leather and work very well for delicate leather like lambskin.
A Weather-Proofing Conditioning utilises a leather grease that has a much higher concentration of waxes and oils that heavily hydrates leather, increases water-resistance and restores some natural color while retaining the patina.
If your item is not a smooth leather, but one that has texture such as suede, nubuck, roughout, fur or buckskin, then the methods for conditioning and color restoration will differ! You cannot use most leather oils, greases, conditioners, cleaners or leather dye on ‘textured’ leathers as they will ruin the nap (the velvety surface). Unfortunately, conditioning and restoring the color of textured leathers is a little bit more difficult and requires special techniques and products. Awl Together Leather offers recoloring sprays for most suede, nubuck, and roughouts as well as a weather-proofing treatment that can extend the longevity of your garment. Fur is a truly tricky one, for which we are currently only offer scent-removal services.
Buckskin, is a textile made from an animal hide, that appears similar to nubuck or roughout. However, buckskin is a North American Indigenous textile that is made using brain/smoke tanning. Buckskin can only be conditioned with an emulsified oil and the rich golden color is restored by oiling and re-smoking the garment.
Exotic Leathers are often leather that come from reptiles or water-based animals – think scales. Exotic leathers need to treated with Ph-adjusted conditioners that add to the longevity of the leather. Benefits of conditioning an exotic leather is that the conditioner is often also a cleaner and it adds to the softness, durability, color and water-resistance of the garment. Awl Together Leather is an expert in identifying different types of exotic leathers and offers premium restoration services.
Waxed cotton jackets are a staple in Europe for their rain-proof quality! On the west coast, they are an excellent replacement to Gortex, DWR or PVC rain coats. Awl Together Leather is one of the only places in British Columbia offering rewaxing for waxed cotton garments like Filson, Barbour. We use trusted Otter Wax bars and go over your shoulders and hood twice for the best results. Rewaxing a jacket often makes the garment darker with tell-tail “pull-up” white creases forming when you crinkle the fabric.
Have a roughout, suede or nubuck jacket or boots that you want waxed? We can do that too! Any canvas or cotton garment that is not already waxed, can be turned into one, with heavier weight textiles yielding the best results. Visit us in store today for a waxed jacket treatment –or see our mail-in process for this service!
At Awl Together Leather, we see bags every day that are worn or discolored. Our leather technicians can help restore the color of your bag in a variety of way – including reconditioning it, removing stains (see our cleaning services), recoloring (explain below), and very very rarely using leather dye.
Conditioning is best for faded bags that have dried out over time. Adding leather oils and waxes back into the bag helps revive the color while adding an extra layer of protection against the elements. For most bags, we use our Tinted Color Conditioning, available in black, light brown, dark brown, and clear – these are designed to primarily help color restoration while lightly rehydrating the leather and work very well for delicate leather like lambskin. This process is designed to restore the color without resulting in color-transfer.
Pro Tip: never use shoe polish on a leather bag, as the color will rub-off on your clothing.
For leather bags that are discolored due to stains that are not removable (pen, indigo dye rub-off), we can recolor the surface of the leather using a color-matched coating. We do this frequently for luxury brands like Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and YSL.
Sometimes, we must recolor the entirety of a bag to perfectly match the color. This is because of the gloss of our product may reflect light slightly differently, or the original bag has variable color tones and depth that are impossible to match in a small section. Upon appraisal of your bag, we will offer the best method for restoring it to the original color, while avoiding leather dye as it has a very high likelyhood of rubbing-off on hihg-friction items.
The same method of applying a matched color top-coat can be applied to larger items such as garments, however this is best done as a spot treatment rather than applying it to the entire item.
Red Rot is characterised by fragile leather that seams to be flaking or turning to dust, often with a red tinge. This occurs because the leather, usually vegetable-tanned, has turned too acidic with time and is now flaking off and fragile. It’s commonly seen in book binding, old cases, and ancient sheaths. Red Rot is difficult to treat, as it is the natural decay of leather that is approaching a century of age. However, Awl Together Leather offers some treatments that slow down the acidification and ‘seal in’ the flaking of the leather.
Treating Red Rot yields a shinier finish on the object and extends the lifespan of the object. However, it does not necessarily strengthen the object for a daily use. Treatments for Red Rot were developed in museum preservation and most objects being saved are for visual appreciation only.
As a cobbling shop, we shine shoes! Often referred to as bootblacking or shoe polishing, we can restore your boots to their original glory and increase their waterproofness and resistance to forming holes in the upper. We offer a range of shoe shining services including oil-tan conditioning, high-shine or mirror-shine services, a patina polish and even sneaker cleaning. For stubborn salt or water stain removal, see our Swedish wash procedure outlined in our cleaning services. Most shoe shining skips the queue and is completed within the week.
Leather dye is often misunderstood as the only option to restore color in a leather item. In reality, it is one of the most involved, toxic and variable ways to treat already-made leather items. Leather dye is best done during the tanning stage of leather, where dipping the textile in vats can ensure an even distribution of color and industrial processes can seal the dye in properly. After a leather item is made, one cannot immerse it in dye, as this destroys the liner and stiffeners inside the leather. In addition, before adding any dye, the item must be stripped of its pre-existing sealant, which can yield irregular texture difference, color results, and very high chance of dye rubbing off and transferring color (the stripper is also incredibly toxic)
In January of 2024, Canada changed it’s Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) regulations, which effectively banned the most trusted dyes on the market. Big brands like Feibings changed their dye chemical composition to adhere to the new laws, however the new dyes are not as effective nor as reliable.
For these reasons – toxicity, low effectiveness, and high likelihood of dye rub-off, we no longer offer leather redye services on jackets, garments, upholstery, and most bags. We will redye shoes as we’re able to seal it with additional waxes and shoes do not usually rub on other items.
Leather boots are one of the rare things that we will dye – but, only to black! This is because they are small enough to handle with low levels of dye and because we can use wax polish as an additional layer to eal the new dye in properly. Check out the examples below of the leather redye work of Awl Together Leather.
Leather is a material which will naturally fade with time and wear, however there are some things which are known to strip or damage the color of leather. Any strong solvent such as isopropyl alcohol (hand sanitizer), hydrogen peroxide, or deglazer will strip color away from a section of leather. For this, our tinted color conditioning or matched recolor are the best solutions. We’ve also seen many items damaged by name tags! For this, we usually clean the area and then apply a tinted color conditioning.
In our time, Awl Together Leather, has heard of hundreds of customers’ home remedies for leather care. These are the worst – please do not repeat at home!
Firstly, never use any oil that may expire – aka anything from your kitchen. Coconut oil? Banana Peels? No thank you. A rancid item is not a great outcome. A note on Mink Oil – while often suggested by people, we find that Mink Oil does turn bad after a decade or so and tend to avoid it.
Next, never use any product that has silicone or petroleum-based ingredients. These are often sold as “high-shine” or “quick-shine” solutions but in reality, they seal in your leather permanently and decrease their lifespan. Quality ingredients are often beeswax and pine tar. If you cannot pronounce it, it’s likely bad.
And finally, leather cannot by dyed or bleached like regular textiles. Common dye brands like RIT require you to immerse an item in hot water – and heat, boiling water especially, permanently and irreversibly damages leather by shrinking it and turning it brittle. Bleach often damages the structure of a leather textile and does not strip color away in an uniform or reliable manor.
Instead check out the brands that we trust for leather care, like Huberds Shoe Grease, Famaco Crème Delicate, and Feibings saddle soap.