Uggs--Is there a Mustachian way to clean

[lizzzi]

I brush my black Uggs now and then, but they really need more than that, and I don't want to spend the money for the Ugg brand care kit. I don't really trust the Youtube videos…would rather get advice from badass, sensible Mustachians. My main problem is salt stains--the mud brushes off. Any advice?

[lizzzi]

Just to add that we are burying my mother's urn on Jan. 25, and the graveside is on a snowy hillside. I'd like to wear my Uggs, just to have warm feet and flat footwear for that outdoors portion of the funeral, but they need to look better than they do now. She died on Jan. 15, just the way she wanted to, at age 86 at home in her own bed, with my dad at her side. 

[olivia]

I'm sorry for your loss.  I'm not sure how to remove salt stains from suede if brushing won't work-I would probably take them to a shoe repair place for a good cleaning/reconditioning.  Then once the stains are removed I bet you can use a regular suede protector to prevent future stains.

Also, for actual snowy/slushy weather I wear L.L. Bean duck boots instead of Uggs since they're waterproof and I don't have to worry about wrecking suede.  The ones I have are all black.  I don't live in a super cold environment so I was able to get the unlined duck boots, but they do make shearling lined and Thinsulate lined versions as well.

[lizzzi]

Thank you, Olivia. Great minds must think alike, because I also have the LL Bean black, unlined duck boots. I have not been careful enough with my Uggs, and have worn them a time or two when I would have been wiser to wear the duck boots.

[GuitarStv]

So, these winter boots can't be worn in normal winter conditions without being damaged?  :S   Ugg.

[olivia]

Thank you, Olivia. Great minds must think alike, because I also have the LL Bean black, unlined duck boots. I have not been careful enough with my Uggs, and have worn them a time or two when I would have been wiser to wear the duck boots.

Then we clearly both have impeccable taste!  :P  I've always had great luck with shoe repair places, there are places around me that even have signs advertising that they clean Uggs.  (I'm in Philly so there are a ton of places in the city.)

[lizzzi]

To Guitar Stv: Uggs are probably my favorite footwear, and I wear them indoors and outdoors from autumn until spring. What you have to realize is that they are not waterproof--they are fine in regular, powdery snow conditions, but once you are dealing with slushy-muddy-puddles-and slop conditions, some kind of water-impermeable boot is going to be the better choice. Ugg makes a "Water and Stain Repellant" product, which does help--I would recommend buying it and using it on new Uggs--but that still does not make them waterproof. My go-to boot for wet/slop conditions is the LL Bean duck boot. I don't know about Canada, but in New York/Vermont/Pennsylvania/Ohio (places I have day-to-day familiarity with), you see them all the time. To Olivia: Thank you! There is a dry cleaner nearby that advertises Ugg-cleaning. I will talk to them for sure.

[GuitarStv]

No, I see 'em all the time here too.  Usually stained with salt.  It just seems like a really bad design to me, unless you live in the arctic where you won't run into slushy conditions very often.  In which case they're a bad design because they're not warm enough.  Hmm.

[lizzzi]

This will sound weird, and I really can't explain it, but after I brushed my salt-stained Uggs with a nail brush (I don't have a suede brush), the salt stains remained. Then, inexplicably over a week or so, they just faded away and came pretty close to disappearing. My Uggs don't look perfect, but they are pretty close, and I am comfortable wearing them. (In terms of how they look.) So I never bothered taking them to the cleaner's.