Slitesterk Black Cream Pot 102 – 50ml Cream for Black Leather Shoes

Description

Slitesterk Black Cream Pot 102 – 50ml Cream for Black Leather Shoes – black is the one shade nobody ever has to match, so the sensible pot is the affordable one

Black shoes are the only part of a wardrobe where matching is simply not a job. There is no wrong black, no code to squint at on the underside of the box, and no danger of laying something faintly golden over something cool. So the interesting question about black cream is never which shade, it is how little you can sensibly spend on it.

My answer, after years of watching people buy carefully and then never open the tin, is that the cream should be cheap enough to use every fortnight and the brush should be the thing you invest in. Black leather does not need a clever product. It needs pigment for the creases, oil for the flex points, and somebody willing to spend ten minutes on a Sunday.

Fifty millilitres of pigmented black cream in shade 102, from our own Slitesterk range, meant to be opened often rather than admired.

Why choose this black cream pot 102?

• No shade to match, ever. Every other colour involves a decision, and half of those decisions are wrong. Black is exempt. Shade 102 goes onto brogues, Chelsea boots and school shoes with equal confidence, so one pot covers a household rather than one pair.
• Grey creases go properly black again. Black leather rarely fades evenly. What happens is that the flex lines across the toe turn chalky and grey while the rest of the shoe stays dark, and that contrast is what makes a pair read as old. The pigment here settles into exactly those lines and closes the gap.
• It reaches the stitching. A wide opening lets you get a dauber in, and a dauber drives colour down into the welt stitching and along the sole edge instead of skating over the top of it. Those two lines go pale first on a black shoe and get treated last.
• Wax comes with the pigment. This is not colour on its own. Once you have brushed it out there is a waxy film sitting over the leather, and that film is what turns the next shower into beads rather than dark spots. Winter grit finds it much harder to settle in as well.
• The oils go where the bending happens. Dry black leather cracks along the vamp first, because that is the part folding all day. What soaks in here keeps the fold soft, and soft leather creases instead of splitting, which decides whether a pair is worth reheeling or fit for the bin.
• Our own line, so using it is no hardship. A cream you are careful with is a cream that dries out unopened. This one is ours and costs less than a round of coffees, and I would rather you emptied it in a year than kept it tidy for five.

How to use the Slitesterk Black Cream Pot 102

Black hides your own work from you, which is the one genuine difficulty with it. So the routine below is deliberately mechanical: same order, same route round the shoe, every single time.

1. Brush the pair down hard, paying particular attention to the welt and heel.
2. Wipe each upper with a barely damp cloth, then stand them aside.
3. Load a dauber with far less black cream than your instinct suggests.
4. Start at the toe, then the vamp, both quarters, heel and tongue.
5. Leave the pair standing until the waxy surface hazes over very slightly.
6. Brush briskly all over, then bring up the toe caps by hand.

My tip as a shoe specialist

Pick one route round the shoe and never deviate from it. On a brown shoe you can see where the cream has been; on a black one you cannot, and a patch you have missed only shows up later as a dull area that will not take a shine. Mine runs toe, vamp, both quarters, heel, tongue, then the sole edge last, and I say the parts under my breath like a checklist. It sounds daft written down. It is also why I have stopped finding a bare heel counter halfway through buffing, which used to happen to me constantly.

Specifications

The essentials

• Pot size: 50ml with a screw lid
• Shade: 102 Black, a neutral black
• Formula: Pigmented cream with wax
• Works on: Smooth and grained black leather
• Not for: Suede, nubuck and patent leather
• Leave it: A quiet ten minutes
• Also gives: Water repellency and a shine
• Range: Slitesterk
• Price: £5.99

Frequently asked questions

Can it bring back a black that has gone grey?

On chalky creases and shallow rubs, yes, and often more completely than people expect from one application. Where black has worn through to the pale hide underneath at a toe or heel, lay a black dye in first and use this over the top.

Is it safe on a patent toe cap?

No, keep it off anything lacquered. Patent wants nothing more than a damp cloth, and a wax cream will only leave a cloudy film across the shine that is then a nuisance to get off again.

How is this different from your black beeswax polish?

Different jobs entirely, despite the shared colour code. The beeswax polish is there to build a hard shine on top; this pot goes underneath it, feeding the leather and putting colour back into the creases.

Where can I buy a black cream pot 102 in the UK?

Shoespecialist.co.uk is where to get it, with dispatch the same afternoon on anything in by 5pm. Once your basket clears £50 the delivery is on us, there is a 60-day return window, and shade questions are always welcome.