New military boots grind feet? This is probably a problem that most military boots enthusiasts can't avoid. The tough leather can't be very suitable when you first touch your feet. Why is this problem? How to deal with the situation of grinding feet?
Most full leather boots without a mouth will have foot rubbing. Blisters will appear on delicate foot bones, muscles and tendon because there is no soft mouth cushioning the edges of the cowhide to the skin, wearing boots and walking will lead to pain.
In order to prevent the grinding of the feet caused by rough leather edges, some military boots will have a soft mouth, usually made of wear-resistant artificial leather or lambskin, filled with soft things such as cotton or sponge, so that you can wear or walk don’t feel the resistance.
But for the problem of over-hardening and the pressing of the toe, we need other solutions. Here are some ways to adopt:
The first method is to protect your feet as much as possible, and then start walking more.
Put your new military boots on and walk to the kitchen and back a few times, and note the places where they rub – it's likely to be heels, the smallest and largest toe, and the sides of the foot that 'bump out' just a little, about where the little and big toes join the foot. Put padded blister plasters on those areas of the feet. Have spare blister plasters ready too, because they're likely to rub off and might need changing once or twice.
Put on a pair of thin socks, and then a thicker pair of socks over them.
Use a soft cloth to add Vaseline (Vaseline or other brand), baby oil or professional leather softening wax to the inside and outside of the leather upper of the boot. Note: some people believe that baby oil and/or petroleum jelly can damage the leather or the finish (e.g. patent leather). I have not encountered any problems using either one on new leather boots, including patent finishes, but if you have just spent $200 on a good pair of leather boots caution is advised and you might want to splash out the ten bucks or so for some specialist leather softener – the Doctor Martens brand does a good version with waxes that 'nourish' the leather.
Either wears the military boots after this and walk around in them – sitting around the house in them won't wear them in, so you have to walk in them for a while – or stuff them with socks and leave them somewhere warm. The second option won't fully break them in but will stretch them a little so that when you do come to wear them properly they won't be quite so painful.
When you're ready, wear them (complete with two pairs of socks and blister plasters as mentioned) and walk for as long as you can in them without causing yourself serious pain. Then remove them and while your feet are recovering, work some more petroleum jelly/baby oil/specialist leather wax into the inside and out, and then alternate wearing and walking in them with oiling or waxing them.
If your new boots are just too painful to wear, bending them first might help. After rubbing leather-softening wax/baby oil/petroleum jelly into the boots, stuff them with damp newspaper – and stuff them tight. Then set in a warm place for an hour. After an hour, bend the boot (still stuffed with newspaper) – bending the toe back as if you're trying to make it touch the front upper laces. Bend it backwards and forwards like this for a few minutes and then remove the newspaper and work some more oils or wax into the leather (again, inside and out), then re-stuff with damp newspaper, leave in a warm place for an hour and keep repeating the process. If you do this for a while every day for a couple of days, it will take a lot of the pain out of wearing them in, but you will still have to wear them and walk around in them before they properly would themselves to your foot shape.
This is some ways to reduce the grinding of the feet, people who are troubled can try it; maybe bring you a new wearing experience.
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