Exotic leather boot care

The short version: clean with a soft brush or a damp cloth, use a conditioner made for exotic skins rather than the mink oil in your cupboard, and rub it with the grain rather than against it. That last instruction is Ariat’s, it is specific to exotic boots, and it is the one most owners have never heard.

We have not tested any of this on a caiman boot, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What this page does is set out what the boot makers and the conditioner makers publish for exotic skins, explain what is different about each material, and name the products that are actually formulated for them. The method is in how we research.

Why exotic skins are a different job

Ordinary boot leather is a continuous grain surface: you can work a product across it in any direction and it behaves the same way everywhere. Exotic skins are not continuous, and that is the whole reason they need different handling.

Ostrich is defined by its quill follicles - the raised bumps where the feathers were. Those bumps are also small wells, and anything you put on the boot collects in them. A product that dries in the follicle leaves a pale ring around every quill, which is why the instruction to wipe the excess off matters more here than on a plain leather boot.

Caiman, alligator and crocodile are plates with hinges between them. The plate surface is hard and takes very little product; the hinge lines flex every step and are where the boot eventually cracks. The conditioning that matters on these boots happens in the seams between scales, not on the shiny tops.

Snake, python and lizard are overlapping scales that all lie in one direction. Work against that direction and you lift the scale edges; once lifted, they catch on everything and they do not lie back down. This is the material where Ariat’s with-the-grain rule stops being a refinement and becomes the difference between a cared-for boot and a ruined one.

What the makers publish

Sources: Ariat’s cowboy boot cleaning guide, the Bickmore Exotic product page and the Angelus exotic conditioner page. Note what is missing across all three: nobody publishes a coverage figure, and nobody publishes a conditioning interval specific to exotic skins. Ariat’s three- and six-month figures are for cleaning cowboy boots generally, and we are not going to re-label them as an exotic schedule they were not written for.

The method, step by step

1. 01

   Get the dirt off dry first

   A soft brush, or a cloth barely damp with water. On ostrich, brush around the quills rather than scrubbing across them; on scaled skins, brush in the direction the scales lie. Nothing abrasive goes near an exotic boot - the crepe erasers and brass brushes that work on suede and nubuck will damage a scale edge.

2. 02

   Let them dry away from heat

   Ariat is explicit: never direct heat, because it causes cracking, and on a scaled skin the cracks appear at the hinge lines first. Air dry away from sun and radiators. The same rule governs drying any wet boot, and it matters more here because the repair bill is higher.

3. 03

   Test the conditioner somewhere hidden

   Bickmore’s own instruction is to check for colorfastness in a hidden spot before using. On a dyed exotic skin that is not boilerplate - the finish on a caiman boot is a surface treatment, and it is the part a solvent would lift.

4. 04

   Apply it with the grain, and wipe the excess

   Bickmore says to spray liberally while using a cloth to wipe off the excess. Combine that with Ariat’s direction rule: work with the grain, into the hinge lines on caiman and around the follicles on ostrich, then take the surplus off rather than letting it dry in the low spots.

5. 05

   Let it dry, then buff

   A soft horsehair brush or a clean cloth. Buffing is what evens out the finish on a scaled skin, and it is where the boots stop looking treated and start looking cared for.

6. 06

   Protect, if the boots go outside

   Bickmore recommends applying its Gard-More after conditioning for extra protection and waterproofing. That is the maker’s own pairing, and on a boot that will meet rain or road salt it is worth doing - preventing salt stains is far easier than removing them from an exotic skin.

Material by material

Ostrich. The follicles are the whole problem and the whole appeal. Apply less than you think, work around the quills rather than flooding them, and wipe thoroughly - a boot with dried conditioner ringing every follicle looks worse than one that was never treated. Full-quill ostrich only has that pattern on part of the boot; the smooth ostrich leg or the plain vamp behind it is ordinary leather and can be treated normally.

Caiman and alligator. Concentrate on the hinges. The scale tops are hard, take very little and buff up easily; the flexible lines between them are where the boot moves and where it dries out. Caiman in particular is often sold with a high-gloss finish, which is a surface treatment rather than the skin itself - test anything you put on it first, and stop if the cloth picks up color.

Snake, python and lizard. One direction only. Work from the head end toward the tail - the way the scales lie flat - and never scrub back against them. If a scale edge has already lifted, conditioning it and leaving it to dry flat under gentle pressure is the most anyone can honestly promise; there is no published method from any maker we can find for re-seating a lifted scale, and we are not going to invent one.

Stingray and elephant. Both are extremely hard-wearing and both are listed by Bickmore’s exotic conditioner. Stingray’s bead surface resists almost everything, which also means product sits on top of it rather than soaking in - wipe the excess or it dries as a haze.

What to buy

Two products are formulated specifically for these skins and are currently available, and both do the cleaning and the conditioning in one pass rather than asking you to buy two bottles.

Bickmore Exotic names the widest list of skins - alligator, crocodile, caiman, snake, lizard, ostrich and elephant - publishes full directions including the colorfastness test, and tells you to follow it with its own Gard-More for protection. It is the one we would buy first, and the honest downside is that Bickmore publishes no ingredient list and no coverage figure, so you cannot work out what a bottle treats before you own it.

Angelus Exotic/Reptile Conditioner is the cheaper 8 oz alternative, aimed at the same job, with reptile, lizard, ostrich, snake, alligator and eel named on the maker’s page. Its honest downside is documentation: Angelus publishes what it is for and what it does, but no directions we could source, so you are applying it on general principles rather than a published method.

Bickmore Gard-More is here because the exotic conditioner’s own maker recommends it as the follow-up step, not because we independently rank it above every protector. Its downside is that Bickmore publishes no composition or coverage figure for it either.

A horsehair brush is the fourth item and the one you will use most. Soft enough not to scar a finish, and the right tool for both the dry-brushing step and the buff at the end.

What we would not buy for these boots: anything sold as a heavy waterproofing dressing, anything containing mink oil, and saddle soap, which is a cleaner for ordinary tack leather rather than a finished exotic skin.

Storage, which matters more on exotic boots than anything else

A caiman or ostrich boot that folds over at the ankle creases across the scale plates, and that crease is permanent in a way it is not on plain leather. Stand them upright with shapers or trees in the shaft, keep them out of direct sun - dyed exotic skins fade - and give them a day between wears so any moisture in the lining has gone before they go back in the closet.

The same storage logic as the rest of the site applies, just with more at stake: cedar trees and boot shapers hold the shaft, and a boot that never fully dries between wears is a boot that will start to smell regardless of what it is made of.

What we could not source

Three gaps worth stating, because they affect how confident this page can be. Nobody publishes a conditioning interval for exotic skins specifically - Ariat gives cleaning intervals for cowboy boots generally and neither conditioner maker gives one at all. Nobody publishes a coverage figure. And no maker we can read publishes a method for repairing a lifted scale or a cracked hinge line, which is the failure mode owners actually write in about.

For those, the honest answer is a boot maker or a cobbler who works on exotics rather than a website. What this page can tell you is what the people who make the products say, which is more than the category usually offers.

If your boots are ordinary leather

Most cowboy boots are not exotic, and the routine for those is different in one important way: you can use the mainstream conditioners this site ranks, and you do not have to worry about the direction you rub them. Cowboy boot care is the four-step version for plain leather, and the conditioner roundup ranks what to put on them.