How to Clean Suede Shoes at Home: 5 Easy Steps to Keep Them Looking New

Once reserved for women’s gloves and luxury accessories, suede has evolved into a staple of modern footwear, particularly in shoes.

From Elvis Presley’s iconic “Blue Suede Shoes” to today’s runways and red carpets, suede shoes remain a stylish favorite, known for their soft texture and timeless appeal.

Whether you’re dressing up or down, they effortlessly elevate any outfit — but keeping them clean is a different story.

Kiwi shoe care essentials for suede and nubuck: brush, cleaning cloth, and Stain & Rain Protector spray

Owning a pair of neat suede shoes comes with a few caveats, though. The most obvious disadvantage of suede shoes becomes apparent the moment they get dirty, either due to a rainy day or an accidental step on some mud.

They’re just not as easy to maintain as your regular leather shoes. Fortunately, with some proper tools and equipment, you can keep your suede shoes clean and neat in no time.

What You’ll Need to Clean Suede Shoes Properly

With suede shoes, you can’t just brush, wax, and shine the dirt away until they’re clean like your typical leather shoes. Instead, you’ll need some special tools to help you out.

Here’s a quick list of the things you’ll need, as well as a short description of what they do:

1. Use a Soft Terry Cloth to Apply Cleanser

While it won’t do the cleaning by itself, the terry cloth rag will help apply the cleanser that helps remove dirt from your suede shoes. You can use other kinds of cloth, too, if you don’t have terry cloth available.

2. Choose a Gentle Cleanser Made for Suede

You’ll need a cleanser to clean and polish your suede shoes. Be sure to get a mild cleanser, as more potent cleansers may damage the suede, and you wouldn’t want that at all.

Gently brushing dirt from a suede shoe with a cleaning brush

3. Target Stubborn Stains with a Suede Eraser or Cleaning Stone

The cleanser will do a lot of work if you’ve got a filthy pair of shoes, but oftentimes that won’t be enough. That’s where the cleaning stone comes in – it’ll get rid of any remaining dirt for you.

4. Restore Texture with a Suede Brush

You’ll also need a specialized suede brush if you want to make your suede shoes look good as new.

5. Protect Your Suede with a Water-Repellent Finish

This isn’t strictly necessary, but water-repellent sprays are great for making your suede shoes more resistant to water damage, so you won’t have to clean them as often in the future.

If you’re missing some or all of the things you’ll need from the list above, you can either head to your local department store or buy them online via Amazon. Now that we know what to prepare, it’s time to get cleaning.

Step 1: Apply Cleanser to Your Cloth

Apply a generous amount of cleanser to the rag. Not too much that it’ll potentially cause damage to your shoe, but not too little that the cleanser won’t be as effective in removing the dirt from your suede shoes.

Kiwi Suede and Nubuck Stain Eraser, $12.99 on Amazon

Don’t worry about it too much the first time you clean, though – you’ll find the perfect amount sooner or later.

For really tough stains like salt, food, or wine, you can try cleaning gently with a little white vinegar on a clean cloth. Let the vinegar dry before rubbing it with a suede brush.

Another household product you can try is baking soda. Just sprinkle it on the stained suede and rub it off with a soft brush when dry.

Step 2: Gently Clean the Suede with the Cloth

Apply the cleanser onto your shoes using the rag. Again, practice moderation – don’t linger too long on any given spot, but don’t just run past the whole surface of the shoe in one fell swoop. Be sure to provide every single inch of the suede with a good rubbing.

Step 3: Use a Suede Cleaning Stone for Stubborn Dirt

To thoroughly remove every speck of dirt from your suede shoes, use a cleaning stone to complete the job that the cleanser started. Rub the stone on the shoe to remove the dirt. Just be sure to rub in one direction.

If you don’t, you’ll end up shuffling the dirt back and forth in your shoe instead of getting rid of it. Think of the stone as a broom, and that you’ll need to sweep in one direction to get the job done.

Step 4: Brush the Suede to Restore Its Nap

With all that rubbing from the terry cloth rag and the cleaning stone, the nap of your suede will most likely end up looking uneven and messy.

To fix that, you’ll need the specialized suede brush to get the fuzzy surface of the suede uniform in one direction.

Brushing a suede shoe to restore its nap, as demonstrated by Nordstrom

Ensure that the direction remains consistent throughout the entire shoe.

Step 5: Protect Your Suede Shoes with Water-Repellent Spray

Finally, a little bit of insurance. You’re done cleaning your suede shoes at this point, but if you want to go the extra mile (and save yourself the trouble of future cleaning in the process), you’ll want to do this next step.

Get your can of water-repellent spray and spray it uniformly on your suede shoes, applying it evenly.

Aquatalia Vladimir suede ankle boots, showcasing their rich texture

Final Thoughts: Suede Care Made Simple

Overall, the entire process shouldn’t take too long, and it’s easy enough for even beginners to pull off. If you’d rather see a visual demonstration of the whole thing, Nordstrom’s got a great minute-long video that you can watch below.

Nordstrom’s expert demonstration on cleaning and restoring suede shoes

While maintaining suede shoes may be a challenge for many, following simple steps and techniques can help keep your suede shoes in optimal condition.

All you need is a small set of tools and a few minutes of your own time to keep your shoes good as new. Just be like Elvis and don’t let people step on you.

Suede Style Inspiration

Now that you know how to keep your suede shoes clean and protected, why not explore how your favorite celebrities wear them? From polished pumps to edgy wedge booties, suede shoes continue to make a stylish statement season after season.