Why you should never wear leather-soled dress shoes in the rain (2024)

Leather and water don't mix.

While leather shoes won't exactly get ruined in the rain, you should still be careful when wet weather hits.

Yes, shoes are obviously made to be worn, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take a few precautions to safeguard your investment.

The best way to protect your leather shoes are to own a pair of rubber galoshes, or overshoes. They fit over your shoes and work spectacularly well to make sure your feet and shoes stay dry. Keep a pair at home and a pair in your desk drawer case of a sudden downpour.

The best galoshes you can buy are Swims, but if spending nearly $100 on a shoe that isn't even really a shoe isn't for you, there are plenty of cheaper options onAmazon.

Many guys don't realize that some of their fancier (and more expensive) dress shoes often come with leather soles. And while leather soles do provide great traction and a classy appearance, wearing them in the rain can ruin them.

Here's why, as pointed out by style blog PutThisOn:

• Leather soaks up water like a sponge. Just like your skin, leather needs a certain amount of moisture to stay strong and supple. But this amount of water can damage the leather, and make it break down prematurely.
• After your soles get wet, your socks will instantly get soaked. It goes without saying that wet socks arealways unpleasant.
• When leather is wet, it's much more easily damaged.You wouldn't want a chunk or two taken out of your expensive leather shoes just because they got wet.

How can you avoid these footwear catastrophes? Simple: wear rubber.

PutThisOn recommends Danite Rubber soles, which retain the sleek profile of leather butcan take a beating even when wet. A shoe like Allen Edmonds' University Wingtipcomes with Danite soles, but any cobbler can also resole any recraftable dress shoe with a rubber sole.

If you do end up wearing your leather-soled dress shoes in rain, stuff some newspaper or stick them in rice to soak up the moisture and allow them to dry before wearing them again.

Basically: in the game of "leather, rubber, water," water beats leather. But rubber beats water.