You have bought these spanking new boots, but they feel a bit tight and squeezy at the calf area. After wearing them for a few days, you have felt their effect on your blood circulation. They make your legs almost numb. You are almost at the point of discarding them. Don’t! In this article, I will show you how to stretch boot calves.
If you can stretch leather work boots to stop blistering your achilles, how simple would stretching boot calves be? Read on!
There are different ways to stretch boot calves. In this article, we shall look at a few ways so that you can decide what works best for you.
How can I stretch the calf of my boots with calf stretcher?
Table of Contents
This is the simplest method, and it works on almost all types of boots, including those with laces or zippers.
A word of caution though
For zippered boots, make sure they can withstand the rigor of stretching because you have to stretch the boots while zipped.
To use a calf stretcher, you will need:
- Calf stretcher
- A blow dryer (optional)
- Leather oil (optional)
Preparation
To get started, just zip up the boot, insert a calf stretcher into your boot and leave it there for a moment. The thin part of the stretcher goes down to the floor of the boot. The bigger/stretching part must be in the calf area.
Depending on how snug or tight the boot felt, you might decide to apply some oil that can get into the leather molecules and soften the fiber for easier stretching.
Prepare your blow dryer or hair dryer in readiness for heat provision. Heat can help leather to stretch faster.
Stretching
The stretcher has a wheel or a handle that you will need to twist to start stretching the calf. Keep adjusting the stretcher until you feel that it fits tightly in the calf. It should be as tight as possible, but not too tight as to break the boot.
Now leave the stretcher in the boot over night or for at least 2 hours if you did not apply oil or any stretching spray.
However, if you had used leather oil or a stretching spray, just keep checking and when the spray is dry, check whether the calf has stretched enough.
Spray the boots with stretching spray
The good thing with enlarging leather boots is that there are many products to try out. For example, you can use a stretching spray for your calf boots.
This spray works by softening the fibers of the leather and thereby making it easy to stretch. Read the instructions for use. When you spray the boots, wear a pair of thick socks, in fact, you can wear two and put on your boots.
Zip them completely and let the added thickness of the socks stretch the calf area of the boots as the stretching spray soaks. This method is mostly effective for boots that were just slightly snug.
Using leather conditioner and water
This is another of the effective methods for how to stretch boot calves. You just need a bucket full of water and a leather conditioner of choice.
This method requires a lot of patience and some perseverance since you will have to wear the boots while they are still wet. However, despite these “downsides,” this is a very effective method and it can also enlarge the toe area.
Fill a bucket with water to soak your boots completely. The leather conditioner works only when the boot is fully wet. Therefore, you can leave it in the water for a few minutes. The reason for wetting the entire boot and not only the calf part is that when it dries, it does not leave ugly watermarks.
Remove the boots from the water. Shake them a bit to get rid of the excess water. Wear a nice pair of thick socks and then wear the boots while they are still wet.
Wait until the boots are semi-dry and then while they are still on your feet, apply your leather conditioner using the provided brush or a piece of sponge. Wearing the boots while they are still wet enables them to conform to the shape of your calves.
Can a cobbler make boots wider?
The last option for how to stretch boot calves is to take them to a cobbler. You will pay a small charge but their work is very effective. A cobbler has all the tools needed to make boots wider not only in the calf region but in any other region as well. With special and more effective stretching machines, the cobbler will do a faster and more efficient job. If the boot has any other problem, let him know and he is going to repair it.