How to care for hand-painted sneakers

A hand-painted pair is a different animal from a factory sneaker. The leather is the same. The paint is not. Treated well, an Angelus-painted pair holds its colour for years and ages into the kind of object you keep in a glass case after retirement. Treated like a gym shoe, it will let you down inside a season.

This is how the studio recommends you care for the pair we just shipped you.

Day one — before you wear them out

Before your first wear, do nothing. The pair has already been sealed in our studio with multiple thin coats of Angelus finisher, flexed, and quality-checked. You do not need to add another sealant, polish, or protectant on top. Adding the wrong product can react with the finisher and cloud the design.

Lace them, photograph them, wear them. The first wear is the one you remember.

Cleaning — the only routine you need

For day-to-day cleanliness, less is more.

Dust and dry dirt. A soft microfiber cloth, dry. Wipe in long strokes, not circles.
Surface marks. A barely-damp microfiber, distilled or filtered water only. No tap water residue, no soap.
Stubborn stains on midsole or outsole. A soft toothbrush and a drop of mild detergent — but only on the midsole. Never on the painted upper.

What to never do.

Never use a magic eraser, melamine sponge, or anything abrasive on the painted area. It will lift the topcoat and strip pigment.
Never put hand-painted sneakers in a washing machine. Ever.
Never use shoe cleaners that contain acetone, alcohol, or any solvent. Read the back of the bottle.

If the pair has had a hard wear, wipe it down within twenty-four hours. Dirt that sits dries into the finisher and gets harder to lift cleanly.

The Mumbai monsoon question

The single most asked question we get. Can you wear them in the rain.

The honest answer — they are sealed against light splash and sweat, but they are not waterproof footwear. Hand-painted leather sneakers are not the right pair for wading through a flooded street. They are the right pair for the meet-up, the photo, the night out, the gallery opening.

If you get caught out.

Get them off your feet as soon as you can dry-walk in them.
Dab — do not rub — with a clean microfiber cloth.
Stuff with unprinted paper or shoe trees and air-dry away from direct sun or a heater.
Once fully dry, inspect for any pigment movement. If you spot a soft patch, stop wearing and message the studio.

Storage

The pair will outlive its wear cycle if you store it the way you would store a piece of art.

Original box, with the dust bag we shipped, in a cupboard out of direct sunlight.
Avoid plastic-sealed containers. Leather needs to breathe and trapped humidity is what grows mould in a Mumbai cupboard.
Use the shoe trees or tissue stuffing to hold the silhouette. A collapsed toe box cracks paint at the flex point.
Rotate. If you wear the same custom pair every day, the leather fatigues and the paint fatigues with it.

Travel

Pack them in the dust bag, inside the box, inside soft luggage. Never check them into the hold loose. Cabin baggage if at all possible. If you are showing them at an event, carry a clean microfiber in your bag for a quick pre-show wipe.

When to send them back to the studio

Every Sneak Peek pair ships with a one-time complimentary touch-up window. If, within the first ninety days of normal wear, you spot a hairline crack at a flex point or a scuff on a high-impact panel, message us. We will assess, and if it is something the studio caused, we fix it on us.

Beyond the ninety-day window, we still take touch-ups as a paid service. The original artwork stays on file, the same artist who painted the pair handles the touch-up wherever possible, and we ship it back sealed and ready.

What we do not do — re-paint a pair into a new design. Each edition is 1-of-1. Once it is retired, it is retired. That is the whole point.

The summary

Wear them. Wipe them. Store them like the piece of work they are. Avoid solvents, machines, and storms. Send them home for a tune-up if they need one.

If you are still researching and have not commissioned your pair yet, start a commission brief and we will walk you through the process. If you already own a pair and have a specific care question, message the studio at hello@sneakpeek.shoes.

— The Sneak Peek studio