Restore original color on old leather shoes. How?

[Danne]

Some 20 years ago I bought a pair of brown leather shoes. They're still going strong (!) and I really like them.

But a couple of years after purchase, I ran out of brown shoe cream and started using my black cream instead. And have been doing that ever since, which I deepoly regret today since they're now 95% black with a few black/brown streaks.

I want the brown color back. How can I do this "professionally"?

Anyone?

 

[moltoelegante]

You can strip the color from the leather with acetone. Not very fun. Takes several hours and better to do it outdoors to prevent breathing the strong fumes. Once you have stripped enough color from the shoe that it is a fairly even light color, you can apply a leather dye in stages. There are a few Youtube videos about this type of project which might be helpful. I have re-dyed a few pairs of shoes with great success following these steps but it was time consuming.