How do you stretch tight leather shoes?
Are your shoes a little small or do they pinch your feet in certain spots? Then in that case a shoe stretcher might be the solution! Normally, people would drop off their shoes at the local shoe cobbler, but it is nice to have control over the stretching process so you can stretch your shoes exactly to the point you find them comforable.
Shoe stretcher guide
A short guide on how to properly stretch your leather shoes
Leather stretch spray
Get the shoes you want to stretch ready by using a leather stretch spray such as Tarrago expander spray. Spray Tarrago expander on the painful areas of your shoes. Spray mainly the inside of the shoes, but give the outside a light spritz as well for good measure.
Stretching your shoes
Place the shoe stretcher with attachments of choice into your shoes. The attachments can be easily pressed into the holes on the shoe stretcher. This way you can put extra pressure on tight spots on the shoes.
Give the shoe trees 12 hours or let them do their thing overnight to stretch the leather. We recommend using only light tension during the first round of stretching and increasing the tension each round.
Too much tension at once can potentially damage the shoe stretcher and the shoes.
Shoe trees vs shoe stretchers
You’ve probably come across both terms on our website before. At first glance, a shoe tree and a shoe stretcher might seem like the same thing, but they actually serve very different purposes.
A shoe tree is designed to keep your shoes in shape. It adds gentle tension to prevent creasing, but it won’t stretch the leather. You can read more about this in our shoe tree guide.
A shoe stretcher, on the other hand, is made to expand shoes that feel too tight. It puts much more pressure on the leather than a shoe tree does, helping create extra room where you need it most.
Shoe trees
Shoe stretchers