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Two pairs of wooden shoe trees with brass knobs rest on a light surface, showcasing their cedar wood grain.

Bulk discount on our shoe trees

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A person holds shoe polish jars at a wooden table with brown leather shoes, shoe brushes, a cloth, and several polish containers arranged neatly. The scene suggests a shoe care or polishing setup.

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How to stretch tight leather shoes?

A short guide on how to properly stretch your leather shoes
A white bottle of Tarrago shoe expander stands centered against a light background, with a silver cap and a label featuring a square border and three downward-pointing droplet icons.
Step 1.

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.

A cedar wood shoe tree lies on its side, featuring a brass knob and joints. A black arrow points to a hole on the right.
Step 2.

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.

Two pairs of wooden shoe trees with golden knobs on a neutral surface, with focus on the texture of the wood.

Shoe trees

Wooden shoe stretcher for shoes

Shoe stretchers

Use the left and right arrow keys to navigate between before and after photos.