In general, we recommend oiling your boots before wearing to ease any stiffness, and about once a month going forward to protect your boots, and keep them nice and soft. This periodic oiling should be determined "to the touch," so if your fingers feel oily after touching the leather, stop oiling. If they feel dry, you probably need to oil them. Depending on your work/living environments this can vary. For extremely hot and dry climates, you may need to increase how often you condition your boots.

Keep in mind that over-oiling causes the boots to rot and under-oiling causes them to feel papery and crack; find a balance. It's real animal skin. Like lotion on your hands. You'll be able to feel what is right. 

• Oil about once a month "to the touch"
• Too Much Oil: boots will rot overtime
• Not Enough Oil: boots will harden and crack overtime

As already mentioned, leather oil is essential to keeping your boots in proper working order because they are made from real animal hides, which will change over time. As you wear your boots, they should form to your feet and get more and more comfortable with wear. Properly oiled boots feel amazing because they are soft, will mold to your feet more readily, and flex and more freely as you work. The leather we use is the thickest in the industry (8-9oz for our classic JK line), so you want them to work for you and not against you because they got dry and stiff. 

Oiling your boots will also keep your feet safe, by reinforcing the leather's barrier from foreign chemicals, water, and cracks which could let foreign debris in. Listed below are some of the ways oil will protect and restore your boots, to ultimately make your boots last as long as possible.

• Prevent cracks and scuffs
• Repels chemicals, water, salt, and manure acids
• Resists bacteria, mildew, and mold
• Restores sun-faded leather
• Softens dry and stiff leather
• Eases any "break-in" process

*This can vary based off of type of oil* 

Your boots arrive to you water resistant because of the quality of the oil tanned leather we use, which naturally repels water, and stitched down watertight construction. Water will not get into your boots unless they are soaked for extended periods of time, allowing water to literally penetrate through the membrane of leather.

If you are exposed to wet conditions/snow/mud they can be further waterproofed using our Leather Preservative and waterproofing spray. Check out our full video explanation here.