Your Best Safety boots – How To Get More Wear From Your Safety Footwear With these Money Saving Techniques
Safety Boots- They are a necessity on the job site and you’ve dropped the money to buy a good pair that will protect your feet and allow you to do your complete your job without safety concerns. Like all quality footwear, the integrity of the safety boot and the lifespan of your boots depends on the care you take to keep them in great shape. Our jobs keep us busy enough, so why not use these five quick, time saving techniques, to save you money by breathing extra life into your boots.
1. Choose the Right Fit Safety Boot for Your Foot
Spending ten minutes extra at the store when you purchase your safety boots to try them on and walk around in them will save you the time and agony of buying a pair of boots that you have to ‘work in’. Wear a pair of socks that you would normally wear to work when you go to the store to buy safety boots. When in the store, try on BOTH boots and walk around. Your boots should feel comfortable right off the bat. Now is not the time to pick your boots based on price. A good pair of boots, if taken care of properly will last much longer and give you much more comfort than a pair that is on sale which don’t fit the way you want them to. In the long run, you will save yourself time and money by buying the right pair of boots from the start.
2. Rotate Your Safety Boots
If you have a second pair of safety boots, a good trick is to alternate wearing each set of footwear. The logic behind this follows the logic of marathon runners who alternate their shoes in training. Whether you’re walking, or standing on a jobsite for hours at a time, or pounding pavement for miles on end, rotating between two pairs of safety boots will extend the life of your boots. One of the main reasons for this is because we sweat in our boots for hours on end. This moisture eats away at the insoles and leather of our boots. If you have the liberty to give your footwear a day to dry out before wearing it again will extend their lifespan.
3. Keep the Leather on Your Safety Boots Supple
Leather is a natural substance that dries out with time. Dryness in conjunction with wear patterns in the leather of your boots, breaks down the leather, leaving you with less stability in your safety boot. Be sure to cover your boot in a leather protectant, shoe protector moisturizing cream once a week. It can be purchased for less than ten dollars at any shoe store or department store. Spending two minutes to care for your safety boots will not only keep moisture in the leather, making your boots last longer.
4. Use a Neoprene Boot Cover in Muddy, Wet or Snowy Conditions
Wearing your safety boots is a must when it comes to protecting your safety and minimizing liability. Often times, our jobsite is indoors. We cannot wear our safety boots outside only to track mud, rain, dirt and snow inside to the jobsite. This is both unprofessional, and adds to the costs associated with cleaning up as well as the time spent on cleaning. In addition, when we pull our safety boots off and then jam our feet back into them to get it back and lace it up, this puts a lot of pressure on the heal of the safety boot and breaks down the leather in this area. A simple solution to save you the time and hassle of taking your boots off and putting them on continuously, or the liability of not wearing your safety boots at all while in a customer’s home is to use reusable neoprene boot covers. These boot covers slip over your safety boots, and are washable, reusable and durable. In addition they have a non-slip grip which will keep you from injury on the job site.
5. Keep Your Safety Boots Clean
Safety boot covers will keep your boots clean from the elements while walking indoors; but it is also important to keep your boots clean in general. Mud, snow and dirt get wedged into the grips on your sole. This compromises the traction of the sole, as it creates a flat surface rather than a ridged one. In addition to cleaning the soles of your safety boots, you should also wipe down the boot itself if you notice it covered in mud or snow. The mud will dry out the leather while the salt used in snowy conditions will eat away at it. Taking the minute to wipe your boots clean at the end of the work day is well worth your time when it comes to increasing the lifespan of your investment.
These five tips take no more than fifteen minutes; however they will increase the lifespan of your safety boots, and save you money in the long term.
