Stain in my shoe!

Tunawife and I have recently started to wear barefoot shoes. Blah blah zero drop, blah blah toebox. It's all good. That's not the issue. I bought a pair of black Groundies Milanos for work and they are great.

I then tried to buy a blue pair for casual use, and found some on sale on Amazon because they stopped making the blue ones. They look sweet, like this:

They are real leather. Super comfy. 

Tunakid #1 is working on a Mandalorian costume. I walked through the garage, which is apparently equal parts his now, and got a glob of black paint right on the toe of one of them. I tried to get it off with water. Then I tried all purpose cleaner. Then I threw the Google at it. I used, without any success at all, and in a semi-random order, vinegar, stain remover, dish soap, baking soda, and probably several other things. Now they are a splotchy mess instead of a small black glob. It's like a harlequin (the terrible birth defect, not the playful VW color scheme) version of a blue shoe.

How do I reset? I mean, at one point it was a bare piece of leather and then was dyed blue. How do I go back and start over? I think dyeing it (and the other pair to match) is within my reach, but how do I get it back to zero?

Is the answer, "Dye both to a much darker color?"

After watching exactly four million shoe restoration videos on YouTube, turpentine seems to be the solvent of choice to remove shoe dye. That's on dress shoes, though, so I'm not sure how it'll work with a more natural grain leather. I've also seen mention of acetone to do the same, but it can damage the leather if left on too long. 

What kind of paint got on the shoe?  Mineral spirits should be gentler than either of the above, if you haven't tried that yet. 

My guess (and it is a guess) is that you can get to black, but trying to evenly undo everything else that happened would be much more difficult.

Before they were blue, they were probably all one color. Now any process, whether cleaning, bleaching, or dyeing, will be working on everything there. Going dark enough to hide everything avoids most of that.

My knowledge consists of several years of bleaching my hair, then dyeing it red, then purple, then black, they shaving it off and starting over.

One other thought: there's paint and there's dye. That's not to say the paint didn't leak pigment down into the leather, but it started out as a layer of colored material on top of the leather. After all those solvents it may be way deeper now, but can you make a tiny test cut or shaving to see if you can remove the blackened surface layer?

I wonder if you could get specific advice from a cobbler or some place that does leather goods.

My thinking goes like this:

What kind of paint?

Before it dries, go after paint with an appropriate solvent.

After it dries, all the options become less optimal.

Another line of thinking goes like this:

Buy a new pair.  Keep these for when you need to walk through the garage, and other potentially dirty endeavors.

Edit:  Barefoot shoes totally rock.  The unwashed masses are oblivious.

1988RedT2 said:

My thinking goes like this:

What kind of paint?

Before it dries, go after paint with an appropriate solvent.

After it dries, all the options become less optimal.

 

Another line of thinking goes like this:

Buy a new pair.  Keep these for when you need to walk through the garage, and other potentially dirty endeavors.

They don't sell them anymore in blue (or any color with the light sole)

We use brake cleaner to take oil based stain off objects at work but never tried it on leather.  Good luck 

TL;DW

Acetone didn't work.

Isopropyl alcohol didn't work

What next?

If acetone doesn't work, and you still have a shoe, the only things left to try are more exotic and dangerous chemicals like MEK...the good news is that if the shoes survived contact with acetone they should survive most any solvent out there.

tuna55 said:

What next?

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

Oh, I'm sorry.  I posted a pic of a belt sander.  Should have been a shoe sander. 

Sorry, couldn't resist. 

Since paint sticks to the shoe so well I'd recommend looking for a paint of the same type and brand that spilled on the shoe in a matching color, and painting the affected shoe.

BTW after watching your videos, that part where you doused the toe of the shoe in acetone would've caused most glued-on shoe soles to separate, these appear to be stitched on which is uncommon for anything but skate shoes these days.

GameboyRMH said:

Since paint sticks to the shoe so well I'd recommend looking for a paint of the same type and brand that spilled on the shoe in a matching color, and painting the affected shoe.

BTW after watching your videos, that part where you doused the toe of the shoe in acetone would've caused most glued-on shoe soles to separate, these appear to be stitched on which is uncommon for anything but skate shoes these days.

Yes they are all stitched together, they are a really nice leather shoe, and I want to save them!

Does shoe paint look right? I've never heard of such a thing. I know you were joking, but it appears to be an actual product.

https://www.amazon.com/Angelus-Leather-Paint-Set-12/dp/B01MFGALN9

Actually at this point I was half-joking at most...I seriously think painting the shoe could be worth a try.

GameboyRMH said:

If acetone doesn't work, and you still have a shoe, the only things left to try are more exotic and dangerous chemicals like MEK...the good news is that if the shoes survived contact with acetone they should survive most any solvent out there.

There's always CTF :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine_trifluoride

GameboyRMH said:

Actually at this point I was half-joking at most...I seriously think painting the shoe could be worth a try.

I think that's where I am heading. I'll do another attempt with whichever thing removed the most from the toe, and do the other shoe, then paint them both and hope for the best. They have a color which looks pretty similar anyway.

How many weeks of Tunakid's allowance would it take to buy a new pair of shoes?

SV reX said:

How many weeks of Tunakid's allowance would it take to buy a new pair of shoes?

They were $55 on sale from a normal $110 or something, and they are no longer available in this size/color etc. I'm OK on that, though eagerly accepting donations for truck primer.

Well, that is seriously blue.

So.. is that following shoe paint.?

classicJackets (FS) said:

So.. is that following shoe paint.?

Yes. I am going to apply a topcoat which will kill the shiny a bit, but I dig the color.

1988RedT2 said:

Well, that is seriously blue.

BLUE!