If you’ve found that your leather shoes are too small, you can easily stretch them at home with leather shoe stretching spray. Leather shoes will stretch out on their own the more you wear them, but shoe stretching spray is designed to speed up that process. This saves you from ever having to break in a new pair of leather shoes. The sprays can be purchased at any shoe repair store or shoe department.

Most shoe sprays are alcohol-based. This allows the shoes to dry fast, which limits the damage to the condition, softness and sheen of your shoes. It also prevents the shoe from developing watermarks as it dries.

Shoe stretching spray loosens the leather and allows it to stretch. All leather stretches if it is worn when wet, but this method can cause the shoes to be misshapen and can change the sheen of the leather. leather stretching spray gets the shoes just wet enough to stretch without damaging them and contains conditioners to keep the leather soft.

Leather shoe stretching spray is an adaptation of liquid shoe stretchers. It is easier to apply as it does not require a cloth to spread it inside the shoe. Simply spray the inside of the shoe, slip on a pair of socks and walk around your house for a few hours.

If used alone, shoe stretching spray can stretch leather shoes one-half of a size. You can maximize the results by using a wooden shoe stretcher in addition to the spray. Wooden shoe stretchers are adjustable wooden shoe forms that fit inside a leather shoe and stretch it from the inside. If a spray is used with a wooden shoe stretcher, the leather shoe can be stretched one and a half sizes.

Most shoe stretching sprays can be used for many different types of leather, including patent, suede or nubuck. Some sprays, however, are meant to be used with only a certain type of leather. Shoe stretching sprays can be used to stretch all types of leather items including leather gloves, hats or the straps of leather purses. Leather shoe stretching spray is particularly helpful to stretch the calf section of women’s boots.