Leather care · 7 min read
How to Care for a Leather Bag (Without Ruining It)
Four products, twenty minutes, twice a year. Everything else people sell you for leather care is optional.
Marcus Adeyemi — Co-founder, leather · May 14, 2026
Full-grain and top-grain leather is skin. It wants two things: to stay clean and to keep a little of its oil. Almost every ruined bag we see has been over-treated, not under-treated — soaked in mink oil, scrubbed with saddle soap meant for tack, or dried next to a radiator after a rain.
Here is the entire routine we give customers, and the only one we follow on our own bags.
What you actually need
- A dry cotton cloth for weekly dust — nothing else, no water
- A pH-neutral leather cleaner for twice-yearly cleaning
- A light, non-darkening conditioner (lanolin or beeswax based)
- A horsehair brush for hardware seams and edge paint
The twice-a-year routine
Empty the bag and brush the seams out. Wipe the whole exterior with a barely damp cloth and let it dry at room temperature for an hour — never in sun, never with heat.
Apply conditioner with a cloth in thin circles, one coat only. If the leather looks glossy or feels tacky, you used too much; buff it back with a dry cloth. Let it rest overnight before you load it again.
If it gets soaked
Blot, don't rub. Stuff the bag loosely with paper to hold its shape and let it dry slowly away from any heat source. Once fully dry, condition once. Water spotting evens out within a few weeks of normal use — it is not damage.
What to never do
- No mink oil or neatsfoot oil on our top-grain lines — they darken unevenly and soften the structure
- No baby wipes, alcohol, or household cleaner
- No hair dryers, radiators, or direct sun
- No plastic bags for storage — leather needs air; use the cotton dust bag it shipped in
A note on honesty
We sell bags, so read this with that in mind. Everything above is what we tell friends who ask, and most of it costs nothing. If a cheaper bag does the job for how you carry, buy the cheaper bag.
