Don't Make This Mistake: Cleaning Nubuck and Suede on Strawberry Cough Nike Dunks

We Couldn’t Hide It: Our Dirty Strawberry Cough Secret

Welcome back to another episode of Shoe Care Academy.

Yes, yes….we know we’re a few days late. But today Pretty Boy Rob is going to be teaching us how to clean one of the more popular 420 inspired sneakers out there, the Strawberry Cough Nike Dunks. 

This shoe is made up of a plethora of unique materials, including suede, velour, leather, nubuck and mesh…so it could prove quite the challenge to clean. 

Spoiler alert: This one definitely gave us some trouble…

These joints are looking pretty beat up though. Luckily, the Reshoevn8r Signature Shoe Cleaning Kit has the good stuff we need to bring these back to life. 

Let’s get rid of that nasty cough. 

Only The Best

First things first, we need to remove the laces and insert our Adjustable Shoe Tree. Once you’ve adjusted your shoe tree to size, go ahead and slap that thing in there so that we can get a good clean on the toe box area of this pair. 

Rob started this clean by dry brushing the shoes with the Soft Bristle Brush (found in our Three Brush Pack) to remove the loose dirt and grime from the surface. This is always a good idea because it’ll keep us from pushing some of the dirt deeper into the material later when we introduce our water and cleaning solution. 

After a good dry brush, Rob got to work with the Soft Bristle Brush and our Reshoevn8r Cleaning Solution. 

Because our Cleaning Solution is super concentrated, you should only need to use two squirts in your bowl of water. 

Rob cleaned the uppers, tongue, sockliner, and toe area of the shoe with the Soft Bristle Brush, and then moved on to our Medium Bristle Brush to clean the midsole. 

Once the midsoles are to your liking, go ahead and move on to the Stiff Bristle Brush for the outsole. This will allow you to clean the deep grooves of the outsole on your own pair of Nike Dunks.

Our Bad

With the cleaning out of the way, Rob put these out in the Arizona sun to dry…only to find that we made a grave mistake.

UH-OH. 

Okay, okay, it’s not a big deal. But we oversaturated the toe box, which caused the material to bleed a little bit. As we said, this pair of Strawberry Cough Dunks has some pretty finicky materials on it, and it came back to bite us in the butt.

Do-Over

So now we’re going to do something we don’t do very often in these videos, show some love to the left shoe. After the slight mistake, Rob wanted to redeem himself and see if we can’t figure out how to properly clean this pair without damaging the nubuck on the toe. 

Going through the same process as before, but being extra careful to avoid oversaturation of the toe area with water and solution, the shoe came out looking much better than our first attempt. 

Now you (and we) know, the material on the toe of the Strawberry Cough Nike Dunks is very, very delicate. It’s probably a better idea to protect this area first with our Water and Stain Repellent, rather than try to clean it after the fact. 

Redemption

Sins confessed and mistakes aside, we can continue the cleaning by focusing on the beautiful long-hair suede. Using the Brass Bristle Brush, Rob was able to reset the nap of the suede, and then used our Mink Oil and new Horse Hair Brush to bring back its bright rich green hue. 

As a side note, our Mink Oil also acts as a leather conditioner, so it’s okay to use on the rest of the shoe. Rob used it on the toe box as well, and did have some success fixing the nubuck that we had trouble with earlier. 

And that should just about do it. All that’s left now is to lace these up and throw them straight on-feet. 

Lesson Learned 

This is a great opportunity to learn from our mistakes… for our sake and yours. As Rob so perfectly displayed, you can save any shoe with enough patience and care. Shoutout to him for owning the mistake and making it right. 

Her personal beaters are now back to like new condition; a comeback for the ages. And to make it even better, this pair of Smoke Grey Jordan 1s just happens to be Jordan’s first pair of Jordans… ever. 

So what today's before and after is a little bit different…the message still remains the same. Reshoevn8r sneaker cleaning products stand up to any challenge thrown at them. They truly are the best shoe cleaning products in the world. 

What’s your favorite 420 inspired pair? 

This video was sponsored by KYX world - use code 'CLEAN20' to get 20% off your first subscription. KYX World (KYX) is the premiere sneaker subscription experience, revolutionizing footwear culture by providing all-inclusive access to an expansive rotation of authentic, limited-release styles.

Thanks for tuning in. As always, click on over to Youtube to check out even more cleaning videos, restorations, and other fun sneaker content. 

Thanks for stopping by our Shoe Care Academy. Our resident sneaker experts are eager to serve you and freshen up your prized kicks. Schedule a private Online Cleaning Consultation to receive instructions on how to clean your personal pair, or take advantage of our Online Cleaning Service to have our expert staff take care of it for you.