Do I need to clean my leather jacket?

[Misfer]

Hello

I own a leather jacket in my closet that I've had for a year! It's the All Saints Lark Leather Jacket and it's made of goat leather. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to wear it. I'm worried about the leather cracking or drying out. Should I clean/condition it?? I have the Cadillac Boot & Shoe Leather Lotion

 

[Misfer]

 

[B-Man2]

First off, your jacket should be good for a year without much attention . If it’s a vintage jacket and you want to insure that the leather stays soft and pliable you can give it a light
( the key word here is light) coat of Picards Leather care and conditioner . Most of us here use it and like the results .

 

[Smithy]

What Burt said.

TBH if it's a newish jacket and you've only had it a year you really probably don't need to condition it at all. Although it's really dependent on the climate you live in and the amount of wear/exposure to the elements that it's experienced and to a certain degree the leather and how it's been tanned itself. Even then I don't think I've ever conditioned a new jacket within 5 years of owning it and I've never had any bother and I'm very hard on my leather. I also now live in a climate which can typically hit 30 plus Celsius in summer on the occasional day and -15 Celsius in winter.

As Burt also said if you do condition a leather jacket - or leather anything for that matter - less is more, don't slather it on in great globs, rather a nice, very thin application.

 

[Misfer]

First off, your jacket should be good for a year without much attention . If it’s a vintage jacket and you want to insure that the leather stays soft and pliable you can give it a light
( the key word here is light) coat of Picards Leather care and conditioner . Most of us here use it and like the results .View attachment 19174

I contacted a company called anthonysleatherworks and they recommended the product that I mentioned

 

[jeremiah]

I contacted a company called anthonysleatherworks and they recommended the product that I mentioned

With all due respect. There are tons of stuff out there to use. All that the place called “anthonysleatherworks” recommended was what they use out of that “ton of stuff”.
I use “liquid leather” from ELC only because it’s what I have on me at the moment. I have used pecards, lexol products and a myriad of others in my never ending quest to find the “one”.

I finally came to my own conclusion that probably all of it is helpful to some degree if used sparingly and light applications mostly when the leather is semi wet where the pours are more receptive.

At the end of the day it will be years before we know if the product we introduced helped or harmed the leather and we may never know at that. Just enjoy your jacket and use common sense.

Oh and once leather has truly dried out and hardened there isn’t much that can be done to restore suppleness. I’m talking dry, brittle and cracking.

 

[Silver Surfer]

one thing to consider. if you are not wearing your leather jacket for long periods of time, do not let it hang on a coat hanger, as the hanger will begin to create those nasty hanger protrusions at the top of the shoulders. besides the bulges at the top of the shoulders, the leather itself will will weaken in those areas. for the most part new or newish leather jackets do not need and cremes or goop, as the hides are tanned to go for years without anything other then an occasional damp cloth wipe down if dirty. sometimes too much is like not enough.