water-proofing Skechers

don't bother

unless your shoes are made of paper they will survive

Just buy a spray from your local grocery store or shoe store. I don't like having water soaking through and having wet feet.

In reality there is no way to waterproof a shoe unless it was built to be waterproof. Sprays will, at best, provide a little water resistance but will not last long. The compounds heavy with wax and oil work better but it is still a surface application that will wear off. You need to play a lot of attention to seams - biggest entry point for water - and if is a canvas shoe then there is little that you can do. Not familiar with Skecher so don't know if canvas/fabric or leather.

Very few of us who live in the U.K wear waterproof shoes. I have one pair of hiking shoes that are waterproof, and a pair of wellies that I wear around the farm I live on. That's it.

All my otter shoes are either leather or they're Skechers or other sneakers. If it rains they get wet and then I put some newspaper in them overnight and they dry out.

It doesn't rain everyday. If you're planning to hike through the countryside with mud & long grass, then buy waterproof hiking shoes or boots. Otherwise just bring a couple of pairs or comfortable city shoes that dry quickly if it rains. Which isn't every day!

I've been wanting to try this relatively new product called Never Wet by Rustoleum. Its a fabric protectant made for shoes and outdoor fabrics. I've seen good reviews and it seems to be widely available. Says it dries clear.

One of the things we do anytime we are in countries where rain is daily thing is put a pair of dry socks in our day bags. Just changing from wet to dry socks doesn't sound like much, but it's saved the day on more than one occasion.

And ... Put those dry socks in a Ziploc bag. Daybags can leak in a sustained downpour. Know that from experience!

Excellent ideas, everyone! Thanks!

We swear by Cadillac (that's the brand) Shield (water repellent spray). And we spray not only our shoes, but our packs, day packs, umbrellas, jackets and hats. On only one of 17 European trips have we had to find a shoe store and purchase spray in Europe. It was in Sicily and it was fun trying to describe in Italian what we wanted. We went to several stores before we found some spray. It was only our shoes that needed to be resprayed; we'd had so much rain we'd had to splash through many puddles.

Kiwi Protect All is good: I gave my New Balance walking shoes several liberal spraying and they kept my feet dry in multiple days of touring in the rain (a good thing as they were the only shoes I had brought). There was no color change.

I wore Skechers on my last two trips. I didn't need any waterproofing on my shoes. If rain was in the forecast, I wore a faux leather type with ties. Otherwise, I wear the cloth/canvas style slip-ons.

I use Nikwax products for shoes and gloves. Nikwax has different formulations for different materials to be treated - smooth leather, suede, fabric etc: http://www.nikwax.com/en-us/productselector/productselector.php

If your shoes are highly breathable, they likely use open weave fabrics that may be harder to make water repellent. A cotton water bag can hold water because its weave is tight (and the cotton fibers swell when moistened). If your shoe fabric weave is too open, water will penetrate with or without water repellent treatment much as water passes through a colander.

The above said, if you are just a tourist walking about town, water proof or not water proof shoes is more of a comfort issue than life threatening. And if you are wearing Skechers, you probably not trekking across moors or over fells where water resistance is critical.

I should say that having very breathable shoes are a plus on hot dry days.