I got a bunch of sample packets of this stuff, which is advertised as a waterproofing wax that leaves the leather breathable. These claims seem vaguely familiar; in the old days, when everyone wore 5 lb leather hiking boots, we would treat them with sno-seal, which left them pretty much neither breathable nor waterproof.

Is this Nikwax stuff a lot different? What does it do to breathable eVent and Gore-Tex liners in boots?

I have some rough-out leather boots with eVent liners; the leather on the outside gets wet (and cold) in snow on warmer days. I'm wondering if this stuff would really help.

From my experience with Nikwax it seems to work for a few trips but eventually wears off. I haven't treated any boots in a while. The non-gtx or e-vent's will get wet on certain occaisions but unless I have a fresh coat of Nikwax they'll probably get wet anyways.

Just my opinion.

dustyj wrote:From my experience with Nikwax it seems to work for a few trips but eventually wears off. I haven't treated any boots in a while. The non-gtx or e-vent's will get wet on certain occaisions but unless I have a fresh coat of Nikwax they'll probably get wet anyways.

Just my opinion.

Had the same experience. My old boots are leather only and I used to make them waterproof with the liquid Nikwax (white liquid). It works for a while but dust and repeated exposure to wet conditions (particularly wet snow) reduce the effect quite quickly.
Now I have the Scarpa Triolet with GoreTex and leather/synthetic and I use a spray-on impregnation from Collonil called NanoPro. Also works great with my old leather boots. You wouldn't want any wax on your GoreTex or eVent membrane since it sticks to it and lowers its breathability.

Here's a relevant link from the La Sportiva site.

Here's another from the North American LS site.

The first is a reasonably faithful translation of the original Italian instructions. The American version either disagrees with or misunderstands the original, which has a strong warning against animal grease-based products.

brenta wrote:Here's a relevant link from the La Sportiva site.

Here's another from the North American LS site.

The first is a reasonably faithful translation of the original Italian instructions. The American version either disagrees with or misunderstands the original, which has a strong warning against animal grease-based products.

Thanks, I see this in the first link above:
"Therefore it is important to use the right products on the market, water and wax-based waterproofing, like Nabuck Waterproofing from Nikwax,..."

I've also found that there is a special Nikwax for nubuck, specifically designed to be compatible with breathable fabric liners.