Clean Up: Oak Street Bootmakers Camp Mocs

I got these Camp Mocs from Oak Street Bootmakers over 12 years ago.  At the time, they didn’t offer this style in Natural Chromexcel, but after we created these together, they added them, and they’ve been a mainstay ever since.

I’ve worn these quite a bit.  Not as hard as some would, but they’ve got some serious miles on them.  I slipped them on the other day and realized that they haven’t gotten ANY love in quite some time.  The leather was a bit dry, the insides needed some cleaning, and the soles weren’t looking as good as they should:

First thing I did was to scrub them with a medium-soft brush and hot water.  And I scrubbed them good.  Inside and out.  Then I put shoe trees inside to help them reshape as they dried.

After drying, I was very excited to see them take their former glorious shape.  I was also happy at how the insides cleaned up. They looked great:

I started applying Venetian Shoe Cream liberally:

After two coats on the right…the chromexcel leather soaked it right up:

…and after three coats.

Afterwards, I took a lighter and cleaned up a couple of loose strings, and set them in the sun for a couple of hours to help absorb the cream.  These looked INCREDIBLE.  I wore them that night and am looking forward to getting these back into the rotation.

12 years…hard to believe.  Or maybe not…

 

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3 Comments

  1. Jeff L.
    08/21/2026 / 7:29 AM

    Did you use a brush on them after the coats of Venetian cream dried?

    Mine in brown need some love as well including a resoling on the left shoe. It is separating from the heal. Unfortunately, Oak Street isn’t servicing moccasins currently due to supply shortages of materials according to the website. I may have to check with LaRosa and see what they can do. They did a great job on my OSB bedroom loafers.

  2. Trip
    08/21/2026 / 9:57 AM

    They look great.

  3. Ron Smith
    08/21/2026 / 7:42 PM

    Beautiful. Thanks for sharing the process here. I have the same style moc from Rancourt. Unimpeachably great shoe, tremendous value, and a timeless style.

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