Got these shoes:

Plus a tin of this:

Will it make em water resistant?

Some spray on fabric proofer may have been a better option but either way they wouldn’t be as good as sealskinz socks.

I did similar with fabric walking boots years ago, before you could get proper MTB shoes. It did work, they were half leather though, but it looked very dirty very soon.

how do sealskinz socks water proof shoes? More about not having heavy shoes than wet socks

you’ll end up with greasy feet!

I’m sure Nikwax or Grangers will have a product that’ll do the job.

wouldn’t be as good as sealskinz socks

as sealskinz are absolutely fracking gash that suggests it’s really not worth it. 😉

deus – the dubbin is in the cupboard tho

short answer is ‘yes’, but it will darken them down by some margin, and get goretex socks if you want dry feet. 😉
HTH.

not arsed as they are on their last legs 🙂

How many legs have they been on before yours?

Waterproof socks = greater benefit than waterproof shoes.

In my experience this is the way to go for sure.

It may give a bit of initial water resistance against walking through wet grass but in the total saturation situations you get MTBing it will make chuff all difference.

However if you’re really curious and the shoes will only end up in the bin then why not try it out?

I find that neoprene socks are about the most comfortable option

The OP wants to keep his shoes light – not water-logged.

In that vein try water-proofing the shoes with dubbin so the cotton doesn’t soak up the water and add some drain holes so the water can escape. Then neoprene socks / seal skins for warmth?

It’ll help, but more water will run down the lace holes and past the tongue than comes through the material.

You’ll still have wet feet.

From the title I thought you were going to be inventing some ingenious shoe cover fashioned from a green Barbour jacket nicked from the back of a Chelsea tractor.

Hmmmm, if only Hunter made mountain bike shoes…
🙂

Fjallraven – Swedish outdoors company – does a sort of waxed polycotton fabric called G-1000 and they sell bars of something they call Greenland Wax to reproof it. You basically just rub it on the fabric then melt it with an iron or a hairdryer so it coats the fabric. That might work better than Dubbin, which also has a reputation for rotting stitching on boots, so might not play nice with stitched shoes, though I’m not sure how true that is…

This stuff

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZK3-XrlWjQ[/video]

It worked 🙂