In reply to MartynW:
> My la sportiva finale shoes are six months old and started to develop a hole in the leather upper near the toes. I have really sweaty feet and I am thinking that the sweat is rotting the leather. I'm going to try and patch the hole but I was wondering if anyone had good ideas about preventing them getting worse. I dry them with stuffed newspaper after every use and use bicarbonate of soda once a month to stop them stinking. Could I soak them in water to dissolve away some of the sweat? Or will that totally wreck the shape?
I'd probably advise against soaking them in water as a damage limitation exercise. Some shoes can be washed OK but you'd just be doing that to get rid of the smell.
Your toe nails may need trimming or perhaps the fit of the shoe might be causing the issue. How is the rubber? 6 months could be the lifespan of a shoe if they were your only shoes and well used during that time. Although to be fair, the upper should outlast the rubber so a moot point.
Perhaps you could try synthetic shoes next time or something with a little more ventilation?
Post edited at 23:07