diff --git a/command_test.go b/command_test.go
index 6df83cdb75..6a2c0998f2 100644
--- a/command_test.go
+++ b/command_test.go
@@ -4311,6 +4311,9 @@ func TestCommandReadArgsFromStdIn(t *testing.T) {
 				},
 				&StringSliceFlag{
 					Name: "ssf",
+					Config: StringConfig{
+						TrimSpace: true,
+					},
 				},
 			}
 
diff --git a/flag_slice_base.go b/flag_slice_base.go
index b97c4ff4f2..3e7b049ea7 100644
--- a/flag_slice_base.go
+++ b/flag_slice_base.go
@@ -47,8 +47,21 @@ func (i *SliceBase[T, C, VC]) Set(value string) error {
 		return nil
 	}
 
+	trimSpace := true
+	// hack. How do we know if we should trim spaces?
+	// it makes sense only for string slice flags which have
+	// an option to not trim spaces. So by default we trim spaces
+	// otherwise we let the underlying value type handle it.
+	var t T
+	if reflect.TypeOf(t).Kind() == reflect.String {
+		trimSpace = false
+	}
+
 	for _, s := range flagSplitMultiValues(value) {
-		if err := i.value.Set(strings.TrimSpace(s)); err != nil {
+		if trimSpace {
+			s = strings.TrimSpace(s)
+		}
+		if err := i.value.Set(s); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 		*i.slice = append(*i.slice, i.value.Get().(T))
diff --git a/flag_test.go b/flag_test.go
index f6b0578334..24c7411b43 100644
--- a/flag_test.go
+++ b/flag_test.go
@@ -350,6 +350,12 @@ func TestFlagsFromEnv(t *testing.T) {
 			output: []string{"foo", "bar"},
 			fl:     &StringSliceFlag{Name: "names", Sources: EnvVars("NAMES"), Config: StringConfig{TrimSpace: true}},
 		},
+		{
+			name:   "StringSliceFlag valid without TrimSpace",
+			input:  "foo , bar ",
+			output: []string{"foo ", " bar "},
+			fl:     &StringSliceFlag{Name: "names", Sources: EnvVars("NAMES")},
+		},
 
 		{
 			name:   "StringMapFlag valid",