Shoe care

[Nathan]

I don't want to state the obvious but since I had my shoes dragged out, I thought I'd share this thread. Many people on this forum are former military and are familiar with how to properly care for a pair of shoes. That said, some may not be as familiar. From a traditional perspective, it's not just important to wear appropriate shoes, it's important to keep them looking smart. Many of the shoes I wear with my kilt, I also wear with my trousers to the office. As we near the end of a long, cold Canadian winter, many pairs of my shoes were in need of some TLC.

Sometimes I wear dress shoes in the snow because I live close to work, across the street in fact. It would be smarter to wear boots or overshoes and change at work but I admit, I don't always want the hassle. The salt they use on the ground to keep us from slipping and killing ourselves, takes its toll on our shoes as well.

Tonight, I dragged out many of my dressier shoes to give them a going over. It's the first day of spring, so I thought I'd pretend winter was actually over. I thought I'd share a few tricks about how I keep my shoes looking as good as possible.

1) Protect the toe box - Cedar shoe trees are ideal, but they are very expensive. I have too many pairs of shoes to have shoe trees for all of them, so I rotate the shoe trees around where I think they are most needed. For the rest, I use either crumpled paper or plastic shopping bags to keep the toe box from curling too much. Plastic shoe trees are also an option.

After my shoe care session this evening...
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2) A damp cloth - Simple, right? Wipe the salt and mud off of your leather shoes frequently with a damp j-cloth or similar. Dampness doesn't harm the leather. This will strip some of the polish, however, so be prepared to shine them periodically.

Here are a few pairs of my black brogues in various styles. I take extra care of these because I wear them with the kilt a lot.

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3) Polish your shoes regularly - This is the most important thing. The buckle brogues are patent leather, so obviously I don't polish those, but the buckle loafers on the left were just spit shined this evening. These will look great after a few more coats and will be appropriate for very formal events. For shoes I wear more casually a brush shine, rather than a spit shine is usually adequate. If the shoe is suede or nubuck, get a wire brush for them and use it. It makes all the difference.

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4) Rotate if possible - It may seem like I have many pairs of shoes. It's true (this isn't all of them), I do but many of them were thrift store finds and I don't pass up a high quality, nearly new, well fitting pair of shoes. Having several pairs allows me to rotate them which helps avoid me wearing them out too soon. This means I'll get more years of wear out of them which is important, especially for the classic styles like the brogues and oxfords which aren't going out of style any time soon.

5) Spend the most money on your every day shoes - I don't actually care how much you pay, but the point here is about quality. The shoes you wear most often need to fit very well and be the best quality you can afford. This isn't really a shoe care tip but is a health care tip. If you want to avoid back pain etc... take heed.

Finally, as you can see many of my shoes are brogues or oxfords. These are a very traditional choice for wear with the kilt. They are a classic, timeless choice and I've always been a fan. I'd recommend you consider this style to wear with your kilt if you haven't yet. To my eye, these are for more pleasing to the eye than the ubiquitous broad square toed, elastic gusset, soft leather, rubber soled slip ons that are in so many shoe stores. You can't go wrong with leather shoes with leather soles in a classic style.

That's how I accessorize my kilt below the ankles and how I keep them looking as good as possible. How about you? What do you think?

[Father Bill]

What do I think? I think you've hit the nail on the head.

A comment though: with winter tires or extra shoes there IS no extra expense. They're free, because while you're wearing one pair of shoes (and driving on one set of tires) the others are getting no wear whatever, which means that while there's extra cost in setting up your collection, you then save it back by not wearing them out as quickly. It also means that when you're down to one pair that are clean, you can spend an hour and get the others all back into shape at once, and when you pull out the ones you want to wear and discover that they're not in top shape, you just put them on the steps heading into the basement and wear a different and clean pair. Of shoes, not tires.

[Calgacus]

What do I think? I think you have a lot of shoes!

I spend most of my life in a pair of steel toe capped Caterpillar boots for work, or a pair of Le Chameau wellies for walking the dog. The rest of my collection goes something like this:-

1 pair brogues for the kilt. I think they're Loake.
1 pair Italian made Oxfords for trousers.
1 pair shoes for smart casual
1 pair closed-toe sandals
1 pair 10 hole Doc Martens for jeans
1 pair Haglofs walking shoes (a smart black trainer [sneaker])
3 pairs hillwalking boots. One in use, one new in reserve, one old for knocking about.

The brogues, Oxfords and walking boots get cleaned and polished as required. The rest probably get less attention than they deserve. I'm not hard on footwear however.

[Tobus]

Nathan, you have a good sense of style and I like most of what you post. But I'm not sure I can trust a guy who owns that many pairs of shoes! Are you sure you're not somehow related to Imelda Marcos?

Nah, I grok the concept of owning multiple pairs of shoes to rotate them out for longer years of service. But holy schnikies, man, how do you find the room in your house to store all those shoes?!

I only own 4 pairs of good dress shoes. Two black and two brown. I completely agree on the subject of maintaining them and keeping them well cleaned/polished. But I rather tend to prefer wearing a good pair of shoes for many decades, having them re-soled when necessary. Like the Duke of Rothesay and his well-known black Oxfords. They've seen better days, I'm sure, but they keep going and going and going.

Down here, we actually have the opposite problem that you have. We don't have to deal with snow or salt on the ground. Our problem is dust and dirt and dry weather. When leather shoes get dusty and dry, it doesn't take long for them to start cracking. So keeping them clean is a must.

[Father Bill]

A bit of glycerine or saddle soap works well after cleaning out dust and grit too.

[JohntheBiker]

Tobus, you make a good point about re-soling shoes. Often heels and soles wear out long before uppers that have been maintained (and if you have expensive shoes, why would you abuse them). I think repair as necessary should be added to Nathan's list.

[EagleJCS]

I think repair as necessary should be added to Nathan's list.

I agree, however, there are fewer and fewer repair shops that have the tools and/or the knowledge to re-sole a shoe properly.

For the moment, I have two pairs of dress shoes (cordovan loafers and black oxfords), my black ghillie brogues (for band wear), two pairs of sneakers (trainers) fro wearing to work - I rotate the wear to allow the shoes to 'rest', two pairs of tall boots (ropers, one pair brown, one pair black, for casual wear), one pair of sandals (for summer casual), an old pair of black US Army combat boots (mid '70's issue), and two pair of mid-rise hiking boots. I keep all of them in good shape, and replace them only when absolutely necessary.

A few years ago I took my brown ropers to the local shoe repair shop to be re-heeled and re-soled and the guy said he couldn't re-sole them as he didn't have the machine to do it anymore. All he could do was re-heel them and slap a rubber patch on the half-sole where it was worn. He told me nearly all of the shoe repair shops in the area did the same thing. "Maybe a tack shop or saddlery expert could do it." Seems most people 'round here just throw out their leather footwear (even the expensive ones) when they get worn out, even if the uppers are in good condition. I was flabbergasted! I'd gone to the same shop several times in prior years and gotten shoes half-soled and re-heeled as needed. I wound up just getting new heels put on and wear those boots less often.

[Pleater]

My Dad always put thin rubber soles and heels on his shoes before wearing them, then replaced them as they wore, so that the original ones never touched the ground. He had shoes decades old in perfect condition - though like me he was 'light on his feet'. His shoes always had leather soles.

I can wear out a pair of shoes, but it takes a long time.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Nathan]

I agree with repair when possible but the last time I went to a cobbler and asked him to resole my shoes, he quoted me $130. That's a whole lot to spend to resole a pair of shoes that cost me $14.99 - $19.99 at the thrift shop.

Do you know a competent cobbler with reasonable prices in the GTA, John?

[BCAC]

I agree with repair when possible but the last time I went to a cobbler and asked him to resole my shoes, he quoted me $130. That's a whole lot to spend to resole a pair of shoes that cost me $14.99 - $19.99 at the thrift shop.

Do you know a competent cobbler with reasonable prices in the GTA, John?

A reliable artisan is difficult to find these days. My Shoemaker, who I was lucky to find (his shop is tucked away in a side street way away from the fashionable part of town), is older than I am (and I'm very old) and I don't think that he knows that internet has been invented, yet. I hope that he lives (and works) for a long time to come!