If the shoes fit, keep them looking beautiful
Tips on how to keep your fancy footwear looking good for as long as possible
Suppose you’ve just invested many hundreds of dollars in a pair of caramel brogues you’ve been coveting online for months. So eager are you to show them off with your best cuffed raw denim and sportcoat that you find yourself wearing them out nearly every day — even when you know you probably shouldn’t.
It starts with a quick sprint through the rain. Then a stroll amid a light snowfall. And soon enough, those once-immaculate beauties are looking worse for the wear. A year into their tenure as your go-to pair and they’re already cracked and faded and salt-stained beyond repair.
Naturally, you’re devastated. But what’s a fellow to do to keep a pair of expensive shoes looking beautiful not just one year down the road but two or three or four? It may seem impossible.
It can, however, be done if you follow some advice.
To begin with: learn to clean. Most men don’t spend much time regularly cleaning their shoes. But even spending an hour every two weeks will ensure a nice pair of shoes continues to look gorgeous long after their lustre has dulled. You’ll want a high-quality leather cleaner, too: Many shoe brands sell a proprietary version that’ll do fine, plus a few clean, dry cloths, and a tin of polish with a polishing brush. Add an old toothbrush to the repertoire for a more thorough targeted stain removal.
Such supplementary investments are indispensable. A pair of shoe trees can be a little costly as an accessory. But this is one add-on it pays to own. Shoe trees fill out a freshly worn shoe to help maintain its original shape after use, preventing the sagging and slumping that tends to otherwise warp a shoe over time. On particularly hot or wet days, too, they absorb excess moisture from the leather.
You’ll want to keep an eye out for cedar shoe trees (the most expensive but also the best material on the market) with a flexible split toe, which bends or expands depending on the fit of the shoe it’s inserted in.
That said, simple overuse is the surest way to reduce the lifespan of your favourite pair of shoes. A high-quality pair of shoes just isn’t built to accommodate everyday wear.
The best bet is to buy two pairs of high-end dress shoes that you can switch out every other day. But if that’s not in your budget, consider reverting to a less-superlative alt pair once or twice a week at a minimum. It may also be worth keeping a pair of shoes around that can withstand a rainy beating, even if you only throw them on to and from the office.
If you lived in, say, downtown Los Angeles, you probably wouldn’t have to worry about the effect on your fashion sense of the elements — everyday sun wouldn’t be likely to wear on your shoes too hard. But in Canada, the weather doesn’t like to play nice. That’s why it pays to own a pair of overshoes. While, yes, they look idiotic, they only need to be worn in the throes of miserable weather, and can be slipped over and tucked away the moment you reach a drier destination. The amount of damage you’ll be inviting if you even take a single step in the snow is incalculable. Nor is it quite safe on milder winter days. The roads and sidewalks are laced with ice-melting salt, which has roughly the same effect on leather as sulphuric acid.
Even if you take every possible precautionary measure and only wear your best shoes on ultra-special occasions, some damage can’t be avoided — as anyone caught in a freak thunderstorm in doublemonks can attest.
If something takes a serious toll on your favourite pair of shoes, you deal with it — and quickly.
Yet you’d be amazed what your local cobbler can do with a pair of out-of-shape dress shoes, from repairing a loose heel to pretty much reassembling a shoe that’s fallen to pieces. And some shoe manufacturers, like Allen Edmonds, offer fairly priced repair work (and even complete recrafting) that can save shoes that seem too far gone to salvage.