I was invited to an event at the British Embassy a couple of months ago honoring a friend of mine. (He was receiving an MBE). I had to run out and buy a pair of dress shoes since the leather had cracked on all the pairs I had, or they were otherwise deteriorated. I also had to run out and buy a white shirt that could button at the neck so I could wear a tie. I probably could have gotten away with a sport coat, but it’s just as well I got one for the next funeral I have to attend.
There may be one or two events a year - openings, receptions - where I feel I should wear dress shoes. Or several years may go by without one.
My family had a shine box when I was a kid (GO GET YER SHINE BOX TOMMY!!!:eek:) Dad had a real job and wore nice suits, so the shoe maintenance kit was a requirement.
I haven’t had “real” shoes since I was a kid, so no shine for me. I wear work boots that my parents swear would last longer if I would polish them. “it’s not for the look, it conditions the leather”:rolleyes:
We had a shine box, complete with little tins of black and brown polish, brushes, and buffing cloths, almost exactly like this one. I went to Catholic school in the 1950s and 1960s, so of course we had to shine our shoes. I actually used to love the smell of the polish and the ritual of polishing my shoes.
Great thread. Haven’t considered this in ages. I guess probably back when I was an investment banker at UBS in Hong Kong in the 90’s. There ere guys on the street that would shine your shoes for a couple of bucks. Real pros. I’ve used the hotel automatic shoe shiner since then but those are a poor imitation. BTW, I shined my own shoes as a kid but don’t have the kit now. And I don’t have even dress shoes with a real leather sole - probably haven’t had that for about 2 decades.
My experience is similar to the OP: learning that shining ones shoes is an important part of life’s maintenance and being a gentleman. Now, I still have one pair of “shinable” shoes, but I wear them so rarely that I never bother to polish or shine them. I still have a little kit, though, with a Kiwi tin and a brush and a polishing cloth in a shoebox. I have it somewhere, just don’t ask me where.
I also remember, as a tiny tot, polishing my shoes with a bottle of some sort of goop with a little sponge on the top. It secreted some sort of liquid polish that made my little-kid shoes shiny. It was a rite of passage when my Dad decided it was time for me to graduate to real leather shoes and real polish.
Like many others here, my dad wore shined shoes and had a kit that I inherited. I learned to shine mine as a child and can still do it. My current work doesn’t require shined shoes, and I don’t expect to have a job in the future that does (although a recent project did require ties-on-guys…). However, through my spouse, I attend a lot of semi-formal / formal events so I do have shoes to shine for those times.
At a funeral I went to 3 years ago. 99.9% of the time, I’m in my running shoes with jeans. If I’m going to a nice restaurant, like last night, I’ll wear a collared shirt.
But when I was a kid, we had to wear dress shoes to school, and we polished them every Sunday night. You put a few drop of water in the top of the Kiwi can, spread the polish over the shoes, and brushed like crazy afterwards. You tried not to get any shoe polish on your hands, but that happened about Zero times.
I’ve got a fully equipped shoe shine kit, like Quicksilver. I shine most leather shoes and boots and leather purses etc about four times a year, to keep them neat and waterproof and to make sure that scuffed spots show less. Other shoes, I spray with shoe spray.
Some of my boots I’ve worn for 15 years, and the have been resoled three times.
My tins of shoe shine are ten or twenty years old, though. Just last month, i revived a dried-out tin by adding some furniture wax and heating the tin in the microwave oven.
Haven’t shined shoes since I was in the Navy back in the mid 70’s and only did it for a short while. While in a hardware store at my first duty station, there was a sale on spray paint for 99 cents a can. I bought a couple cans of gloss black. Once a week I sprayed the toes of my work boots. I regularly received complements from my superiors on the outstanding shine on my boots.
Black leather “army” boots. Shine them once per week at the beining of my work week.
Leather dress shoes I shine before I wear them to a formal event or when I’m going to wear a suit. Took my wife to brunch for Mothers Day last week, so that is the last time I shined them.
I learned to shine shoes as a kid playing baseball - Dad required us boys to shine our spikes & oil our mitts before every game. He spent good money on them and wanted us to know the value of taking care of them. I got razzed about that by teammates at the time, but years later at a reunion one of those guys said how impressed he really was.
I shine all my smooth leather shoes a couple times a year.
Any pair of leather dress shoes, loafers, etc. I either shine them myself or get them shined. And yes there are plenty of shine places, the airport (they are there), barber shops, car wash, the mall, etc. Normal shine cost $5, but I usually pay $10 with a tip, if done correctly.
