ALPHA MALE: Shoes Make the Man (and How to Take Care of Them)

ALPHA MALE: Shoes Make the Man (and How to Take Care of Them)

Our experience continually tells us that men don’t know how to properly take care of their shoes.  Let’s face it, we’ve all seen carefully groomed men that look like they’re homeless from the ankles down.  It doesn’t matter how polished someone looks, if the shoes look like they’ve been to the Berkshires and back, the look fades.  

Let’s start at the beginning; make sure you don’t wear the same pair of shoes every day.  A well-dressed man always has at least four pairs of shoes, 2 brown and 2 black.  All 4 pairs are continually rotated and never worn consecutively.  First, it enables wet shoes to dry before you wear them again.  Second and more importantly, the general perception is that it is unprofessional to wear the same shirt or pair of pants each day of the week.  The same rule applies to your shoes – if you want look sharp, you need to mix things up.

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Generally speaking, shoe care is pretty simple.  Make sure that you have a cedar shoe tree in your closet to dehydrate your shoes at the end of the day.  Over the course of a day, your feet sweat.  The cedar soaks up all of the accumulated moisture, drying your shoes, and eliminating that three day old Chinese food smell.  Additionally, the cedar rack helps maintain the form of the shoe ensuring they look sharp when worn in the future.

Finally, get a few shoe brushes.  Make sure you have separate brushes for brown and black shoes, as well as a separate brush to remove grime and to apply polish.

Step by step guide to shoe shining

1.       Shoes need to be clean and dry.  Remove all dirt, dinner leftovers, tooth paste, and other nasty collateral before shining. 

2.       Find the correct color polish and apply to the shoes.  Apply all over the shoe – especially those areas that are scuffed, have lost color, or show scratches. 

3.       Finally, buff and shine your shoes.  Spritz the shoes with water to further allow the polish to penetrate the shoes.  Use a dry cloth or soft bristle brush of horse hair to shine the shoes.

As both the president and owner of Marc Allen Inc, Marc Streisand takes the custom clothing business very personally. Having enjoyed a successful career in the clothing industry since 1985, Marc brings his clients extensive specialized experience in menswear. Prior to taking over the Marc Allen store in March 2005, he cultivated his knowledge of luxury male attire in New York and his home state of New Jersey, where he began his vocation at Wallach's Specialty Stores. Nothing gives him greater pleasure, he says, than seeing raw cloth transformed into a custom outfit that can directly impact his customer's lifestyle.