Shoe Polish and Care

[RMac]

I have an older pair of black dress shoes that are in serious need of some TLC. Is there any special shoe polish that is generally recommended? I also recently bought a pair of the Stafford wingtip boots. I saw the Dappered post on the black shoe polish for the Staffords and thought about trying this with the polish as well. For anyone who tried this, did you put anything on the boots before you polished them?

[RMac]

@heister I do not have anything! I believe this might be a smart investment. The week I got the boots I walked about 30 blocks in the snow (uphill both ways) and the tops started to break in and crease. Unfortunately because of the moisture, a sort of air bubble formed on one of the shoes. Could the saddle soap help improve something like this? Or are inexpensive shoes inexpensive for reasons like this?

[Chareth]

I have an older pair of black dress shoes that are in serious need of some TLC. Is there any special shoe polish that is generally recommended? I also recently bought a pair of the Stafford wingtip boots. I saw the Dappered post on the black shoe polish for the Staffords and thought about trying this with the polish as well. For anyone who tried this, did you put anything on the boots before you polished them?

Just use any shoe polish you can find. Even Kiwi is fine.

Which leads me to what Joe did with his Staffords. I don't know the nicest way to say this, but in my opinion, he didn't do such great job with them. Don't use a dauber, use an old t-shirt. With a dauber, unless you really know what you're doing, you'll end up using entirely too much polish/cream, which is exactly what seems to have happened with Joe. On each application you should barely be able to see the polish. Then buff. Repeat this process many times on the areas you want to darken and you'll get a much more natural effect than Joe did.

[RMac]

@Chareth So you just use an old shirt and put on just a little bit, let it dry, and buff? Then repeat? I may head to Wal-Mart and pick up some Kiwi and try this. I'm a little nervous about messing up the look by darkening the wrong areas. I may just get a dark brown and play it safe.

[RMac]

I just re-read some of what I posted and realized it wasn't very clear that I was referring to the Stafford boots. They're the ones I'm a little worried about. So you would recommend just a cleaner then? I'm trying to get something that will take away the pseudo-plastic look of the toe.

[RMac]

I've actually started looking at other Wingtips (Like the McAllisters, man those are sharp) and all of them seem to have that shiny, super smooth toe. I thought it was just because the boots were cheap, but I guess that just comes with the territory. I think I will just polish my black dress shoes and leave the Stafford boots alone for now. Thanks for your help though!

[Teej]

If you do not have any shoe care products currently, and would like to get some high quality products at a great price (respective to the products retail) check out the polished box on bespokepost, i know some guys on here have a thread linking to their referral link. The kit is nice and has everything one would need to get started. Only thing in addition I would recommend is a good quality saddle soap, great for working the wrinkles out as well as to use between polishes. Lastly invest in some cedar shoe trees to help your shoes keep their shape and they also keep bugs out of your shoes.

I defnitely second this. I have pretty much all the stuff I need to take care of my shoes but I am still tempted to get this because of the amazing deal you get for the products. I've heard nothing but good things about saphir.

[Acousticfoodie]

I've actually started looking at other Wingtips (Like the McAllisters, man those are sharp) and all of them seem to have that shiny, super smooth toe. I thought it was just because the boots were cheap, but I guess that just comes with the territory. I think I will just polish my black dress shoes and leave the Stafford boots alone for now. Thanks for your help though!

You mean the Allen Edmonds McAllisters? The shiny toe could just mean the person wearing it chose a wax polish and maybe even Bullied it to give it an extra shine. If you don't want shine you can just use a cream polish rather than wax. You can see the different finish they give you here with my Allen Edmonds Sanfords with a wax polish vs my Allen Edmonds Hales with a hybrid (mostly cream) polish:

[bjmcgeever]

I've actually started looking at other Wingtips (Like the McAllisters, man those are sharp) and all of them seem to have that shiny, super smooth toe. I thought it was just because the boots were cheap, but I guess that just comes with the territory. I think I will just polish my black dress shoes and leave the Stafford boots alone for now. Thanks for your help though!

I've got a pair of black McAllisters. I've used Kiwi wax, Meltonian cream, and Allen Edmonds wax on them and they've all come out quite nicely. Naturally, the wax gives more of a high shine.