Tri-C Club Supply 2
Stanley Mayes mentioned that one of the more common issues he sees with the shoes that come through his shop is inadequate cleaning. "Once in a while, it’s important to use a cleaner to strip off the layers of polish (that will often have dirt and other contaminants caked in it) that have accumulated so that the shoe can accept new polish and moisturizer," he noted. If your shoes look dull, or if you notice flakes of polish in the crease points, it’s time for a cleaning with solvent. Without taking this step, you are reducing the leather’s breathability (which keeps it from rotting) and harming your shoes by allowing contaminated polish to sit against the leather.Shoe care supply Next, a leather conditioner ensures that your shoes’ leather remains a stalwart buffer against the elements. Dry leather is brittle, which diminishes its waterproofing and breathability. Like your skin, dry leather will feel slightly rougher—running your finger along the shoe is a good way to tell if your shoes need some conditioning. In addition to feeling bad, dry leather makes a poor base for building up a polish patina. Shoe polish provides the brunt of the aesthetics in a shoe-care routine. Basically dye suspended in oils and waxes, shoe polish fills in small scratches and cracks and renews the color and gloss of your shoes. Polishing your shoes is pretty straightforward (apply polish, buff to shine), but polishing your shoes well takes some finesse and patience. The Shoe Snob Blog has an excellent guide on how to polish your shoes properly (though it features The Shoe Snob’s own line of products). Shoe polishes come in two forms: cream polishes (like the Meltonian and Saphir Médaille d’Or we tested), which are for restoring color, and wax polishes (like the Lincoln and Saphir Pate de Luxe we tested), which are for buffing shoes to a shine. You’ll often find shoe-polishing guides (including the one on The Shoe Snob Blog) that recommend using cream polish before applying a coat of wax polish. But you can use wax polish after conditioning with no ill effects—especially if your shoes’ coloring is fine as is. Similarly, you can use cream polish and not apply wax if you’re not interested in a mirror shine. Ultimately, it’s up to you. While any old rag will work for cleaning and polishing your shoes, a shoe-specific brush is a must-have for everyday maintenance, and you would be hard-pressed to find something lying around your house that does what a good shoe brush does. Commonly made from horsehair, the bristles on a shoe-shine brush are delicate enough as to not scratch the surface of the leather but stiff enough to remove dirt and debris and to work polish up to a shine. Although shoe-shine brushes can be made from more exotic materials, horsehair is consistently accepted as being an ideal bristle material for most shining and cleaning purposes. The brush should be a good enough size such that using the brush is not tedious in any manner or hard to grip. With that in mind, we were able to narrow the field of brushes down to three contenders: the ubiquitous shoe-shine brush made by Kiwi, a more luxe version made by Allen Edmonds, and an elegant and slightly more spendy horsehair brush made by Kirby Allison.