Shoe Polish

Gentlemen, I’ve spent a little bit of time discussing character issues or religious issues… Even spent some time discussing marriage issues..

Today, I’m going to discuss a style issue… Shoe polish!!!

When I left college, fully equipped to handle the world… I enlisted in the Army… 1st Battalion Charlie Company, 3rd Platoon at Ft Jackson South Carolina. The war zone!! Unfortunately it was the civil war!!!! Old barracks, heat, sand it was miserable.

On day one, we all arrived at what’s called the “reception station”… In this place you get your uniforms, you get your boots, you eat good for a day or two… Essentially it’s a place to muster (gather) the platoons and companies for an 8wk cycle that’s hell!!

Bear in mind, I pledged my Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated and this army thing should be nothing!!!... or so I thought… My reasons for joining the military were in part due to a student loan repayment program, which left me with no student loan debt 2yrs after graduation… sweet deal huh!!!! I thought so too until boot camp….

Eight weeks, 1 million push ups, hundreds of miles walking with a fifty pound ruck sack (backpack)… hell looked better than boot camp… During the reception center stay we had young 18yr old soldiers polishing their boots to a high gloss shine

Lesson one… never do that… you’ll be in the sand 99.999% of the time in boot camp and polished boots mean you must constantly polish them… I left mine in the same dull black that I got them in..  Hoooray for me, never once did I get harassed by the DS (Drill Sargent ) about my boots…

Toward the end of boot camp maybe week 5 I did finally polish my boots. They were broken in… the leather was soft and I was ready to go… so let me walk you through my process…

First I cleaned them with saddle soap… this keeps the leather clean and conditioned. Second I would roll a soft white t-shirt around two fingers and swirl black shoe polish on two fingers.  Next I would dip my fingers in warm water and swirl the polish into the leather then allowed 2-5min for drying.. With a spray bottle I would spray the boots with a light mist of water and alcohol… and the same on a with cotton towel.. Now, the magic…. I would never buff I would however, remove the polish with a side to side motion w/ the towel until there was a light shine.. Then with a clean white t-shirt I would dip the same two fingers wrapped in the t-shirt in warm water and alcohol and swirl lightly… this would produce over 20-30min a high gloss patent leather shine..  the daily maintenance was exactly the same process.. usually done late at night so that the boots would have a high gloss shine in the morning .. We’d have two pair of boots so doing both pair usually took an hour....

Gentlemen, the same process I used years ago I also use for my shoes. It is said that the first thing a woman notices about you is your shoes. Learning how to polish or shine your shoes is critical to your overall polished look.. The association that she’s making in your shoes is how organized you are.. Just like when you walk in a woman’s house and you see how she keeps it….

I know casual shoes are easy and comfortable.. However every man should have at least three pair of hard bottoms… black, brown and cordovan … keeping them cleaned and polished completes your overall look and makes a definite difference in how you are viewed by the fairer sex..

When I lived in New York City there were shoe shine guys everywhere… there were even shoe shine stores… After moving to Atlanta it was hard to find a good shoe shine man outside of Atlanta Hartsfield Airport… Which means, Gentlemen, we must polish our own shoes…

That said… don’t leave the house unfinished… shave, shower, cleaned and pressed suit… and shoes shined!!! A little effort can go a long way…. Thanks to shoe polish!!

Editor - DNYC