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Originally Posted by DJ_JonnyV
I recently purchased some new business casual / dress shoes and looking to keep them in tip-top shape. I've always just used some Kiwi's shoe polish. Recently been doing some research and see brands out there like Meltonian, Lincoln, Angelus, and a few others. See some folks talking about cleaning shoes first with leather cleaner like Lexol and then polishing. Some folks talk about polish vs. cream vs. wax. Any recommendations out there???
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When using a shoe polish or shoe cream, you are trying to accomplish two things, put a good shine on the shoe and treat the leather to keep is soft and prevent it from drying out so the leather and the shoe itself will last longer.
A shoe polish contains a larger amount of polish rather than leather conditioner so it will do a better job shining the shoe than treating the leather. A shoe cream is the opposite, it contains more leather conditioner than polish so while it does not put on as good of a shine as a shoe polish, it will treat the leather better and give the shoe a better life.
I use a shoe cream because I am willing to sacrifice a little shine to get a few extra years out of my Johnston and Murphy's and Allen Edmond's. The best cream I have used is sold by Johnston and Murphy. It is much thicker than a typical shoe creams such as from a brand like Cavilier so it provides a really good shine for a shoe cream but still does a great job of treating the leather. I have been using it for about the last year. Allen Edmonds makes a shoe cream and I am sure it is great to but I have never tried it. There is a Johnston and Murphy retail store in Louisville (where I live) but there is not an Allen Edmonds so I use Johnston and Murphy.
Along with using shoe cream, I always put shoe trees in my dress shoes when I am not wearing them and never wearing the same shoe two days in a row. A shoe tree is a device that is made of cider and you slide it in your shoe after you take them off. One good thing about shoe trees is they maintain the shape of the shoe. When a shoe starts to lose its shape, creases in the leather form and weak points start forming. The most common way a shoe loses its shape is the toe of the shoe over the months/years will start to point upward somewhat. This will create a very noticable and unsightly crease along the top of the shoe A shoe tree will prevent this.
Another benefit of a shoe tree is how it moderates moisture INSIDE the shoe. When you wear a dress shoe for several hours, a few ounces of perspiration accumulate in the interior leather of the shoe. If you don't believe me, weigh your shoes before putting them on and then weigh them again hours later when you take them off. The couple of extra ounces the shoes picked up is sweat from your feet. The shoe trees you put in your shoes will absord a large amount of that sweat but not 100%. You don't want it to absorb 100%, you want a small amount of moisture to stay in the shoe so it will not dry rot. So long as the shoe trees are in your shoes, they will maintain a small amount of moisture for well over a month.
Lastly, at all possible, don't where the same pair of dress shoes two days in a row. The shoes need about 24 hours for the excess perspiration to leave the shoe - leather dries SLOWLY. If you are wearing a shoe several days in a row, the shoe is staying excessively moist for too long which will cause the leather to break faster over time. Because of using a shoe cream, using shoe trees and never wearing the same shoe in two consecutive days, the Allen Edmonds I bought in 1999 still look wonderful and could be mistaken for shoes only 6 months old. I feel confident the Johnston and Murphy's I bought about four years ago will do the same.
I am a believer in buying good quality shoes like Allen Edmonds and Johnston and Murphy's Aristocraft series (J & M also makes some cheap lines too) so I don't have to worry about buying new shoes for over a decade. (Actually, I will just send them back to the manufacturer to have them recrafted. Only costs around $100). Back in my younger days when I bought Cole Hanns, Bostonians and Florseims, my shoes never got near the life my Allen Edmonds and Johnston and Murphy's get. I have never paid retail price for my J & M's or my AE's. There used to be a shop in Louisville that sold factory seconds. My Allen Edmonds have a slight error in the stitching which can only be seen if you are holding the shoes right up to your face. Instead of paying $300 for them, I got them for $100. My J & M's have a slight error in one of the holes where the shoe laces go through (can't remember what those are called), again barely noticable but I still got the shoes for $100. Unfortunately that store when out of business so I will have to find somewhere else to get cheap AE's or J & M's.