Shoe Shines

1. How much do you pay for your shoe shines?

2. How often do you get them done?

3. Where do you go? A local department store? Airport? Shoe shine guy on the street?

4. Do you ever shine them yourself? If so when and why?

$4.50

Every few months or if I see fit to do it

There's a place where I work so I just go there

I've never really shined them myself, I'm not good at it. Might as well let someone who knows what they're doing do it.

There is a shoe shine guy at my local car wash. He's pretty good. I pay him $5 and $2 for a tip. However, I very rarely use him. I usually shine my shoes after every wearing if there is the slightest trace of scuffing.

Going rate in Manhattan is $4. When I first moved here it was $2. As recently as two years ago it was $3. $4 is hardly unreasonable, though.

In DC and SF (the only other two cities where I get shines with any frequency) prices are a lot higher.

i go to sole man in penn, think it's 4 or 5 bucks

$0

My dad was in the service, he taught me when I was younger. It just take time and attention to detail.

$7

Rarely.

J.W. Marriot a block or so from my office.

I usually shine them myself after 2-4 wearings.

$0. Do them myself. I actually enjoy it, and take pride in it.

Shine them myself.

Once a month I'll lock myself in a room with my shoes and a couple cans of polish and just shine away. Usually about 3 hours a pair. I do touch ups in between major shinings like these to get rid of any scuffs.

Originally Posted by oroy38

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Shine them myself.

Once a month I'll lock myself in a room with my shoes and a couple cans of polish and just shine away. Usually about 3 hours a pair. I do touch ups in between major shinings like these to get rid of any scuffs.

I don't get this. Foof claimed the same thing when he finally got a chance to wear his new tuxedo (only it was 5 hours, I think !). What takes so long? Is it that you go very slowly, or just keep repeating the same steps over abd over? It seems like even a pair in desperate need of a shine, that you really do a good job on, shouldn't take more than a half hour.....

I've done up to 6 hours a pair, and even 10 hours over the course of a week when I was JROTC. Here's basically how it works: Clean any dirt and dust off of the shoe, you want it to be as clean as possible. Put a nice gob of spit in a can of kiwi polish or a splash of water to get the polish nice and gooey. Rub the spit/water into the polish until you have a nice paste going on. Take that paste and apply a nice thick layer to the shoe. This layer should be thick and hazy and look nasty. That's okay. The polish should be beginning to dry (works best if you heat up the polish a little bit) by the time you finish that coat. Take a lighter or put the shoe over a stove, and run the flame along the shot so that the polish and the leather heat up. The pores in the leather will open and absorb the polish and you'll see while it's heating up, the polish liquifies and looks realy glossy after hte whole shoe looks like that, take it away from the flame and let it cool, then buff it away with a soft cloth. That first coat should already look decent, but for that Patent Leather mirror finish, it takes a lot more. After you finish that first coat, you take your cloth and apply small bits of polish to the shoe rubbing in dime size circles until the polish disappears within the shine. Gradually, the polish will become deeper and shinier, giving a better look than patent leather. Basically you just keep doing this over and over and over and over until the shoe looks the way you want it to, and that takes time. There are several other methods, and I've tried most of them, but this seems to have been the best way to get a real deep and mirror shine. That's how these boots here were done: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rill_boots.JPG It takes time, patience, and a lot of boredom to polish your shoes to that level. You don't really know how shiny they can get until you sit there for hours on end buffing and buffing away at the polish. That's what we were taught in JROTC and i apply the same methods to my dress shoes. Note: The Guard at Buckingham Palace actually take blowtorches and sponges full of polish to their boots to really get a ridiculous glass-like gloss.

10 euros

Always shine my shoes and iron my shirts myself. Partly a matter of pride and partly not trusting someone else with them... plus I find it relaxing

Originally Posted by ClaretandBlue

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$0. Do them myself. I actually enjoy it, and take pride in it.

Outstanding!

do it at home. easy. it aint fast though.