How often to polish and condition shoes?

[Son Of Saphir]

Me do mirror shine that took 6 hour.
Never again.
Me just wear dull shoe now.

there is a considerable loss of shine on even the second wear after a polish.

lt true Will,
it true.

 

[Son Of Saphir]

Originally Posted by Charley

Liberally using the conditioner has a couple of benefits. The obvious one is that it does moisturize the leather and help prevent drying and cracking. It may even cause the creases to be more like rolls than small wrinkles.

However the application of the conditioner (Lexol, Meltonian, Saphir) will help to clean the dead polish from the shoes. And it will also carry some of the polish color into the leather.

Yes.

http://www.berluti.com/#/creation/polish

 

[shanker]

Originally Posted by oldog/oldtrix

I like this.

Depends on the situation, but I prefer my main roatation to have this dull/natural look, rather than a mirror finish. It has its place, but shoes that look like glass dont work for daily wear imo.

 

[Lear]

Originally Posted by shanker

I like this.

Depends on the situation, but I prefer my main roatation to have this dull/natural look, rather than a mirror finish. It has its place, but shoes that look like glass dont work for daily wear imo.

I agree. I'm having a hard time trying to imagine the kind of person who'd spend hours mirror shining a damn shoe.

Lear

P.S. Apologies for the use of 'damn' above. I could have used the 'F' word, then I really would have been in trouble. Luckily, my strict code of conduct prevents me from doing so.

 

[lullemans72]

I would like to revive this thread as I wanted to ask some advice on my current shoe shine routine during covid.

So pre-covid, I was wearing suits to the office from Mondays to Fridays, except for casual Fridays once a month. I have about 3 to 4 pairs of shoes in my rotation that would get regular weekly wear. My shoe shine routine (using only Saphir products) looked something like this:

• Insert shoe trees, brush shoes after every wear, and store in shoe closet
• Polish/wax shoes once a month
• Condition shoes with Renovateur once per season + do the above steps
• Use Reno mat once per year to remove everything and start afresh

Due to covid and the office being closed, we weren't allowed back until the fall of 2020. Since we weren't allowed to meet customers F2F, the dress code was casual. But I would personally still come to the office wearing a suit about once a week simply because I wanted to. As such, each pair of shoes has been getting maybe one wear per month. My routine now looks more like this:

• Insert shoe trees, brush shoes after each wear and store in shoe closet
• Condition shoes with Renovateur once per season

Since January of this year, I no longer add cream or wax polish to the shoes as they barely get any wear, but I figured I should at least condition them every 3 months.

Is this still OK as a shoe care routine, or am I perhaps committing some cardinal sin?

 

[dieworkwear]

I would like to revive this thread as I wanted to ask some advice on my current (or lack of) shoe shine routine during covid.

So before covid hit us, I was wearing suits to the office every day, except for casual Fridays once a month.
I have about 7 pairs of dress shoes, but only about 3 or 4 pairs would get worn about once a week.
Thus, my shoe shine routine (using only Saphir products) looked something like this:

• Insert shoe trees, brush shoes after every wear, and store in shoe closet
• Polish/wax shoes once a month
• Condition shoes with Renovateur once per season + polish and wax
• Use Reno mat once per year to remove everything and start afresh

Due to covid, however, we were all confided to WFH for the first few months. Towards the fall of 2020, the office became available again to those who wished to go, and we were allowed to dress casually since we couldn't meet customers F2F. I personally would still come to the office wearing a suit about once a week simply because I wanted to. As such, each pair of shoes has been getting maybe one wear per month. My routine now looks more like this:

• Insert shoe trees, brush shoes after each wear and store in shoe closet
• Condition shoes with Renovateur once per season

Since January of this year, I no longer add cream or wax polish to the shoes as they barely get any wear, but I figured I should at least condition them every 3 months.

Is this still OK as a shoe care routine, or am I perhaps committing some cardinal sin?

I condition and polish my shoes maybe once every two or three years. The only regular maintenance I keep is using shoe trees. I also use a horsehair brush to keep dust off. Haven't noticed any ill effects.

Have some shoes that haven't had conditioner or polish in at least seven or eight years.

 

[lullemans72]

I condition and polish my shoes maybe once every two or three years. The only regular maintenance I keep is using shoe trees. I also use a horsehair brush to keep dust off. Haven't noticed any ill effects.

Have some shoes that haven't had conditioner or polish in at least seven or eight years.

Wow, that sounds pretty unbelievable. How many pairs do you own, and how often do you wear them?

 

[dieworkwear]

Wow, that sounds pretty unbelievable. How many pairs do you own, and how often do you wear them?

Have more shoes than I care to admit. But I mostly rotate between the same five pairs:

- A brown grained pair of Templeman split-toes
- A brown smooth calfskin pair of Templeman split-toes
- A pair of Edward Green Dovers in dark oak
- A pair of black Brooks Brothers tassel loafers (made by Alden)
- A dark brown pair of Edward Green Piccadilly loafers

Prior to the pandemic, I wore my CM-styled shoes about four days a week. In the last year, they've been worn maybe two dozens times because of the lockdowns.

Have some shoes that get worn about once every year or two. They never get any kind of polish, conditioner, or anything.

 

[lullemans72]

Have more shoes than I care to admit. But I mostly rotate between the same five pairs:

- A brown grained pair of Templeman split-toes
- A brown smooth calfskin pair of Templeman split-toes
- A pair of Edward Green Dovers in dark oak
- A pair of black Brooks Brothers tassel loafers (made by Alden)
- A dark brown pair of Edward Green Piccadilly loafers

Prior to the pandemic, I wore my CM-styled shoes about four days a week. In the last year, they've been worn maybe two dozens times because of the lockdowns.

Have some shoes that get worn about once every year or two. They never get any kind of polish, conditioner, or anything.

Well, I must say this is pretty remarkable. I'm guessing you are on one extreme of the spectrum while others who overpolish would be on the other extreme. At least for me, back when I wore my shoes on a weekly rotation, they would get enough scuff marks requiring me to polish them up towards the end of the month.

Going back to the original question though, are you suggesting I only polish and condition my shoes with the same frequency as you do, or is my past and current routine good enough?

 

[dieworkwear]

Well, I must say this is pretty remarkable. I'm guessing you are on one extreme of the spectrum while others who overpolish would be on the other extreme. At least for me, back when I wore my shoes on a weekly rotation, they would get enough scuff marks requiring me to polish them up towards the end of the month.

Going back to the original question though, are you suggesting I only polish and condition my shoes with the same frequency as you do, or is my past and current routine good enough?

Not saying that you need to adopt my routine. Just saying that nothing bad happens to your shoes if you don't polish or condition them very often, at least in my experience. If you like taking care of your shoes as an activity (meaning, it's something you do for fun) or if you like the look of high-shine shoes, then you will need and want to polish your shoes more often. I personally don't like shoe care routines very much and am ambivalent about the look of high shine shoes. At the very least, I've found that shoes don't crack or dry out if they're not conditioned very often.

 

[JFWR]

I would like to revive this thread as I wanted to ask some advice on my current shoe shine routine during covid.

So pre-covid, I was wearing suits to the office from Mondays to Fridays, except for casual Fridays once a month. I have about 3 to 4 pairs of shoes in my rotation that would get regular weekly wear. My shoe shine routine (using only Saphir products) looked something like this:

• Insert shoe trees, brush shoes after every wear, and store in shoe closet
• Polish/wax shoes once a month
• Condition shoes with Renovateur once per season + do the above steps
• Use Reno mat once per year to remove everything and start afresh

Due to covid and the office being closed, we weren't allowed back until the fall of 2020. Since we weren't allowed to meet customers F2F, the dress code was casual. But I would personally still come to the office wearing a suit about once a week simply because I wanted to. As such, each pair of shoes has been getting maybe one wear per month. My routine now looks more like this:

• Insert shoe trees, brush shoes after each wear and store in shoe closet
• Condition shoes with Renovateur once per season

Since January of this year, I no longer add cream or wax polish to the shoes as they barely get any wear, but I figured I should at least condition them every 3 months.

Is this still OK as a shoe care routine, or am I perhaps committing some cardinal sin?

Why did you respond to a thread that is 10 years old that has been repeated here multiple times?

Also, I guess I will now that it has been thread necromantized:

I polish my shoes about once every four wearings, which after the initial polish is far less involved as I already built up a high shine and thus merely must renew. I cream polish every second polish unless there are scuffs. I condition about once a year.

 

[lullemans72]

Not saying that you need to adopt my routine. Just saying that nothing bad happens to your shoes if you don't polish or condition them very often, at least in my experience. If you like taking care of your shoes as an activity (meaning, it's something you do for fun) or if you like the look of high-shine shoes, then you will need and want to polish your shoes more often. I personally don't like shoe care routines very much and am ambivalent about the look of high shine shoes. At the very least, I've found that shoes don't crack or dry out if they're not conditioned very often.

Thanks for clarifying. I do enjoy mirror shining my shoes every now and again, but in terms providing basic care for them like conditioning or shining, I don't really want to be doing it more than necessary.

Why did you respond to a thread that is 10 years old that has been repeated here multiple times?

Also, I guess I will now that it has been thread necromantized:

I polish my shoes about once every four wearings, which after the initial polish is far less involved as I already built up a high shine and thus merely must renew. I cream polish every second polish unless there are scuffs. I condition about once a year.

I posted here because it came up in the search results, and I thought I'd revive this thread rather than starting a new one. Wasn't aware of other threads on this topic. Sorry if I missed those. Anyway, cheers for sharing your shine routine.

 

[Zapasman]

Just brush your shoes and insert their trees. Let your cobbler to condition them once you need a resole. Do not poison much yourself, there are better and healthier hobbies...

 

[JFWR]

Just brush your shoes and insert their trees. Let your cobbler to condition them once you need a resole. Do not poison much yourself, there are better and healthier hobbies...

You can't get poisoned by shoe polish and leather conditioners unless you eat them.

 

[bicycleradical]

I brush my shoes before and after every wear and polish them when they begin looking dull. Shoe trees are a must.

Conditioning is done twice a year or if they begin looking a little dry. I've tried a mirror shine and decided it was not worth the effort to build so I just concentrate on keeping my shoes looking nice. There was a time when I was much more dedicated to keeping my shoes as shiny as possible however I've since decided that it's not necessary.