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Antiquing shoes the old fashion way; with your feet

blackplatano

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A lot of talk in SF is either about Antiquing shoes or Antiqued shoes. Little is ever said of the natural patina that artificial Antiquing tries to imitate. I'm talking about shoes that had a solid color out the box and later developed a patina naturally.


How does proper shoe care affect the patina?
What shoes polishes produce the best results?
What results have you gotten in your well worn shoes?
ETC



We need a thread where this matters are discussed. Might as well be this one.

The streetwear and denim forum has an evolution thread for denim. This would be an evolution thread for our shoes.

All those fine shoes posted on the shoe damage thread need to reunite once again a year later and let us see how they are doing. Those cordovan aldens from the 90's should make an apperance as well.

Unfortunatly, I can't start this off with examples, but I'm sure some the more experienced members will.
 

lee_44106

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A lot of the shoe damage pieces are like museum pieces: looks good but hardly, if ever, worn.
 

bigbris1

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This is what I had in mind when I started the thread entitled, "Shoes With Character".

Shoes that have developed, over time, a particular quikiness and or patina characteristic of normal usage. I found that just regular maintenance can give your shoes (constructed of good calf leather) a beautiful patination.

We polish shoes uniformly throughout, but some areas are more wear-prone than others, often resulting in this patination mentioned above.
 

blackplatano

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Originally Posted by lee_44106
A lot of the shoe damage pieces are like museum pieces: looks good but hardly, if ever, worn.

If you are talking about the shoe fairy, yes. Others do wear their shoes a little more often.
 

Merckx

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Originally Posted by lee_44106
A lot of the shoe damage pieces are like museum pieces: looks good but hardly, if ever, worn.

I can't speak for others, but I generally take a few pictures of them when I first acquire them, then I wear the bajeezus out of them.
 

william

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I'm with you here.

One of the reasons I like Vass shoes so much is that they offer gorgeous solid colors which will develop their own patina over time. My first pair of Oxblood oxfords is already starting to develop some gorgeous tones.

From what I've read, using different colors of wax can enrich the patina. I plan to purchase the entire line of Saphir colors sometime soon so I can have multiple shades of wax to work with.

There's an EG boot I'm interested in and if I order it I'm going to request that no antiquing is applied.
 

blackplatano

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Originally Posted by william
I'm with you here.

One of the reasons I like Vass shoes so much is that they offer gorgeous solid colors which will develop their own patina over time. My first pair of Oxblood oxfords is already starting to develop some gorgeous tones.

From what I've read, using different colors of wax can enrich the patina. I plan to purchase the entire line of Saphir colors sometime soon so I can have multiple shades of wax to work with.

There's an EG boot I'm interested in and if I order it I'm going to request that no antiquing is applied.


Pictures, please.

I am thinking about doing the samething with the next shoes I'll buy. They will be dark brown but i plan on polishing with some hues like mahagony, chestnut, tan and see what I get.

In general, is polishing dark shoes with lighter colors effective in creating a nice marble effect/patina?
 

william

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Originally Posted by blackplatano
Pictures, please.

I am thinking about doing the samething with the next shoes I'll buy. They will be dark brown but i plan on polishing with some hues like mahagony, chestnut, tan and see what I get.

In general, is polishing dark shoes with lighter colors effective in creating a nice marble effect/patina?


No pictures yet. I'll wait a few more months.

I think the biggest contributing factor to a natural patina is simply wearing the shoes a lot while still keeping good care of them. From what I've read, using different colors helps create depth. Using lighter colors just allows the original color of the shoe to do it's thing (lightening up in some spots, darkening in others).
 

billiebob

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Originally Posted by william
No pictures yet. I'll wait a few more months.

I think the biggest contributing factor to a natural patina is simply wearing the shoes a lot while still keeping good care of them. From what I've read, using different colors helps create depth. Using lighter colors just allows the original color of the shoe to do it's thing (lightening up in some spots, darkening in others).



Exactly. Wear the hell of of them, polish them every other wearing with alternating colors or brands of shoe polish and your shoes will look great. They will also look worn. Let's face it, polishing can't undo scuffs and creases 100%. I have 20+ pairs of shoes and most of them look more beat up than the worst in the shoe Appreciation threads within 2 wearings, despite good care.
 

blackplatano

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Originally Posted by billiebob
Exactly. Wear the hell of of them, polish them every other wearing with alternating colors or brands of shoe polish and your shoes will look great. They will also look worn. Let's face it, polishing can't undo scuffs and creases 100%. I have 20+ pairs of shoes and most of them look more beat up than the worst in the shoe Appreciation threads within 2 wearings, despite good care.

^^^ useless with out pics.
 

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