Are my shoe trees OK?

[TommySch]

Good day,
I bought a pair of shoe trees for my dress shoes but I'm not sure if they fit right or not. Lady in store advised me to get shoes trees in same size as my shoes. When we've put them in she told me that it's well. I'm not sure now because I need to make the gap where are metal sticks between parts of wood so small. It can be seen in photos which I attached. On one photo there is shoe tree inside and on the other photo there is how it looks outside.

What do you think? Are they OK or too big?

 

[Ich_Dien]

They seem fine. As long as they fill out the vamp and don't deform either the width or heel then they're ok.

 

[Anachronist]

Hi TommySch,

I would say they look about right. The ideal shoe tree should have the same shape as the last a shoe was made on, but unless you buy the (often overpriced) fitting shoe trees of the shoe manufacturer (and not all offer shoe trees, let alone fitting ones), all aftermarket shoe trees will remain a compromise. Best recommendation is to buy one where the general shape of the shoe tree as closely as possible corresponds to the shape of the shoe especially when looking at them from the top and front. They should fit into the shoe with compression (i.e. there should be a gap of 5-10mm between front and rear parts of the shoe tree, you need the pressure to stretch the leather gently back into shape), but it shouldn't take force to get the shoe tree into the shoe (no gap would not be good), nor should they fit loosely into the shoe (no compression of front and rear sections and therefore no stretching of the leather). Whilst taking same size of shoe trees is a start, you'll only find out if you try them in the specific shoes as different shoes will differ in length across the same size from maker to maker and last to last. Also, bear in mind that cedar wood shoe trees shrink with age and will become slightly looser over time.