Shoe Trees: How Important Are They?

[ThomGault]

I don't have enough experience with low quality leather but I do know that they react badly to stretching. You could of course try with a generic shoe tree to maintain their shape and see how it will react but I genuinely think it would be a waste of money to invest in a cedar shoe tree for a low quality shoe.

I don't think that shoe trees are supposed to stretch shoes, only help maintain and reform proper shape...and again, this would serve to help lower quality leathers and prolong shoe life. Now, whether or not someone who pays no more than ~$50-$75 for a cheap leather shoe would invest ~$20 in a shoe tree is a different question. My wife's disgust when I paid $25 for a chunk of wood was exceeded only when she saw the price of pair of Vass I want.

 

[ShoeWho]

Trees prevent creasing. That's all they do. If the trees prevent the creases from developing into cracks and holes so that the shoes are likely to be thrown out, then yes, the trees have extended the life of the shoe. If the shoe is really wet the leather will try to shrink as it dries, so the trees will have a stretching effect. But they won't make the shoes longer than they were before.

For most people, the true value of trees is that the shoes look uncreased for longer, so you're less likely to stop wearing them.

If you want to prevent creasing you also have to leave the trees in for 24 hours so the sweat dries thoroughly.

Trees are as beneficial for cheap shoes as they are for high quality ones. The process is the same whatever the shoe, including sneakers: the sweat dries without a crease being formed, so the uppers look nicer for longer. So if you love your Nikes, give them trees! Or you can improvise by stuffing them with newspaper - the effect will be the same.

Wooden trees aren't significantly better than plastic ones. The difference is marginal. Don't worry about it.

If your shoes are creased because you've not used trees in the past, immerse the shoe in cold or tepid water, then insert trees (or newspaper!) and let the shoes dry naturally. You need the soles to be flat and untwisted right from the start of the drying process, so to stop them twisting as they dry you may have to improvise with weights, g-clamps or what have you. If you don't do this and the soles dry twisted, don't panic, just soak them again and do a better job of fighting the twisting.

Insoles often peel off when the shoe is soaked and dried. Glue them back on, or treat yourself to new ones.

After the soaking and drying the shoes will need lots of TLC with moisturiser and polish - no big surprise there!

Sometimes a glued shoe will come unglued in the soaking/drying process. If you haven't used hot water or dried the shoes in a hot place, it's very unlikely, but it can happen. especially with older shoes. So buy some glue, clean off the remnants of the old glue, and rebuild your shoes! Clamps and weights will probably be needed to get the shape right.

P.S. When gluing always use glue intended for flexible leather. This could be shoe glue or leather furniture/car seat glue. I suspect they're pretty similar.

P.P.S. Some very old high quality shoes are lined with very thin leather. This stuff gets very fragile when the shoe is soaking wet, and it may well rip to shreds as it dries, as I know from bitter experience. Maybe this could be prevented by moisturising the lining before you soak the shoe.

 

[Jake Tough]

Trees prevent creasing. That's all they do. If the trees prevent the creases from developing into cracks and holes so that the shoes are likely to be thrown out, then yes, the trees have extended the life of the shoe. If the shoe is really wet the leather will try to shrink as it dries, so the trees will have a stretching effect. But they won't make the shoes longer than they were before.

For most people, the true value of trees is that the shoes look uncreased for longer, so you're less likely to stop wearing them.

If you want to prevent creasing you also have to leave the trees in for 24 hours so the sweat dries thoroughly.

Trees are as beneficial for cheap shoes as they are for high quality ones. The process is the same whatever the shoe, including sneakers: the sweat dries without a crease being formed, so the uppers look nicer for longer. So if you love your Nikes, give them trees! Or you can improvise by stuffing them with newspaper - the effect will be the same.

Wooden trees aren't significantly better than plastic ones. The difference is marginal. Don't worry about it.

If your shoes are creased because you've not used trees in the past, immerse the shoe in cold or tepid water, then insert trees (or newsp

Thanks for the feedback. I never tried shoe trees with sneakers.

 

[ShoeWho]

Thanks for the feedback. I never tried shoe trees with sneakers.

Particularly for leather ones.

 

[DesB3rd]

Having kicked off wet office shoes after a sodden ( rain & beer) Friday PM and only gone looking for them two days later I can attest that leather soled shoes are capable of some quite extraordinary contortions.

Trees would have helped no end.

 

[ShoeWho]

Having kicked off wet office shoes after a sodden ( rain & beer) Friday PM and only gone looking for them two days later I can attest that leather soled shoes are capable of some quite extraordinary contortions.

Trees would have helped no end.

You know what to do to remedy that!

Lots of shoes get beer-related irreversible damage. When the leather is wet it can get so soft and fragile you can literally gouge it with a finger nail. If you kick a kerb or walk home on a rough rocky path you can scrape patches off the surface of the toecaps. This can't be fixed! You can disguise it with sprays and fillers and conclude that your shoes have more character..that's the best you can hope for.

 

[Friedmett]

Trees prevent creasing. That's all they do. If the trees prevent the creases from developing into cracks and holes so that the shoes are likely to be thrown out, then yes, the trees have extended the life of the shoe. If the shoe is really wet the leather will try to shrink as it dries, so the trees will have a stretching effect. But they won't make the shoes longer than they were before.

For most people, the true value of trees is that the shoes look uncreased for longer, so you're less likely to stop wearing them.

If you want to prevent creasing you also have to leave the trees in for 24 hours so the sweat dries thoroughly.

Trees are as beneficial for cheap shoes as they are for high quality ones. The process is the same whatever the shoe, including sneakers: the sweat dries without a crease being formed, so the uppers look nicer for longer. So if you love your Nikes, give them trees! Or you can improvise by stuffing them with newspaper - the effect will be the same.

Wooden trees aren't significantly better than plastic ones. The difference is marginal. Don't worry about it.

If your shoes are creased because you've not used trees in the past, immerse the shoe in cold or tepid water, then insert trees (or newspaper!) and let the shoes dry naturally. You need the soles to be flat and untwisted right from the start of the drying process, so to stop them twisting as they dry you may have to improvise with weights, g-clamps or what have you. If you don't do this and the soles dry twisted, don't panic, just soak them again and do a better job of fighting the twisting.

Insoles often peel off when the shoe is soaked and dried. Glue them back on, or treat yourself to new ones.

After the soaking and drying the shoes will need lots of TLC with moisturiser and polish - no big surprise there!

Sometimes a glued shoe will come unglued in the soaking/drying process. If you haven't used hot water or dried the shoes in a hot place, it's very unlikely, but it can happen. especially with older shoes. So buy some glue, clean off the remnants of the old glue, and rebuild your shoes! Clamps and weights will probably be needed to get the shape right.

P.S. When gluing always use glue intended for flexible leather. This could be shoe glue or leather furniture/car seat glue. I suspect they're pretty similar.

P.P.S. Some very old high quality shoes are lined with very thin leather. This stuff gets very fragile when the shoe is soaking wet, and it may well rip to shreds as it dries, as I know from bitter experience. Maybe this could be prevented by moisturising the lining before you soak the shoe.

Thank you very much for the information! I will soon be adding wood trees to my collection of leather shoes.

 

[Jake Tough]

Thanks everybody.

 

[shoerejuvenator]

If you've ever wondered why some shoe trees don't fit certain sizes very well it's because shoe trees are made to single sizes. No longer spring system. No augmented design. You're simply using a shoe tree designed for the smallest shoe size available in that particular range i.e. A shoe tree for sizes 10-12 is a size 10 shoe tree. You're also very likely using a shoe tree moulded from a single European size, of which, size conversion is already tricky at best. A local shoe tree supplier may make one particular model locally, e.g. the Ultra, but the bulk of the stock comes from China. Most Chinese manufactures use European-sized moulds because Europe is the biggest market.

 

[ernestgraingergrace]

A cautionary tale and a proposal for a more specific way of using of shoe trees...

I have always loved leather shoes, from when I was a small child and my pairs would only cost 50-100USD, to now when my pairs go higher than 1000USD. When I started buying these expensive shoes, I read about shoe trees and made sure to get wooden ones for each pair of shoes I had.

The trees sure kept the shape of my shoes, six years later and the creasing on the outer leather is minimal, certainly better looking than my last pair of Clark's Bostonians. But the insides of these shoes tell a very different story, almost 50% of my pairs have holes or scratches on the lining at the contact points of the wood and the leather. I first noticed lining damage on a pair of JM Westons, I thought this was because the lining was supple (too supple, maybe) and it couldn't take the roughing up of regular wear.

I have been out of the office for almost a year now and my shoes have been stored in their trees all this time, when I did a check this week, almost half of them had holes. The wooden trees probably made the lining too dry and the act of taking out the trees to try on the shoes further scratched and damaged the lining. I took a look at my cheap pair that had no shoe trees and they were fine.

I am very sad about this, now I am thinking that shoes shouldn't be stored for an extended amount of time with shoe trees inside them. Is it better to remove the shoe trees after one day of drying and afterward simply using the crumpled tissue/paper that came with the shoe box?

I also thought cheaper cedar (relatively) shoe trees from Woodlore were to blame. But lasted shoe trees from the shoe manufacturers themselves also damaged some of my pairs. Is it possible that plastic shoe trees may turn out to be better because it doesn't absorb any/excess moisture from the leather and simply maintains the shape of the shoe while it air dries?

In the future, I don't think I will buy anymore shoe trees, it will save me money and I can simply rotate the ones I have now and use them on freshly used shoes and then remove them a day (or even less time) later. It might be a better idea to only have one pair of trees because most men only wear one pair of shoes a day.