The bottom of your shoes

[montecristo#4]

I'm wondering what the consensus is here on polishing the bottoms of one's shoes. Does anyone do it? I expect it could help with water resistance, and help condition the leather down there, but doesn't it stain carpets?

And if you do polish, do you separate your shoe bottom polishing equipment from your regular polishing equipment? Shoe bottoms are pretty dirty.

Montecristo

 

[puzzledexpression]

And what about shoecream... should it be applied to the sole? Both polish or cream if used should be neutral in colour?

 

[LabelKing]

I believe one uses a show cream for the soles.

Not too many people do it apparently.

 

[T4phage]

Clean the sole of your shoes, then apply warm linseed oil with a toothbrush. Helps waterproof the bottoms.

 

[mistahlee]

Clean the sole of your shoes, then apply warm linseed oil with a toothbrush.  Helps waterproof the bottoms.

Does it enhance the appearance?

 

[faustian bargain]

this is fascinating...i seriously never even thought of polishing the soles. i'll have to give it a shot sometime.

 

[housemaidsknee]

does polishing the bottoms make the shoe slippery in wet weather?

 

[kidkim2]

I think it was Diana Vreeland who dictated that the soles of the well-dressed woman's footwear must be dyed to match the rest of the shoe. (Staircases, you know. . . .)

If I only knew what she required in the case of tiger-stripes, or leopard spots. . . .

 

[faustian bargain]

i like it when an otherwise normal-looking woman's shoe, say a black leather heel, is red or hot pink on the sole. it suggests the wearer deserves male companions with a sir walter raleigh-like demeanor. (raleigh being the one who threw his cloak down over a puddle for the queen.)

 

[LabelKing]

Speaking of women, and their shoes Gloria Swanson always used to polish the soles of her shoes.

 

[LA Guy]

does polishing the bottoms make the shoe slippery in wet weather?

It's always slippery when wet.

 

[Phil]

Edward Green polished a pair of shoes I sent back to them for repair last year. I had never seen something like that before. They didnt seem any more slippery, but it just seemed like a waste.

 

[LA Guy]

...They didnt seem any more slippery...

Just forget it.

 

[Tom]

Lol, LA Guy

 

[Phil]

LA guy, i got the joke, or what you thought was a joke. I was trying to answer an earlier inquiry as to whether a polished sole would in fact be slippery in the wet weather.