**The Official Shoe Care Thread: Tutorials, Photos, etc.**

[madhat]

First post, seeking advice.

I've got an pair of J&M shoes I can't seem to do anything with. By "old" I mean 10-15 years, and I don't recall anything about the purchase, such as the model, materials, or how often I've had them resoled. The tongue says "Johnson and Murphy Limited" for what that's worth. I've attached two pictures, and the leather seems to have a wax or other glossy and not-very-porous finish on it, and has been sanded/smoothed.

My question(s) is this: It doesn't seem to take either polish or conditioner very well. I've applied Reno and AE shoe cream to it, but the scuffs and stains remain the same no matter what I use or how often. The product seems to rub right off and I'm back to where I started. Is the leather treatment such that I'm wasting my time with product? Am I missing something? It's frustrating to spend a lot of time and effort trying to fix these and have nothing to show for it.

Thanks in advance.

Could they be some form of corrected grain? You'll find that hard finished layer to be difficult to overcome (as you're reporting)

 

[Rugger]

Hate it when one shoe takes a mirror shine in 3-4 coats and 5 minutes, and it's partner takes 100+ and over an hour

 

[TenTriply]

Wish I could be more helpful -- you are bound to get advice on dyeing suede. Did the black boots face? Because if a real black-black is what you would, check out the Bowery by Allen Edmonds. It is a nice deep true black. I think they are beautiful.

-- TenTriply

Angulus suede dye is purple based black and left the suede a very dark brown. Feibings is a blue black, but didn't really make much of a color correction towards the factory black suede (far left). It also seemed watered down compared to Angulus.
I'm considering a round of navy dye in the hopes the bluer dye will help to override the brown tones.
View attachment 1342517
Does anyone have any experience getting a more "black" black suede with dyes?

 

[TenTriply]

Wish I could be more helpful -- you are bound to get advice on dyeing suede. Did the black boots face? Because if a real black-black is what you would, check out the Bowery by Allen Edmonds. It is a nice deep true black. I think they are beautiful.

-- TenTriply

 

[Keith Taylor]

I recently picked up a pair of vintage Paul Stuart cap toe Oxfords on an eBay binge. They’d been fairly well cared for, but judging by the creasing on the vamps I assumed the former owner had never stripped down the shoes and started from scratch, and had instead allowed layer after layer of polish to build up. I figured it would be an easy fix.

Yesterday I finally found the time to give them some TLC. I used Reno’mat to strip the leather, conditioned the shoes with Renovateur and reapplied a layer of cognac cream polish. They looked great. The creasing was still present, of course, but it was smoothed by the cream polish almost to the point of invisibility.

This afternoon, though, I went for a quick walk, threw on the shoes and noticed that at the very first step the creases immediately reappeared, and not just a little but a hell of a lot. It was as if the moment the leather flexed it completely squeezed out the pigment.

Of course polishing a shoe will never completely smooth out imperfections, and creasing will always be at least a little visible, but I’ve never seen a shoe (that wasn’t made of corrected leather) repel pigment to this extent, this quickly. As best as I can tell these are made from good quality leather, and they don’t appear to be cracking. The creases are barely deep enough to be felt when you run your fingers over the leather, and the colour is restored in a few seconds with a brisk brushing, but the moment you so much as breathe on these things the colour is forced out of the leather.

Any tips? I really like these shoes, but this degree of discolouration is distractingly bad.

After wear under bright light. Left shoe brushed for ten seconds, right as is.

 

[madhat]

Wish I could be more helpful -- you are bound to get advice on dyeing suede. Did the black boots face? Because if a real black-black is what you would, check out the Bowery by Allen Edmonds. It is a nice deep true black. I think they are beautiful.

-- TenTriply

The left is a Caen, these are suede HMs i was testing dyeing black. I have a brown Bowery (but was originally planning on getting the black). I like them a lot, but they're even more casual than what I'm going for. Despite what that pic shows, they're waxed/burnished in actuality like the new waxed suede HMs. Thanks for the suggestion though!

 

[rob g]

Hi all,
Before I knew anything about shoes, I purchased a pair of used Neiman Marcus black wingtips made in England off Ebay for $20. I've since come to realize they are Edward Green shoes (202 last), however they had been resoled, and whoever resoled them appears to have blake stitched them (I can see the stitching inside shoe coming up through the insole). This realization sparked me to inspect a pair of vintage Cole Haan's (made in USA) that I had resoled at a local cobbler (Romano cobbler in NYC), again before I knew anything about shoes, and it's the same thing, visible stitching through the insole.
So, I'm glad I've figured out never to go to that cobbler again prior to bringing more expensive shoes in, but I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this? Is this a common practice with sloppy cobblers? Also, would the stitching through the insole cause a problem if I ever wanted to try and get these shoes resoled properly?

 

[TenTriply]

Hi all,
Before I knew anything about shoes, I purchased a pair of used Neiman Marcus black wingtips made in England off Ebay for $20. I've since come to realize they are Edward Green shoes (202 last), however they had been resoled, and whoever resoled them appears to have blake stitched them (I can see the stitching inside shoe coming up through the insole). This realization sparked me to inspect a pair of vintage Cole Haan's (made in USA) that I had resoled at a local cobbler (Romano cobbler in NYC), again before I knew anything about shoes, and it's the same thing, visible stitching through the insole.
So, I'm glad I've figured out never to go to that cobbler again prior to bringing more expensive shoes in, but I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this? Is this a common practice with sloppy cobblers? Also, would the stitching through the insole cause a problem if I ever wanted to try and get these shoes resoled properly?

Yikes !

 

[Ziqianzhu]

I am new to shoe care and I am pretty cautious about shoe cream/polish Color to use. I am curious what it will happen if I keep using dark brown cream on a pair of light brown shoes. Anyone can share his experience? I noticed Kirby Allison used brown high gloss but black mirror gloss wax to polish his brown shoes, does the Color matter?

 

[JFWR]

First post, seeking advice.

I've got an pair of J&M shoes I can't seem to do anything with. By "old" I mean 10-15 years, and I don't recall anything about the purchase, such as the model, materials, or how often I've had them resoled. The tongue says "Johnson and Murphy Limited" for what that's worth. I've attached two pictures, and the leather seems to have a wax or other glossy and not-very-porous finish on it, and has been sanded/smoothed.

My question(s) is this: It doesn't seem to take either polish or conditioner very well. I've applied Reno and AE shoe cream to it, but the scuffs and stains remain the same no matter what I use or how often. The product seems to rub right off and I'm back to where I started. Is the leather treatment such that I'm wasting my time with product? Am I missing something? It's frustrating to spend a lot of time and effort trying to fix these and have nothing to show for it.

Thanks in advance.

When leather just won't take the polish, your best bet is to use a blow dryer and melt that wax on there.



I've a pair of relatively cheap, inexpensive shoes that are almost certainly corrected grain, and I couldn't really get them to buff to a high shine. I did what Kirby said to do in this video and they looked better after a few minutes.

I'd also suggest using the Beaut de Cuir saphir polish instead of the pommadier, as the pommadier is supposed to only penetrate full grain leather, whereas the Beaut de Cuir will work on pretty much anything.

 

[JFWR]

I am new to shoe care and I am pretty cautious about shoe cream/polish Color to use. I am curious what it will happen if I keep using dark brown cream on a pair of light brown shoes. Anyone can share his experience? I noticed Kirby Allison used brown high gloss but black mirror gloss wax to polish his brown shoes, does the Color matter?

If you use darker cream polish on your shoes you will make them darker. Doing this purposefully is called antiquing your shoes, and it is a really nice way to make a pair of shoes look spectacularly better if you like that look; however, if you want to maintain the original colour of your shoes, you really need to match the colour to the cream as well as you can.

Cream polish will never dye the leather quite as well as a leather dye, so there are ways to remove the affect, but it really does stain it pretty good on its own, especially with high pigment stuff like Saphir. I know that I've saddle soaped the hell out of my shoes I've antiqued and not gotten the stain off. Only Saphir renomat has ever taken the stain from the cream polish off the shoes.

 

[JFWR]

Hi all,
Before I knew anything about shoes, I purchased a pair of used Neiman Marcus black wingtips made in England off Ebay for $20. I've since come to realize they are Edward Green shoes (202 last), however they had been resoled, and whoever resoled them appears to have blake stitched them (I can see the stitching inside shoe coming up through the insole). This realization sparked me to inspect a pair of vintage Cole Haan's (made in USA) that I had resoled at a local cobbler (Romano cobbler in NYC), again before I knew anything about shoes, and it's the same thing, visible stitching through the insole.
So, I'm glad I've figured out never to go to that cobbler again prior to bringing more expensive shoes in, but I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this? Is this a common practice with sloppy cobblers? Also, would the stitching through the insole cause a problem if I ever wanted to try and get these shoes resoled properly?

****, Romano has done that? I've been there before! I bought some Saphir polish and had a shoe shine once or twice on my way to work.

If you want a really great cobbler, go to Minas Shoe Repair at 63 Wall Street on Hanover. They're geniuses there.

 

[JFWR]

I recently picked up a pair of vintage Paul Stuart cap toe Oxfords on an eBay binge. They’d been fairly well cared for, but judging by the creasing on the vamps I assumed the former owner had never stripped down the shoes and started from scratch, and had instead allowed layer after layer of polish to build up. I figured it would be an easy fix.

Yesterday I finally found the time to give them some TLC. I used Reno’mat to strip the leather, conditioned the shoes with Renovateur and reapplied a layer of cognac cream polish. They looked great. The creasing was still present, of course, but it was smoothed by the cream polish almost to the point of invisibility.

This afternoon, though, I went for a quick walk, threw on the shoes and noticed that at the very first step the creases immediately reappeared, and not just a little but a hell of a lot. It was as if the moment the leather flexed it completely squeezed out the pigment.

Of course polishing a shoe will never completely smooth out imperfections, and creasing will always be at least a little visible, but I’ve never seen a shoe (that wasn’t made of corrected leather) repel pigment to this extent, this quickly. As best as I can tell these are made from good quality leather, and they don’t appear to be cracking. The creases are barely deep enough to be felt when you run your fingers over the leather, and the colour is restored in a few seconds with a brisk brushing, but the moment you so much as breathe on these things the colour is forced out of the leather.

Any tips? I really like these shoes, but this degree of discolouration is distractingly bad.

View attachment 1342605 View attachment 1342606 View attachment 1342607 View attachment 1342608
After wear under bright light. Left shoe brushed for ten seconds, right as is.

Yikes, dude. That's an unfortunate situation.

That crease looks DEEP. I would suggest that maybe you need to dye the leather? It's clear that a cream polish is just not enough.

 

[Keith Taylor]

The weird thing is that the creases don’t seem all that deep. They’re a little deeper than most of my shoes, yes, but I have a dozen+ pairs at all levels of quality from Carlos Santos and Alfred Sargent to Zegna to AE. They’re all vintage and they all have creasing to some extent, but these PS don’t seem out of the ordinary, creasewise.

In any case I think you’re right. Unless anyone else has any tips I may need to dye these to fix the colour. Frustrating, though, as I only bought them because the price was right. It’ll be annoying to have to pay for the dye after investing in all the refurb gear. Bah.

 

[rob g]

****, Romano has done that? I've been there before! I bought some Saphir polish and had a shoe shine once or twice on my way to work.

If you want a really great cobbler, go to Minas Shoe Repair at 63 Wall Street on Hanover. They're geniuses there.

Yeah, at the time I didn't know any better so I thought it was great, but definitely wouldn't pay for more than a shine there now. I will check out Minas Shoe Repair next time I need a resole, thanks for the suggestion.