Men's Dress Shoe Problems - Man Always Scuffs Damages Dress Shoes - How To Prevent Shoe
Damage
Hi! I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style. Today, I'm going to be answering
the question, "How can I stop scuffing my dress shoes?"
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This is the question that came in. "Keeping my shoes clean and in shape is my biggest
style problem. I don't know what it is, but I always seem to scuff up my shoes and run
them down. As a result, I've started using cheaper brands in anticipation of simply replacing
them. Do you have any tips or pointers that I could use? Thank you."
All right, so this is an interesting question because this guy is having such a problem
that he's decided, "Well, I'm scuffing up these shoes anyway. I might as well just get
the cheap brand," and really I think he's heading in the wrong direction. My advice
would actually be to upgrade. Now, I don't know exactly, he didn’t tell me exactly
what brand he started with, but I'm assuming that he's -- let's say he's in the $75 to
$100 dress shoe range, so maybe Bostonians or something like that. It's a decent shoe,
but it is not an Allen Edmonds or an Alden or a Church's. Those are shoes that you can
expect to spend $300 to $600 a pair.
A lot of guys, we're used to sneaker prices, so for us, "I would never pay that." Well,
you would pay that amount of money if you understood the value you're getting with a
pair of Allen Edmonds, and I know Allen Edmonds right here in Wisconsin. Those are the uppers
and that's the top part of the dress shoe. That's going to last you 30 to 40 years if
you take care of it. You polish it. You keep it. You don't let water and moisture build
up in there. These things are going to last for almost ever.
The other great part is whenever the heel of the shoe starts to fall apart, you simply
send it back to the factory, and yes, it's going to cost you a hundred bucks, but they
will almost rebuild you a brand new shoe. It's going to be your old shoe, but it's going
to be like new again, and this is an awesome deal. For men that are on their feet and understand
that shoes are one of the first things that people, when they look you up and down, they
take a second to look at your shoes and it's a huge factor. Just ask anyone. It's something
that they notice and they look on the man and they make very interesting decisions based
on what he has on his feet.
Okay, so you're asking, "Well, how is that going to help? I'm spending more money, so
am I going to be wasting more money?" No, because when you upgrade, you get better leathers.
You get a better build. You're going to make sure to work with a salesman at a shoe store
who knows and can help you get those first pair because he's going to help you not only
with -- most of us are used to, "Okay, I'm a 9" or "I'm a 9 ½" or "I'm an 11 ½". We're
not used to actually widths on shoes, and he's going to help you find the right width.
So whenever you upgrade to a higher end shoe, they can also adjust on a lot of the higher
ends the actual arch as well. So you're going to get a better fitting shoe, one that is
much more comfortable because actually it's going to come closer to being the ideal fit
on your foot.
And because the shoe feels better, it fits better and you're going to walk better. I
don't know if you're dragging your feet o perhaps you're just being a bit more clumsy.
Maybe the shoes you're wearing right now, there's just too much heel down there. The
heel is too clunky or perhaps the styles are, but if you go work with a good salesman -- and
these guys usually work at places where they're selling Allen Edmonds or Alden or other higher
end brands -- he will help you find the style. Just let him know what your problems are and
it could be just simply what you're wearing.
I know when I wear work boots, I trip over things quite a bit more because my work boots,
they've got steel toes. They're heavy work boots and I'm just not used to work -- well,
I don't wear them every single day, so yes, I'm not used to it. I used to work in construction,
but the point I'm getting at is they're going to help you find the right style, the right
size, exactly what you need.
And when you upgrade to a higher quality, you get so much more than just the looks.
You also have a wider variety of styles. So if you're scuffing the top of your shoe, he's
going to help you choose colors because at the end of the day, you cannot stop -- everybody
scuffs their shoes, even kings or princes. Look at their footwear that they've been wearing
for 20 or 30 years.
That's actually -- gosh, I can't remember the exact print, but they know that he's owned
this certain pair of shoes because there's a certain scuff mark. Yes, there are people
that track this stuff in the photos. I don't really track it, but I just thought it was
an interesting comment how you could actually see how people become attached to their shoes
and they love them even when they start picking up those little dents, those little cuts.
And to me, that's what gives the shoes a bit of character.
You may not be able to completely polish it out, but you could definitely make it so that
it's very hard to notice, and that's another thing you're going to want to do, is make
sure to shine, to clean, to polish your shoes more often especially that polishing wax.
I mean, the cream and the conditioner, that's great, but it's going to be that top layer,
that polishing wax that whenever you scuff them or you rub them against something, it
actually is going to rub off that wax layer and not get into the leather, so that's another
thing that you're going to want to turn it into a habit, and you will whenever you start
spending more money on shoes because you're going to realize that you're just more careful.
It's like driving a higher end car. I remember the first time I drove a really high-end car.
I was incredibly careful when I was driving that vehicle because I knew the value of it.
With lower end shoes, you treat them like lower end shoes, so I don't think that's where
you want to go. That's all I have. Again, find a salesman that can help you out. These
guys understand shoes. They'll be able to look at your feet and they will be able to
find you the right pair for your needs both professional and personal.
If you've got a question about men's style, you know where to go, mensstyleqa.com, great
website. I've got it going. We've already got a couple hundred questions and answers
there, and we are paying attention to this. YouTube comments, I love seeing you guys in
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to find that comment, so you want to go over to the Men's Style Q&A website and leave your
question there, or if you have a comment, you can leave it here and I'll hopefully see
it.
Okay, guys, I'll see you in the next video. Bye-bye.