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<p>LOL! Reminds me of all the years D & S were in Scouts. I always got a chuckle out of the number of kids who showed up with badges glued or pinned on, instead of sewn. Again, my age is showing since my kids always had everything sewn on perfectly. But, ROTC S will have to figure all that out for himself.</p>
<p>My Thorlo socks last years without darning. My LLBean fleece jackets last so long that the colors are back in fashion. My Birkenstocks have been resoled twice. Lucy replaced my pants free when I complained about the zippers (and LLBean replaced a sweater of my daughter’s that didn’t wear well). My dog’s Coach leather collars look brand new despite being years old and worn every day.</p>
<p>If you’re not happy with the wear you get, return the item. If you can’t return it… don’t buy the same thing next time.</p>
<p>I shocked at all of you who don’t shine their shoes! I was always taught that that’s how you can tell if someone is “high class” or not. Lower class people don’t shine their shoes.</p>
<p>When I worked in NYC, I was always taking one pair or another into “Fast Eddie’s” in Grand Central Station for resoling or reheeling or shining. If you get someone who can do it right, it’s almost like having a brand new pair of shoes.</p>
<p>I have a pair of Salvatore Ferragamo shoes that I bought on sale 10 years ago. I’ve had them resoled about three times, and I still wear them. </p>
<p>A good cobbler can make leather that has been ruined by rain or salt look new again. One of the best ways to save money that I know of.</p>
<p>I love to clean leather. When my D rode horses, her friends teased me about my leather cleaning fettish since she never came to the barn with anything that wasn’t clean. I found it very relaxing. Of course, you don’t use shoe polish on a saddle - you use oil if you want to darken the leather.</p>
<p>Oh man, this thread is touching a nerve.</p>
<p>My parents grew up in the Depression. My Harvard-educated father built our first house (and was probably not the only WWII vet on the block to do so). He also built much of the furniture in it, furniture I inherited and proudly own to this day, along with pieces my son or I have built.</p>
<p>My mother hand-hooked braided rugs from scraps of wool from old clothes, or from the cuttings of new clothes she made for herself and my sisters from patterns. She also knit us sweaters. Scraps of bath soap were placed in a wire basket that went into a set tub for hand laundry. We did have a solar-powered clothes dryer (called a “clothes line” for you neophytes).</p>
<p>I remember shoe-shining early on Sunday mornings before Church. Sort of a ritual before the ritual. PackMom is so right about the smell of polish; a Proustian memory comes back as I write this. It gives way to waves of other olfactory memories, of home-made apple pies, a table laden with deep-fried donuts … the smells of oil paint, pine shavings, and turpentine from endless household projects.</p>
<p>I used to watch and later help my Dad polish his shoes on Saturday too; he was a Minister and had to look good on Sunday mornings. I remember the polishing box and that he had a brush for black shoes and one for brown shoes.</p>
<p>My latest “shoe shine” story though, concerns my college daughter. She brought home a bunch of clothes over the summer then forgot to take them back in August (because they weren’t strewn about the room where the belonged but were in the closet where she didn’t think to look!). I was instructed to send them and noticed that her very high-heeled metallic silver shoes were horribly scuffed. I know she loves them and wears them a lot so I decided to bring them back to life. I sanded them down, stuffed them with newspaper and spray painted them. The silver spray paint was a little more matte finished than the original shine but they looked amazing. The best part was that I only had silver spray paint because I’d used it to spray paint some Tin Man shoes years ago for the school play. I sent the shoes off to D and waited for her response. She was very entertained when I told her what I’d done.</p>
<p>Both my sons learned to sew because they took quiliting as their Studio Art elective in elementary school for multiple years. They also get both Home Ec and Shop in middle school. They learned to use sewing machinges there. Nice to see that the options are finally gender neutral.</p>
<p>My grandmother hooked rugs. She also made braided rugs. I helped her do both. My mom made quilts and I have a couple of beautiful ones that she made. She also made most of my clothes well into high school so every time I look at a quilt, I see everything from Easter dresses to mini skirts. Lots of memories.</p>
<p>This is a great thread. Lots of memories! Maybe it has to do with upbringing but shined shoes…just says something…I don’t know. I remember going to someone’s house for din and the husband had these scuffy loafers on. Here we are in this grand house with him a bigshot I-banker, and he looked so…unshined! Sort of like wearing a hat indoors…just was sort of?? offputting. Unkempt or something. Its that military thing coming back at me I guess. Must have gotten it by osmosis.</p>
<p>My husband and I are both DIY type and we don’t know how to polish shoes either. I don’t think we own any shoes polish kit. Pretty soon, I can claim that I don’t know how to iron either, at least it’s true for the last 5 years.</p>
<p>My first job out of law school was with a big “silk stocking” law firm. The managing partner at the time was very “old school” and he sent young associates home if they came to work with shoes that needed shining. He also spoke up if he saw a lawyer in any public place, including the elevator, with a client file that was not in a brief case. This was in the 80s, not the 60s BTW.</p>
<p>cartera45 - my grandmother sewed many of my clothes when I was little too. She used to send me a letter with little swatches of fabric and tell me that she was making me dresses out of each one. It was so exciting to wait for them. When I was older, we would sew together and were a great team as I liked to zoom along with the machine and she was patient and would do the hand work. I sure wish I’d saved the dresses she made me.</p>
<p>Another person here who talked to her dad while he polished his shoes on Saturday for church on Sunday. I polish my shoes on a regular basis. I love buffing my shoes. Can’t explain it - it just comforts me. There’s an art to doing it which I haven’t quite mastered, but I’m happy to keep on trying to perfect my technique. </p>
<p>I took my favorite pair of boots to a cobbler to get resoled. He did an okay job, but they aren’t as comfortable to wear as they were before the resole. Oh well . . . </p>
<p>I never thought to teach my kids how to shine shoes. They can sew on buttons, though. Something to do over winter break when DS is home for the holidays.</p>
<p>After watching Dad shine for years, I got to do it on my Topsiders in high school. Used “saddle soap” which I guess people might still use for riding boots? They looked brand new afterwards…there’s something satisfying about shining…like instant results with a bit of “elbow grease”. My husband’s from a pretty bohemian background and thinks I"m odd…he just drops his off at the shoe repair guy, but he’s missing out! So this a.m. on the way to the school bus my son gets his shoes on last minute and says, " AARGH!! MOM! You shined my shoes, didn’t you? I look like a freak!" Ah, the boy has no idea how lucky he is…LOL</p>
<p>I didn’t know how either…and kept thinking I would get them polished in NYC next time I was there … but there was no one in Grand Central, either of the last 2 times I went. The shoeshine stand was just there unmanned. I thought of taking the Staten Island Ferry, where there was ALWAYS a man barking “Shine? Shine?” when I was little, but finally I dared get some shoe polish and managed the feat. Another sad story of modern incompetence…</p>
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<p>Thank goodness you did not wash the offroading dirt off his truck! :)</p>
<p>Kiwi makes shoe polishing too easy. I give my boots a shine once in a while. My H never bothers to shine his shoes, but he always uses a shoehorn to put shoes on. He finally stopped doing that with his running shoes.</p>
<p>I use Kiwi paste polish because that’s what I grew up using but I’m sure there are others that work great. I use a rag over two fingers so I can really rub the polish in well. I find that works better than a brush. Use a circular motion all over the shoe. Do not use too much - that doesn’t help. Let it dry for 8-10 minutes and then brush with a good brush. Use a separate brush for brown and black. Then use a chamois cloth folded to about 3 inches wide and long enough to hold in both hands and see saw buff. That final buff is what really brings out the shine and where having the box with the shoe holder on top really helps. If you put a few drops of water on the rag before you dip into the polish, you get a “spit shine.”</p>
<p>Edited to add - I have used lots of leather conditioners and I recommend Leather Therapy products.</p>
<p>I recommend Meltonian shoe cream. The Meltonian cream is somewhat between a polish and a leather conditioner and also includes stain/pigment. It seems to do a really good job of conditioning and preserving leather. Unfortunately the shine is not as good as with Kiwi wax.</p>
<p>I used to polish all of my dad’s shoes, he used to pay me a quarter for each pair. My brother and sister would want to get in on it too, but they could never get my dad’s shoes as shining as me. My dad would have them do it, then I would finish it up for him.</p>
<p>I used Kiwi too. I would wipe off the dirt first, use a damp cloth to get a bit of polish, rub it evenly on the surface, let it sit, use a dry soft cloth to rub the leather as hard as possible until they shine.</p>
<p>I think it is a good idea not to use wax products like Kiwi on a regular basis because the wax will be more drying to the leather than the cream. The Kiwi could be saved for special occasions. The main way to protect leather is to keep it clean and that can mean just wiping the leather with a damp cloth every time you wear them. It is the dirt and grime that works its way into the leather and the stitching that weakens it. Using too much conditioner can damage the stitching. I learned from having horses that some people condition leather way too much. If you keep it clean, it doesn’t need to be conditioned that often.</p>