The Proper Way to Shine Your Shoes

I know I mentioned already that I had the opportunity to go on vacation a couple of weeks ago, but if you dive into that piece you’ll find a tidbit about packing uni-tasking items that I’m going to highlight again this week. Like I said in my article, Travel Tips for the Vacation-Bound Geek article, one of the biggest choices I had to face before I left was how many shoes and which pairs would make it into my bag. Considering I was faced with a formal dinner one night and then casual wear every other night, I struggled with the possibility of packing a pair of dress shoes, a pair of walking shoes, and a pair of slip-ons or casuals for walking around the ship.

My decision? Ultimately I didn’t pack shoes at all – I put on my pair of black semi-dress shoes that I wear to work every day and wore them the whole trip. They’re comfortable enough to walk around in, nice enough to wear with a suit (with some polish,) and casual enough to wear any other time. Note the key here: I needed to polish my shoes.

Now, when I was a young geek, the reason I learned to sew and shine shoes was because I was a cadet in an Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC) for a very short period of time. We got the hand-me-down uniforms that had been retired by the service, and we got second-hand shoes. You see where this is going: we had to sew on our own unit Ray Ban outlet online patches, tighten up our flagging seams, and shine our own shoes to a bright and beautiful reflective glow. I was lucky in that regard – even if I didn’t go on to join the service, I’m grateful for the experience.

Still, shining shoes and sewing clothes aren’t standard issue geek know-how, and I understand that. That’s what I’m here for, to share this with you – and this beautiful video will show you the proper way to shine your shoes. Oh, and when I say proper, I mean really proper. As in, if you had all of these tools and this technique, you’d already know what you’re doing, so this video is more of a demonstration than an actual tutorial. Still, I think there’s a lot you can learn from it. Hit the jump to see what I mean.

Clearly none of us are going to have this level of equipment in our closets just to use to shine our shoes. Still, you can always pick up a KIWI Shoe Shine Valet that has everything you possibly need in it. I should also mention that this kit? I own one – and it’s never done me wrong. You get all of the polish you need, multiple cloths, a place to put your shoe while you polish it, it’s great.

At the same time, having a good shine kit – whether it’s one like the one I linked above, or your own little kit with some canvas cloths in it and some polish, or a kit without a box like this Kiwi Select Shoe Care Kit, it worth having if you have dress shoes or even semi-formal shoes for a job or for business-casual events. Just make sure you have both brown and black polish, okay?

Once you have your shoes, your kit, and you’re ready to get some life out of your shoes, bring them back from the brink of dinginess and dullness, and – hopefully – take my example and have Occhiali Ray Ban outlet the ability to take them anywhere and wear them for anything, then watch this video one more time and pick up a few tips. I know I learn more every time I watch it.