Shoe polish: thoughts, fun facts, questions

[The Q]

Of course being ex RAF I have spent many hours polishing shoes and Boots DMS. I believe the latest military boots are deliberately matt, so how they look after them I don't know.

My Shoes are of course bulled, however these steel toe capped boots I use for work and my riggers boots I use for gardening / boat building are not.

At work at least once a day I'm crawling on the floor, and getting fibreglass resin or digging in the garden with the other boots, is just not worth the time polishing. They just get enough to keep them waterproof...

I just use the old spit and polish with Cherry Blossom polish..

[Tobus]

I really want to do it for myself - the wooden box with the shoe rest, brushes, etc - but just don’t have the time to devote. Plus, in my parts, there is a wonderful shoe repair/cobbler that has been around forEVER, and I think I would feel bad not supporting such an intensely local and valuable business.
In another context, I love the ASMR shoe cleaning and shining videos. You have to sift through the chaff, but some have wonderful cloth and brush sounds!

Do you take your shoes to your local cobbler for polishing and maintenance? I wish I had someone locally who I could regularly use for repairs, resoling, etc. I'm not sure I'd need that service for everday cleaning and polishing, but it would be nice to be able to have a professional who I could rely on. Take care of your local cobbler! It's a dying trade.

I don't have a fancy shoe-shine kit like some people probably do, with the wooden box and shoe rests. Mine is just a zipper bag where I keep my tins of polish, rags, and brushes. I have separate brushes for brown and black polish. To be honest, I've never had much success with applying the polish with an applicator brush, and I prefer to just apply it with a soft cloth (old t-shirt strips) wrapped around my fingertip. So my applicator brushes only get used very rarely, but my cleaning/burnishing brushes get used all the time. There's something slightly zen-like about brushing shoes and seeing minor scuffs just disappear and get smoothed over.

What brand and type of shoe polish do people here prefer? I usually only find two brands locally, and so I typically stick to hard paste-wax Kiwi parade gloss polish (both brown and black) on my shoes. It's great for cap-toes and keeping the front wing-tip end of brogues shiny, but I'm thinking of going to a softer type of cream wax for other parts of my shoes. Specifically, the areas that bend and crease when I walk, the tongues, and other areas where paste wax doesn't last long. It flakes off and I lose the effect. I don't mind a softer or less shiny look in these areas, as I think it accentuates the hard shine on the toe when there's a two-tone effect, so to speak. Got any good recommendations for a cream wax that works well in keeping the leather more supple and keeping a semi-gloss look in the bendy parts?

[Baeau]

....I really want to do it for myself - the wooden box with the shoe rest, brushes, etc - but just don’t have the time to devote. Plus, in my parts, there is a wonderful shoe repair/cobbler that has been around forEVER, and I think I would feel bad not supporting such an intensely local and valuable business...

Would this, be the type of wooden box?

[Blaidd]

What brand and type of shoe polish do people here prefer? I usually only find two brands locally, and so I typically stick to hard paste-wax Kiwi parade gloss polish (both brown and black) on my shoes. It's great for cap-toes and keeping the front wing-tip end of brogues shiny,

Along with Nomad and others, I still prefer the military bulled finish, at varying degrees depending on the use of the shoe. However, (again, I think like most military), I avoid the Parade Gloss variant of Kiwi, sticking to the older 'standard' polish. I find the spirit in the gloss version can leave a misty finish. Personal preference I guess.

[Tobus]

Along with Nomad and others, I still prefer the military bulled finish, at varying degrees depending on the use of the shoe. However, (again, I think like most military), I avoid the Parade Gloss variant of Kiwi, sticking to the older 'standard' polish. I find the spirit in the gloss version can leave a misty finish. Personal preference I guess.

Interesting. I've noticed a misty finish on one of my pairs of shoes that I polished with the brown Kiwi parade gloss wax. Well, maybe not misty so much as having a strange sort of coloured sheen under the surface that won't buff out. I had attributed it to putting on a coat of clear wax at one point, then going back to brown later. I haven't seen it happen on the other brown shoes I use that polish on, though.

[Blaidd]

That's interesting that it hasn't effected all! Maybe they have improved the formula....! Maybe one was an older batch... Who knows?! Try the standard as a control perhaps.

[Profane James]

Would this, be the type of wooden

Precisely!

[Profane James]

Do you take your shoes to your local cobbler for polishing and maintenance? I wish I had someone locally who I could regularly use for repairs, resoling, etc. I'm not sure I'd need that service for everday cleaning and polishing, but it would be nice to be able to have a professional who I could rely on. Take care of your local cobbler! It's a dying trade.

I do, indeed. Now, fortunately, I don’t spend a lot of time outdoors getting them scuffed up. A single pair may only go the shop once a year - I do clean them and do light buffing myself, but leave the serious care to those professionals. Plus, all of mine are full brogue, so any shine gets lost in all the brogueing (my opinion). I just ask for clean and touch up.
Shop Local!

[Baeau]

Precisely!

The box was my father's................until Mum tossed him out. About 1969. We won't get into that. Anyway, the box goes back to the early 60's. A bit of hunting, I may be able to age it by the Griffin logo. Also, please disregard the Made in India boots. No joke!

[Profane James]

Ah wow; what a wonderful piece of history!
Love the corners.