{"id":3666,"date":"2026-02-03T16:17:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T16:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scottballew.me\/?p=3666"},"modified":"2026-02-03T16:17:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T16:17:51","slug":"shoe-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottballew.me\/?p=3666","title":{"rendered":"Shoe Sense"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I recently watched a YouTube video and the “influencer” recommended that men should own about six pairs of shoes. I kind of snickered at that one. I’m not even going to say how many I own, but I want to talk about the benefits of taking care of them. Even modestly priced shoes can last a really long time and look really great for years, if well-cared for. I had a pair or Ferragamo’s for over 20 years and I finally had to let them go to Goodwill as the style was a getting a bit too dated. \ud83d\ude2c They were very handsome and comfortable shoes, but it was time to go. These days I seem to find myself buying more boots than shoes and as expensive as they are, they need special attention.
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A few things to keep this post brief:
1. Keep your shoes clean. If you come home and they are wet, quickly dry them off.
2. Polish often. It only takes a little bit of time, seriously. Buy a shine kit online, they’re cheap.
3. Store them correctly. Don’t toss your shoes together carelessly. They can mar, scratch, and damage that way.
4. The paper that is stuffed inside when you buy shoes serves a purpose. It helps keep the shape and resist creases. Keep it and reinsert it after you wear your shoes.
5. Lastly, use quality products from a shoe store. That grocery store stuff is cheap and likely old. If you need repairs, take it to a reputable shop and spend the money for repairs\/maintenance. They make your shoes last way longer!

Bick 4 is amazing. I use it on everything. I can’t recommend it enough. Buy it now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I had these Lucchese’s and broke a strap. I took them into a shop and asked for a repair. The owner looked at them, said, “I have brown thread in my machine right now.” He took them to the back, repaired them on the spot and charged me $12. I tipped him $5 for being such a bad-ass. You just have to be nice and establish a rapport. Good deeds do happen!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I recently watched a YouTube video and the “influencer” recommended that men should own about six pairs of shoes. I kind of snickered at that one. I’m not even going to say how many I own, but I want to talk about the benefits of taking care of them. Even modestly priced shoes can last a really long time and look really great for years, if well-cared for. I had a pair or Ferragamo’s for over 20 years and I finally had to let them go to Goodwill as the style was a getting a bit too dated. \ud83d\ude2c They were very handsome and comfortable shoes, but it was time to go. These days I seem to find myself buying more boots than shoes and as expensive as they are, they need special attention. A few things to keep this post brief:1. Keep your shoes clean. If you come home and they are wet, quickly dry them off. 2. Polish often. It only takes a little bit of time, seriously. Buy a shine kit online, they’re cheap.3. Store them correctly. Don’t toss your shoes together carelessly. They can mar, scratch, and damage that way.4. The paper that is stuffed inside when you buy shoes serves a purpose. It helps keep the shape and resist creases. Keep it and reinsert it after you wear your shoes. 5. Lastly, use quality products from a shoe store. That grocery store stuff is cheap and likely old. If you need repairs, take it to a reputable shop and spend the money for repairs\/maintenance. They make your shoes last way longer! Bick 4 is amazing. I use it on everything. I can’t recommend it enough. Buy it now! I had these Lucchese’s and broke a strap. I took them into a shop and asked for a repair. The owner looked at them, said, “I have brown thread in my machine right now.” He took them to the back, repaired them on the spot and charged me $12. I tipped him $5 for being such a bad-ass. You just have to be nice and establish a rapport. Good deeds do happen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3669,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[391,390,389],"class_list":["post-3666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clothing","tag-bick-4","tag-boot","tag-luchesse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottballew.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottballew.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottballew.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottballew.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottballew.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottballew.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3682,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottballew.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666\/revisions\/3682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottballew.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottballew.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottballew.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottballew.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}