Men size men from the ground up whilst women size women from the hair down. As a Man, you have to put your best foot forward. You know they say about first impressions. So here are some tips written in relaxed English to help get mileage from your shoes whilst looking radiant.
- Pay attention to your shoes: actually, look at it. Look at the lace, the flaps. Check for dents on your shoes sole and chops on the sides.
- Air your Shoes: If you wear your shoe for one day, Air it for one day. That is how to breathe out shoes. Nigeria is hot: don’t spread it in the room or on the shoe rack in the room: spread it under sun, If the Sun is Hot-Hot like morning sun, spread it for just one hour: if it is an afternoon sun, just two hours is ok. Don’t use washing machine to tumble dry when wet. Just get some old newspaper, squeeze it into a ball and stuff the shoes and then spread to dry. You should also wash your laces. Don’t soke in Detergent. Just add a dab of clean water and use your fingers in a drip motion to squeeze out the water. Do not handle your shoe laces like “Kpomo” (Cow Skin). Squeeze gently and dry under sun.
- Shoe Horn: Don’t assume that the shoe horn we put in our shoe box is decoration or free gift. It is important. Don’t just step on your back flap and push. Shoes don’t have skeleton. Every impression on leather over a sustained period impacts on the overall aesthetics of the shoe. Use your shoe horn when in a hurry or just undo the laces.
- Rotate: Rotate and no not the song by Wande coal. I mean: if you have an 8-5 gig that requires corporate shoes. Don’t buy one good black shoe and use for one year. Please, I don’t mean to trigger you. Please rotate. Have like 4 shoes on the minimum. Substitutions helps to keep your shoes fresh, prolong leather life & wear and tear on the back sole.
- Don’t drive with your good shoes. Have a shoe for driving OR buy drivers: Imagine if I bent your shoes from flat to 45 degrees for 10 minutes. Wouldn’t you get upset. Then why will you be pressing pedal in (Lagos) traffic and destroying your tires on the outside and also destroying your Shoes via cracks along the phalanges. Most shoes start to crack after 1 hour of persistent bend and stretch. So, if you spend a short time in traffic, you might not notice this, put you can just save yourself the stress.
- Walk Right: Gbese: Lift your Leg. Don’t drag your back leg as you walk. Practice it. Running Shoes are designed with Spikes so your impact is along the front. Work shoes are designed to receive the impact at the back so our back sole is reinforced. Basically, if you slough when you walk or your landing step is not even and drags. You will have an uneven tear on your soles and that is sadly very painful especially for new shoes.
Polish your shoes gently. Don’t Polish with the shoe maker daily. The Shoe wax repeated applied on the leather can kill the leather, so polish sparingly (Once every 8 wears), Invest in the foam shiners and use dry cloth. Not all shoes appreciate water so don’t dampen the cloth too much before cleaning the shoe. Just Use a super absorbent
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