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Sometimes forgotten areas when polishing shoes, such as the sole edge and the gap between the sole and upper have been highlighted here on the blog before, now to focus a bit extra on another part of the shoe where it’s common that people miss giving it regular care: the tongue.
Today it’s increasingly common with sanding down leather, mainly to remove cracks, but sometimes also only to smoothen out creases or to remove dye before doing patina. However, when removing the top layer of the grain surface, the leather becomes more sensitive, which one need to be aware of. Here’s pictures and a film to prove the case, and a bunch of leather knowledge as a bonus.
When hand sanitisers are used to a much larger extent than pre-covid, we now see an increasing amount of shoes being damaged by these strong liquids, which end up creating serious stains on the leather. Tips on how to avoid this and how to fix stains if they occur in today’s article.
The first world champion in shoe shining, Yuya Hasegawa, has become a bit of a celebrity in his home country Japan. Latest proof of that is a 50 minute long documentary aired on the Japanese public service broadcasting company NHK, now available to view with English voice over for two weeks time, including a brief interview with myself.
Achieving a beautiful depth in the leather’s shade is one of the pleasant things that the use of really good shoes brings. Much of it comes with usage and time, but of course it can be enhanced in different ways. One of the slightly more unfamiliar ways is the use of navy shoe cream.
Most have probably accidentally got shoe cream on the suede when you apply it on the sole and heel edges of suede shoes. A good tip for this not to cause any problems is to make sure you spray the waterproofing spray on the suede before applying the cream.
Saphir is perhaps the world’s most renowned manufacturer of shoe care products, with a history that goes back over 100 years in time, while also contributing to the development of new shoe and leather care products. Shoegazing visited the company’s factory in the eastern part of France.
The best tips are often the simplest. Like this one, that you should occasionally turn the shoe bags inside out and shake it to remove all the gravel and dirt that often accumulates in the fabric, to eliminate the risk of small scratches when the shoes are packed in the bags.
Tomorrow Saturday is the time for the big shoe competition Shoe Shining Champion of Champions at Isetan in Tokyo, where the three world champions and a Russian, Japanese and our latest Swedish champion Michael Håkansson will make up. An event that can be viewed live on YouTube, more info below.
On the 11-16th of September the famous department store Isetan Men’s in Tokyo are hosting the first Shoe Expo, with lots of shoe happenings during several days. I’m pleased to have worked together with them on three parts, the premiere of the Shoe Shining Champions of Champions contest, where the three world champions and one Japanese champion, Swedish champion and Russian champion will battle it out in a huge competition, a seminar with the top trio in the World Championships in Shoemaking, and an exhibition with their shoes plus the world champs patina winner.
