On visits to my grandparents I used to notice that my grandfather had a shoehorn as well as something called a shoetree. The shoehorn was self-explanatory. I really didn't understand the shoetree, though. For one thing it didn't look like a tree. It just looked like a wooden foot you left in the shoe. And what was the purpose of that?
Well, I've learned. Something I've noticed is that a pair of shoes might be my size in theory while in practice they don't fit my feet. A good shoetree helps with that, especially providing more space in the toe area.
2 comments:
Your granddad always took good care of his clothes, especially his dancing shoes.
You're right shoe trees are often used stretch a tight pair but another reason to use them is they prevent leather shoes from getting permanent creases after they've been worn all day. I remember seeing shoe shine stands long ago but now it's more rare to see men wearing leather shoes. I don't think shoe trees would work so well in sneakers.
He picked up a lot of useful tricks. I had no idea.
The whole matter of leather creasing is one I hadn't given much thought to before. Apparently it doesn't happen as much with suede, or at least is less noticeable. Does tend to make the leather look more worn. Shoeshine stands seem to have been chased (or priced) out of a lot of public spaces, which is not a change for the better. The term "sneakers" covers a lot of ground. Kids with pricey basketball shoes must have some maintenance routine for them.
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