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“Shoes make the man; Shoddy Shoes make the man a lonely bachelor”
-Feb, 2005 Car & Driver, Kiwi Shoe Polish ad
By Izzy Jaecks
Ever since Billy Batts told Tommy DeVito to go home and get his shine box, new Planet Zman contributing writer, Izzy Jaecks has had an affinity for making his fellow man look sharp.
While I was growing up, my parents didn’t seem to agree on many things, but something that they both taught me in both words and actions were that if you care about something, you need to take care of it… because there just might not be the money to REPLACE it. For me, this translates into great and grand ways in quality leather care.
I bought my first pair of combat boots (yep, I was one of those kids…) back in 1990, and I quickly discovered that they needed proper care if I wanted them to last at all. I grabbed from the junk drawer the can of Kiwi that was probably older than I was, but it was still better than nothing. Four months later, when I had moved to Milwaukee, I had learned enough to get hired as the shoe shiner at the County Courthouse.
Along with a good haircut and a hot shave from a BARBER, sitting for a shoe shine is like the Man equivalent of a woman going for a pedicure and a spa day. But shoe shiners and bootblacks are not anywhere near as common as they were even twenty years ago. The County Courthouse here doesn’t support one anymore, and the one we have at the airport usually just sits around with nothing to do (if he is even there at all). If you are lucky enough to have a shoe shiner near you, sit for them. If you like what you see, go back again and again!
But if you don’t have a local shoe shiner, you can still take care of your shoes and boots yourself with not too much back breaking work and with supplies you can pick up at the drug store, grocery store…
1. Shoe polish in the right colors.
2. Saddle Soap.
3. Buffing brush with NATURAL BRISTLES not plastic (and one for each color polish)
4. Nail brush or any similar small brush, also with natural bristles
5. Small towels that you won’t be using for anything but your shoes
6. Cotton buffing cloth
7. Leather conditioner
Before I start… I want to dispel some myths: NEVER dry wet leather with a heat source. This will cause more damage than letting the leather dry at room temperature. NEVER use mink oil or other animal-fat based leather conditioners because the fats can go rancid on the leather; my personal favorite boot oil uses bee’s wax and pine tar.
Now, these basic tips will really apply to anything you own that’s leather: boots, shoes, jackets, briefcases… but shoes will need more care and more often just because they get more wear and tear and dirt…
Great leather care ALWAYS starts with immaculately clean leather, because if it isn’t clean, you are just sealing the dirt into the leather with polishes and conditioners.
Clean the leather thoroughly using saddle soap and a little water, applied with the small nail brush. A lot of dirt collects in seams, around the edges of the tongue, and where the upper meets the outsole. Wipe off the soap residue with a damp cloth, and then wipe dry. I always apply polish or conditioners with my hands because your body heat will help “melt” them into the leather, and abrasive hand cleaners (found at auto parts stores) will get it off your hands… but you can use a dauber instead. With polish, “less is more”… too much will just look sloppy, so start off light and only use more if the first coat doesn’t look like it’s covering. Let the polish rest on each shoe for a few minutes before buffing with the buffing brush and then lightly buff with the buffing cloth. Each morning before you put your shoes on, give them a light brushing to bring back the gloss. If this quick buffing is no longer enough to make them look good, then you know it’s time to start over down to cleaning them and reapplying polish.
For garments and softer leather shoes and boots, instead of using polish, use conditioners. Polish will just flake off soft leather anyway.
But whenever you can… sit for a shoe shiner/bootblack. Look for us in airports in larger cities, classic barbershops, government buildings, military bases, and even in some bars. Even better if you find one where you can bring a cigar as well…
-Izzy Jaecks, Master Bootblack
February 6th, 2009 at 7:22 am
Great article, Mr.J. – It brings back distant memories of when I was a “shoeshine boy” in my early boyhood of the mid 1940’s when I lived in Jersey City, New Jersey.
I can still recall looking out our living room window and seeing the faded green copper of the back of the Statue of Liberty in the distance. No New Jersey Turnpike yet, just the Jersey Central and Lehigh Valley Railroad Railroad tracks to cross to get to the prohibited area where we swam as kids – the murky polluted waters of BlackTom area, not far from what we know as Liberty Island today.
We were just kids entering puberty. What did we care about the
danger of wild dogs running rampant in the bay area, or the
“supposedly” poisonous stingers of the horseshoe crabs that scuttled across our beach, or the ever-present “white eels” that we stealthily avoided as we swam bare-assed naked while just a stone’s throw away the great lady herself, the Statue of Liberty, who politely turned her back on us.
I, too, was a bootblack (or as we were referred to back then as
shoeshine boys). Making the rounds of the local saloons each
evening (there was usually one on every corner of the main
drag in Jersey City during WWII years), trusty shine box slung over my shoulder, “Shine, shine, 10 cents,” reverberated through each stop I made. Sometimes there would be a fifty
cent piece for a job well done, and three dollars for a night’s
take was spending money for more than a week.
And Sunday mornings from 8-12 noon, standing just across the street from the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, with several others of my ilk, awaiting the entrance and exit of the Mass goers, always earned us several days’ pay for those few hours.
Fatso, Scoupi, Weasel, Flukey, Jumbo, Kleerow, and me -
the “shineboys” of Jackson Avenue – memories, memories…
Then I got to wondering, as I saw an obituary one day -
“November 26, 1998 Comedian Flip Wilson dies at 64″
It continued: Clerow Wilson was born into poverty on Dec. 8, 1933, in Jersey City, N.J., and raised in foster homes, quitting school at 16.
Could it be? There’s only a few months difference in age. Did I once shine shoes with the great Flip Wilson -
The man who gave the world Geraldine and the catch phrase “the devil made me do it!”
Wonder if he’ll be in the high school year book I got when I was
freshman…
“Shine-shine-10 cents!”
February 6th, 2009 at 7:39 am
Wow Clivus, Them’s some seriously cool memories. But you left out the part about German prisoner of war camp there in Jersey City. You didn’t shine fer the krauts, did you?
February 6th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Hey Tommy, spot on article. I gotta share a shoe shine “shout out”: I used to work for a Silicon Valley based software company, and while out there on business, I stayed at the Santa Clara Marriott. A big meeting coming up and my Johnston Murphy’s were a bit battered by winterized Manhattan streets. There was a shoe shine stand in the lobby, worked by one Latina woman, who was busy with a customer. Her sign said, “$20″ and, incredulous, I asked why. The customer smiled and said, “just do it” (and hey, it was the 90s and tech money was flowing like beer at a tailgate party), so I hopped up and awaited my turn.
The shine took an unbelievable 25 minutes, and in that time, this woman practically stripped the color off each shoe down to the bare leather, and methodically built it back up, layer by layer, explaining each part of the process. I watched this incredible transformation, first irritated that it was taking so long, then fearful that expensive shoes were being ruined, then amazed at the way she crafted the rebuild and finally, stunned and grateful for the seemingly new pair of shoes on my feet. The color was bright, brilliant and the exact original cordovan hue as when I bought them. I stepped off the stand and handed her a $5 tip, blown away by what I just saw.
Here’s the best part: that shine lasted for almost 2 months of regular use in NY and occasional buffing. I made up reasons to go out to Santa Clara, just to get a shine (you’d think I had a mistress there) until one day, about 18 months later, she was gone, replaced by another woman who charged the same price, took half as long and didn’t deliver. Its a terrible thing to watch a man in a business suit and a laptop cry in the middle of an atrium lobby, but maybe she was the leading edge of the end of the tech bubble that burst soon after. But boy, what a shine!
February 6th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Z-man, After all these years they finally declassified the info,
after denying a camp ever existed. It was a top-secret Italian
POW camp (some Germans prisoners were housed – we know because we were able to…- but that’s classified).
The camp was located at Caven Point area in Jersey City, which just happened to be another of our illegal swimming areas,
with deep clearer channel water and a few abandoned or derelict wooden barges with high derrick scaffolding. Much more fun than climbing the monkey bars at the local park.
That area was rarely patrolled, as it was not close to the camp. The guards would usually look the other way if there were no officers on patrol with them. So we just splashed around on those hot 1944 summer days. They probably remembered their own boyhood adventures or the thrill of defying authority and getting away with it.
Guess it was kind of dangerous jumping bare-assed naked,
holding onto your nut sack for dear life as you hit the cold channel water from 50+ feet up, then tucking your legs under
to cushion descent as you neared the muddy bottom. This
is the place where I learned to hold my breath underwater
for our gang’s record of two and one-half minutes.
_______________________________________________________________
When I checked out Google for Caven Point this is what I found:
”Caven Point” is a modern ballet and true story of the Italian Prisoners of World War II, who were held at a top secret army camp at Caven Point, in Jersey City, NJ between 1942 and 1945. During that time, more than 2000 Italian POWs were treated kindly and allowed to be signed out by Italian American families from the area to spend weekends in their homes, and to work in churches and fall in love with the girls who worked as interpreters at the camp. The US Army called Caven Point the most benign POW camp of all World War II.
Choreography is by the Kennedy Dancers. Artistic Director, Diane Dragone. Original music was composed by A. Louis Scamolin, an Italian Born, NJ based composer and the film was directed by Tom Horan.
Who would believe it – WWII POW Camp becomes fodder for
a ballet! And I was there…no…not at the ballet!
February 6th, 2009 at 11:59 am
“bootblack” is an older term than “shoe shiner” and dates back to the early 1800’s when the goo they blacked your boots with was called… “bootblacking” (noun, not verb). “Bootblack Unions” were common in London in that day, and they were not much more than orphan houses which would send the boys out to work all day. “Shoe shiner” and it’s various forms started appearing more frequently in the early to mid 1900’s in the US, but “bootblack” was for sure still in use. Some cities required shone boys to be registered and licensed, and in those laws “bootblack” was more commonly used.
I have had people tell me (erroneously) that “bootblack” is a racist term, but they don’t stop to realize that in that phrase it is the boot that is black with no mention of race either way of the person…
February 6th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
I have always enjoyed polishing my shoes. It’s like a little ritual. The problem is that I like the ease of tennis shoes, too.
But whenever I travel through airports, I wear leather loafers. It’s a pain to take your shoes off through security and then tie them, so the loafers are great.
And then I always look for a shoeshine stand. You’d be surprised where you can still find them. And the conversation is always a great part of the experience. My favorite guys are at St. Louis airport and Dublin. …. and I live in Los Angeles.
It’s a great tradition. Enjoy it and don’t let it die out.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
I wear boots a lot (western or cowboy) and Cole Hahn shoes, so like to keep the shoes as shiny as possible………..I do shine the boots but not as often.
“Now go get your f–king shine box”