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Where To Find A Quality Shoe Shine Service - Why Shoe Shining Has Disappeared - Men's
Style Video
Hi! I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style. Today, I'm going to be answering
the question where to find a quality shoe shine at.
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Okay, guys, this is the question that came in. "Antonio, I'm looking for a good, reliable,
professional shoe shine or polisher. Where can I find one? I live in a small town in
the south. Is it even possible?"
Shoe shining is one of those arts that has really kind of disappeared here in the United
States. It used to be that you had a population of men who wore shoes that needed to be shined
and you could actually make an honest living doing it. Nowadays, it's very difficult. Usually,
you've got to be doing other services or you need to be in a city or a location where you've
got a population of men who will use your services, even in New York City, I'm not sure.
I know some of the cities have certain regulations on where you could even set up business, so
that's hurt, but what's really hurt is that most men don't see this as a priority.
Most men aren't wearing dress shoes that need to be shined. And so, what you have is just
not enough customers. You do find this in larger cities though. You'll need to look.
Oftentimes, you don't always know what you're going to get. You can go to places like Style
Forum, Ask Andy, and they talk about it. They've even identified certain men who work in certain
areas who are reliable, use a good polish, and are going to give you a great deal.
But besides larger cities, I see it in airports all those things half the time. Nobody is
manning the actual shoe shine, but I do see occasionally men there who will shine your
shoes. I don't know with the quality, what that is, and definitely they're looking not
at the repeat customer, but perhaps the customer who's in transit and just needs a shine.
I've been in bathrooms and they've got those automatic shine machines. Actually, I like
to just throw in a couple of quarters just to see that thing work. It actually gives
a pretty good shine. Besides that, military bases -- when I was stationed in Quantico,
I remember being stationed in Quantico and really not having much time. I was tempted.
I never used it, but there were places that you could take your shoes and overnight, they
would get you a spit shine and they would use the edge dressing on the side of the shoes.
They would just look immaculate.
I know a number or drill sergeants took advantage of that, but with the military transitioning
away from boots that need to be shined, I think a lot of those guys have actually kind
of closed shop. Well, they never really rely just on that one type of business. And so,
that's what you're going to see. A lot of businesses do this. A lot of shoe stores,
but it's not the only thing they're doing and they don't really advertise it. It's a
service that they provide. They're on the list with a hundred other things because they
have to survive.
I know of a company in Green Bay. I've written about them. I link to them down below. They
are a mail order service, so you can actually send your shoes to them. And if you just want
to get a shine -- I've talked with the owner about this. Most of the business he gets are
people that want to have their shoes resold and it's cheaper to send it to him than it
is to actually send it to the factory or to have it done locally in a large city because,
well, in Green Bay, you've got small town prices.
So in your situation, I would have to say your best bet is going to be to polish yourself.
It's not going to be worth with the cost of postage nowadays to send it off, in my opinion,
and I think polishing your own shoes is something that you only need to really polish.
Let's assume that you live here in Wisconsin, so you get rain, you get snow. Let's say it's
spring right now, so you can wear dress shoes. The weather is pretty well. I would say you
only really need to give your shoes a great shoe shine every couple of weeks and in between
those, you just need to give a daily brush whenever you're going out or dote it a little
bit, give it a quick shine-up, kind of patch up any spots or any scuffs that you get, but
really, you can go longer periods between shines and just do the little touch-ups in
between.
I hope that answers your question. Again, I think the best bet is for you to shine your
own shoes, but if you have money to blow and you just want to send it out to my friend
out there in Green Bay, I'm going to link to that. He's a shoe doctor. I'll link to
him down below and you can definitely give him some business, a good guy, good company.
That's all I got. I will see you guys in the next video. And if you have a question, don't
forget, go visit mensstyleqa.com and I'm answering the questions there. Really, YouTube comments,
very hard for me to find questions and it's becoming overwhelming and I'm probably going
to declare YouTube comment bankruptcy here pretty soon, guys. So if you've got a question,
go to Men's Style Q&A.
I'll see you guys in the next video. Bye-bye.