Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
A Man Seeks The Perfect Shoe - Asking Too Much Of Your Footwear - Men's Style Advice
Hi! I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style. Today, we're going to be talking
about a man who is asking a little bit too much of his clothing.
If you haven't already, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. By doing that, these
videos will come right to you. In addition, if you like this, if you find it useful, I
would appreciate it if you would like it down below. And last but not least, remember I've
got a great, free 47-page e-book. The link to it is right down there.
This is the question that came in, "Antonio, thank you for all of your emails and videos."
You are welcome, sir. "My dressing has improved so much and people seem to compliment me a
lot more these days for looking dapper. I really appreciate all your help. My question
is I'm looking to get a good pair of black shoes that I can use for work and for dinners.
I need them to be comfortable because I'll be spending a lot of time at work, but they
should also be classy because I'm going to be wearing them out to dinners, weddings,
and I would like to be able to wear them to more casual events as well. Do you have any
idea on what I should be looking for?"
Well, the gentleman, in my opinion, he's asking too much from one pair of shoes. Let me use
the analogy of vehicles. I used to be a motorcyclist. I've ridden my bike all over the place and
I loved my bike, but whenever I travel to India, I saw people doing things on motorcycles
that I didn’t know could be done. Literally, I would see like a family of five on a motorcycle,
stacked up, and it just blew me away. This is like a little 75 cc bike and they've got
kids on the front bars. In any case, they were doing more than I thought a motorcycle
should safely be able to do. Now, they were getting it done. It was working, but I had
my reservations of the safety of having a family of five on a motorcycle.
So let me go back to shoes here. You're asking too much from one pair of shoes because what
you're going to have to do in order for it to be both comfortable and dressy, you're
going to need to go for a well-fitted pair of probably, I would say Oxfords, but they're
never going to be casual enough to wear with jeans. It's just you're not going to be able
to take them down that low. And it sounds like you would be just wearing these and wearing
these, and you're going to eventually -- you need to be rotating through shoes, and I would
say any well-dressed man should have three pairs of nice dress shoes.
So at the higher end, you're going to want your pair of Balmoral Oxfords. If you don't
wear suits very often, you can look to bringing a pair of Bluchers, but I would go with the
Oxfords because those are going to have close lacings and are always going to be appropriate
for a suit and you just want to have something at the higher end level.
Now, in the medium level, you can start to bring in a dark brown. You can even have a
black and you can look at a Blucher. You can go with a little bit of a cap toe or perhaps
even go with a little brogueing, which is the design, the ornate design in the carvings
in the leather. You can even go with a really nice slip-on or maybe a Chelsea boot.
And then at the lower end, which is still going to be a pretty dressy shoe, you can
then start to bring in any type of casual leather shoe that's not a sports shoe, but
is something that fits you well, is very comfortable. I actually own a pair of ECCOs. I know they
don't always get the best rep, but I love them simply because they're incredibly waterproof.
They're not water-resistant. These things are waterproof.
Here in Wisconsin, when I'm going through the slush, I just slip those things on. Yes,
they're not as dressy-looking and I probably could go with galoshes, but when it comes
to doing things around here in a small town, these shoes are plenty and they still look
dressier and they perform better than any type of running shoe, and they're a lot easier
to put on than any type of work boot.
The point again is that don't ask too much. I have a family of five. I don't have my motorcycle
anymore, but if I did, I would still -- I wish I had my Sprint ST Triumph, beautiful
bike. I've got my truck and we've got a minivan because those two vehicles suit our family's
needs. And with you, think about that with your shoes. I realize that you may have to
bring down the price. If you could only afford one pair of $300 shoes, I would say starting
off and maybe look to pull back on the price and start with -- there are reasonable shoes
in the $50 to $100 range. And if you can't even afford that, then go look for second
hand thrift stores, find a pair of shoes that you can get for a few bucks that has been
gently worn.
All right. This has been Antonio Centeno with Real Men Real Style. I will see you in the
next video. Bye-bye.