Shine your shoes

Ms Manners,

How important are shiny shoes on men?

Well, this should answer your question – when you Google “you can always tell a man by his shoes” 65,500,000 results are returned.

There are blogs, books, websites, Hollywood and Bollywood films, articles, YouTube videos and careers dedicated to this kind of topic. It is not that it is 100% important to have shiny and polished shoes, but rather 65,500,000% important.

Shoe shining has been a part of our societies for hundreds of years and it’s not time to throw in the shoe polish cloth now.

Shine and polish your shoes and it will not only lengthen the life of the shoe but also your business relationships.

Think about sitting in a meeting room, and your new promising business partner walks in (now this may be a partner as in banking partner, investor, entrepreneur with a great new product, etc) and he looks sharp, good in a clean and crisp suit, ironed shirt (please, iron your shirts) and confidence to match this suave image but then you look down and at the bottom of his suit pants are dirty, scuffed and beaten up shoes.

These are good qualities in a 4WD after an awesome camping weekend but not in your shoes.

It ruins the whole image. Shoes make the outfit and the outfit makes the man. Shine your shoes (and iron your shirt).

I will leave you with one final thought, thanks to Mark Twain, “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.”

Enjoy your new confidence and the game of etiquette.

Kind Regards,

Ms. Manners