The wisdom of shoes

The right shoes are not only crucial to completing the desired image a gentleman wants to project to the world. You could for instance decide to put your best foot out into the world decked in your latest bespoke suit – with your hair and moustache meticulously coiffured and your nails manicured – but if you don’t know how or why you should leverage on shoe power or worst of all – you remain oblivious to how much others will subconsciously be automatically drawn to your feet – and that’s especially true of a gentleman because let’s face it, guys tend to dress more similarly to each other and so the eye can really only be drawn to the one and only wardrobe differentiator – your shoes.

To complete a gentleman’s assemble it really has to go beyond clean and neat – let’s face it, in the corporate world, that’s already the baseline – often what really gets a gentleman marked down is not so much the quality or marque of his shoes . Rather it’s how much attention, education and care he is willing to accord to them to create the right impression on others.

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‘Fortunately most of my customers who seek me out to antique their shoes don’t ever need convincing why they would much prefer never to be seen sporting a pair of shoes that looked as if it just rolled out of a factory on a conveyor belt – the simple truth is they ALL don’t want to be seen wearing shoes with no character – it’s not a matter of price, it’s all about creating the desired impression.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say my clientele comprises of vain and shallow people who are just obsessed about style and fashion…they are not!

The vast majority of them hold important jobs and are leaders in their field of expertise and this begs the question – why do these successful individuals even see the need to take so much time, care and fuss over what they might wear to a function or board meeting, especially shoes.

The simple reason is because they ALL seem to acknowledge the awful reality – there is so much one can recount the story of the self with just tastefully selected watches, ties and pocket squares…shoes can often carry a compelling narrative. A well antiqued shoe that is not too loud and just subtle enough to convey an accent can speak volumes about the man and what he stands for.

That’s why in my popular series – the art of manliness, I always encourage men who are serious about the business of making a lasting and memorable impression to always pay attention to their shoes.

As it’s a hardly a joke for one to say quite categorically, what you decide to wear on your feet can literally make or break you!’