Shoe polishing machine

[Talltexan]

I have tried polishing my Rockport Dress shoes that are waterproof and hurt my feet. Turns out the orthopedic guy that does my inserts said the shoe was too tight for my feet and squeezed the sides of my feet causing my feet to hurt after wearing them. I would like to buy a pair of Allen Edmounds Park Avenues or are Alden's a better shoe for orthopedic inserts?

Anyways I'd like something to help me polish my shoes better since I have trouble doing it myself. Any suggestions?

Jerry

[The Knize]

I have tried polishing my Rockport Dress shoes that are waterproof and hurt my feet. Turns out the orthopedic guy that does my inserts said the shoe was too tight for my feet and squeezed the sides of my feet causing my feet to hurt after wearing them. I would like to buy a pair of Allen Edmounds Park Avenues or are Alden's a better shoe for orthopedic inserts?

Anyways I'd like something to help me polish my shoes better since I have trouble doing it myself. Any suggestions?

Jerry

I have AE Park Avenues in an E width that seem to accomodate my orthodics fine. I probably most often have gotten AEs in a D, which is a bit tight perhaps with the orthodics, but not too bad. And E does not seem too loose without the orthodics. I cannot speak to Alden, but I imagine that at least some Alden lasts are as good a AE PAs for ortodics. I am guessing that both AE and Alden sales people have lots of experience fitting shoes for folks that have orthodics.

I have one of those home buffer type shoe shiners, but I think of it more for quick touch ups than to substitute for shining my shoes by hand. I would normally answer the question directly rather than refer you to other threads, but there are lots of threads on this forum about how to do a good shoe shine. I am not the best at it. I do not know whether the Rockports being waterproof would affect their ability to shine up.

[Robert45]

The best item I ever purchased was a product called a Shoe Butler. They are made in both aluminum and cast iron. Mine is cast. Check them out on any of a number of cobbler or shoe supply online stores. The butler holds the shoe so that it is easy to apply polish, to brush and to buff.

I also use Lincoln brand shoe polish exclusively. You should get a glass like shine in a couple of minutes using a butler and Lincoln polish.

[The Knize]

Shoe Butlers are great! Wish I had cast.

[The Nid Hog]

Lincoln is a very nice polish. The black has a slight blue cast to it, but I've always liked it.

Could I ask you about your trouble shining shoes? Is it a technique thing, or is it something else?

Also, polishing a waterproofed shoe is different than a regular one. It's going to be very hard to get a real mirror shine. If you are crazy about spit shining shoes, you could build up a solid base coat then polish it out, but that's a lot of work. Unless you are on a drill team, I wouldn't bother. If I were you I'd forget about it and just go for cleaned and buffed. That's how the shoe is designed to look.

[strop]

I haven't worn Rockports in years, but when I did, they were the relatively soft leather type, and would not take a shine no matter what I tried.

[Talltexan]

@thenidhog

The trouble shining shoes comes from two things: 1. Technique 2. I have a physical disability called cerebral palsy or CP that affects my left arm and leg, my left side and it is hard for me to hold the shoe in my left hand and do all of the polishing with my right hand. That is why I asked about a shoe polishing machine. Its either that or take them to a shoe shine place and spend $20.00. The waterproff rockports never do shine up would the AE Park Avenues shine right up? Are they made of cordovan?

Jerry

[Doc4]

Judging by the title of the thread, I thought this was going to be a paean to Mark the Shoeshine Boy ...

[The Nid Hog]

It sounds like a shoe butler would be the way to go. There seem to be a wide variety of them: fixed or adjustable (for different shoes); aluminum or cast iron. If you have a good place to mount it, I'd probably go for the heaviest, most stable one. With something like the butler holding your shoe in place, I bet you could get a good shine going with one hand. As long as you have the time to do it (and it will take a little bit of practice to get good at it), a good spit-shine will always look better than a machine-polished finish. I've never used a machine, but I've heard that Beck makes the best one. They seem pretty expensive to me--maybe someone knows a better option.

[AJC]

The AE's will shine up for sure - no comparison to the Rockports - and they can be sized to easily fit inserts. The standard Park Avenues are not cordovan, however you can get them in cordovan and I recommend it highly as the shining is immeasurably easier.

I do have cordovan Park Ave's and other calf skin AE's also I have a Beck polisher/buffer.

With the calf skin shoes you need to go through the full shining regiment. Cordovan just requires much less "polishing" so I usually just use the Beck for the cordovan as the Beck is really more of a buffer as opposed to an actual polishing machine.

[xraygun]

Once you figure out which setup makes it easiest for you to get a good shine going, I'd recommend a can of Meltonian Super Shine. Fantastic for in between shines, really seems to make a shine last longer. A can lasts quite a while and doesn't require the physical effort.