The fine art of Shoe Shining

"It's all in the thumbs!" says Richard, Macsamillion's finest shoe shine expert.

Richard has worked with Macsamillion for 19 years and what he doesn't know about fine shoes isn't worth knowing.  He's also got a real passion for men's quality shoes and so, when he was set the challenge of learning the artisanal skill of refurbishing well loved shoes using shoe shining techniques, he leapt at the idea.

Richard is the first of our team to spend time under the expert instruction of Steven D R Skippen of Shoeshine UK fame.  Steven is based in London and shines many fine shoes for fine city folk. Macsamillion's founder experienced Steven's exceptional skill at rejuvenating tired shoes during a day trip to London. He took his favourite shoes along and after seeing for himself Steven's wizardry,

he was struck by the idea that our customers would love to get a similar treatment in our stores.

I asked Richard to talk me through the process -

How long does the service take?
15 minutes or thereabouts, obviously this depends on the state of the footwear.

What does it cost?
Again, dependent on the state of the shoes, we start at £5 but can go up to £15 for boots or very needy leather.

Talk me through the process
First of all we brush down the shoes and run a blackened brush around the welt of the shoes to bring their colour back and sharpen the look.  Next we brush all over the shoe to get a base coat of cream polish.  Next we apply a coloured wax and using fingers and thumbs, mostly thumbs, we massage this into the leather.  The warmth from your hands works the wax deep into the leather and uses far less product than a brush or cloth would do. We work in this way twice around the shoe to be sure it's worked in well and then we apply a neutral top coat.  Once thoroughly polished with a soft cotton cloth (60 denier tights work brilliantly for this) you should end up with a great shine and a depth of colour to the leather that you may not have seen since the shoes were new. Obviously, if you prefer less shine, simply polish off a little less.




The examples seen here illustrate just how much depth of colour you can get from Richard's magical thumps. Starting with the tired leather, seen above, he's worked new life and lustre into the leather and achieved a richer tan colour, top right





He has then worked further to achieve the customer's prefered darker, richer, shade with a burnished effect around the toe area as seen here, lower right.




What plans to you have to develop the shoe shine service?
At the moment, the majority of customers drop their shoes off and return to collect them the same day or at their convenience. We can usually work on their shoes straight away and pretty soon we hope to have a shoe shine station where customers can sit in comfort and have a read of the papers whilst we shine their shoes on their feet. It's a great opportunity for us to get to know our customers and they in turn get a chance to take 15 minutes out of their busy days to chill out in our happy shop.


I tested Richard's skills earlier this week with a pair of my husband's Calpierre tan leather loafers. Although Jamie polishes his work shoes weekly, he's less diligent with his weekend casual shoes. They came back with a renewed lustre to the leather and I am pleased to say my weekend trips out with my other half are going to have a much greater appeal. There's nothing nicer than a man with clean, shiney shoes!

Have a great week,

Danielle