Use shoe trees
They keep your shoes odor and moisture free and also help maintain their shape when you’re not wearing them. They’re a great investment that you’ll use for the next few decades, promise. In a pinch, you can also use the original paper inserts.
Favorites: These, or These
Use a shoe horn
When putting on your shoes, if you’re stomping your foot in, or tearing some of the skin off your fingers while using them as a shoe horn, you’re ruining the backs of your shoes, you fingers, or both. Whether they’re sneakers, dress shoes or boots, there’s nothing worse than the backs of your shoes getting wrinkled and faded because you’re not using a shoe horn.
Favorites: Choice #1, Choice #2
Tie your shoes properly
It may sound trivial, but where you separate the men from the boys is by paying attention to the details like how you tie your shoes. So you should definitely learn how to tie your shoes so the laces lay flat, at least, but frankly, there’s an even better solution in the next point.
Hide the laces
Nothing ruins a great outfit more than long, floppy and/or ill-tied shoelaces. What you really should do is hide them and the best possible way to do this ever is by using these special laces we found a few weeks ago that makes laces that are meant to be hidden. You only have to tie them once and suddenly all your sneakers and dress shoes are now slip ons with amazing looking laces. Seriously, they’re game-changers.
Keep them clean
Give them a quick rub down about once a week with a moist rag, sponge or paper towel, or as they get dirty. Then once a month, do a little deeper cleaning with a proper shoe cleaning kit for about 5 minutes once a month. If you’ve got dress shoes, you can also polish them, but typically, a little cleaning every few days goes a long way.
Get Rid Of The Stink
What some people don’t know is that actual smell is bacteria, and it’s living inside your socks, shoes, and on your feet, so it’s imperative that you kill the pesky bacteria before it turns into a foot infection or worse… There’s a spray that is fantastic and kills bacteria in 10 seconds and has a nice citrus smell. When storing your shoes overnight, pop these in them, as needed.
Buy Multiples
If you have a pair of shoes that you love and fear their eventual demise, the best thing to do is buy multiple pairs of them and swap them out to give them some rest. Coupled with using shoetrees and keeping them clean, your shoes will last significantly longer if you give them breaks between wearing.