Blue Shoe Polish on Black Shoes

[The Knize]

I was watching a You Tube video--which always seems to get in in trouble!--and the suggestion was to use blue shoe polish on black shoes for blacker than black results. I ordered up some Saphir blue wax to give it a try so I should have some objective data soon, but I wondered if anyone had heard of this and tried it.

While we are on the topic, what do folks think of blue men's dress shoes? AE seemed to be touting these for a while. AE seems to still have some available, or at least to have blue available in some styles, but does not seem to feature that color these days.

 

[The Knize]

By the way, for polish and for shoes, I think we are talking about a real navy blue. Turns out there are shoe polishes that are much lighter blue.

Turns out there is a fair amount of writing on the web about using blue shoe polish on shoes of various hues. The rationale for navy polish on black makes sense to me. I am not sure I am convinced as to navy on other colors. Also, I think the navy on black advocates are not talking about using navy as the only polish on black, but using some combination of black and navy polish on black.

 

[ZeelandsRoem]

Blue wax on black shoes is not new, same as burgundy of other colors mixed with black or applied on black shoes. I, for one, rarely apply only one color of cream or wax on a shoe. Most of the time I mix 2-3 colors to get the shoe where I want it to be.

 

[The Knize]

Blue wax on black shoes is not new, same as burgundy of other colors mixed with black or applied on black shoes. I, for one, rarely apply only one color of cream or wax on a shoe. Most of the time I mix 2-3 colors to get the shoe where I want it to be.

Can you speak to more of what you are trying to get to? Thanks.

 

[KW Driver]

I wonder if mixing blue and black in layers would create a marbled affect. I’ve seen it done on brown leather with a 2-3:1 brown:black layering front start on standard leather up to a spit shined/patent leather gloss.

 

[AshleyC]

I was watching a You Tube video--which always seems to get in in trouble!--and the suggestion was to use blue shoe polish on black shoes for blacker than black results. I ordered up some Saphir blue wax to give it a try so I should have some objective data soon, but I wondered if anyone had heard of this and tried it.

While we are on the topic, what do folks think of blue men's dress shoes? AE seemed to be touting these for a while. AE seems to still have some available, or at least to have blue available in some styles, but does not seem to feature that color these days.

What do I think of blue leather shoes? Good God, man! I had no idea there was such a thing. I'm just U.S. government issue. Blue? Blue? Is that some bizarre Navy thing? Or Coast Guard? Is there blue Lincoln Wax? And if I'm ever in a neighborhood where blue Lincoln Wax is on the shelf, should I immediately draw, sweep the safety, and do a 360 degree scan of my surroundings? Painting other customers in the store with a Terminator red-dot aiming point?

 

[The Knize]

Lincoln makes a blue shoe polish. As far as I know it does not make a navy shoe polish.

When I referred to AE blue shoes I was talking about navy blue. That is all I know and probably more about the provenance of navy blue men's dress shoes. They look conservative enough to me, but I do not own any.

 

[The Knize]

Not to belabor this, but I Googled around a bit to see what was said on the internet about blue/navy men's dress shoes. One thing of potential interest is that some folks seemed to say that in Japan blue dress shoes really seemed to be a popular thing. No one seemed to know why. I do not know whether dark or light, and whether for business or for other. I hate to say that there was a consensus, but I think a lot of folks opined that navy dress shoes in a regular style, were pretty much as acceptable as regular black calf shoes. Among other things, that people would not really notice. Lighter blues I think were seen as, shall we say, more fashion forward and rather casual.

A point some folks raised was that it was nice to have a navy belt to wear with navy shoes. I had not really thought about that. I sure do not own a navy belt. I think navy shoes are close enough to black that one could easily get away with black leather accessories.

Question, would one buy a blue leather brief case/portfolio? I am not sure I would. I might. I do not think I would try to match my shoes it. A blue or navy watch band?

 

[StillShaving]

Not to belabor this, but I Googled around a bit to see what was said on the internet about blue/navy men's dress shoes. One thing of potential interest is that some folks seemed to say that in Japan blue dress shoes really seemed to be a popular thing. No one seemed to know why. I do not know whether dark or light, and whether for business or for other. I hate to say that there was a consensus, but I think a lot of folks opined that navy dress shoes in a regular style, were pretty much as acceptable as regular black calf shoes. Among other things, that people would not really notice. Lighter blues I think were seen as, shall we say, more fashion forward and rather casual.

A point some folks raised was that it was nice to have a navy belt to wear with navy shoes. I had not really thought about that. I sure do not own a navy belt. I think navy shoes are close enough to black that one could easily get away with black leather accessories.

Question, would one buy a blue leather brief case/portfolio? I am not sure I would. I might. I do not think I would try to match my shoes it. A blue or navy watch band?

I could be incorrect and trying to extrapolate too much based on my limited interaction, but I would not be surprised to read that the Japanese enjoyed blue as a substitute/stand-in for black in some cases. Perhaps because their business attire is usually black, shades of gray, white, maybe an occasional (western influenced?) brown but hardly any real color that would catch the eye. Where blue would blend in while also providing some interest and show personality.

That opinion is also partially formed when thinking about dress watches. I am no expert but have had some interest in looking at recent era vintage Japanese watches, mostly those made by Seiko in the 70's, 80's, 90's and sold in Japan. To over generalize it seemed the 70's had a lot of white & silver dialed watches being sold. The 80's started branching out more but a lot of blue dials. In the 90's and even today I see a lot of blue dial watches sold in the JDM (Japanese domestic market), often times in more than one shade of blue produced with different treatments like both a sunburst and flat dial. I had a 80's blue dial JDM quartz that was almost Royal blue on a black leather strap. Over the past decade the watch market has exploded with many different colors to generate more sales, and blue there in even more shades. Blue is the primary/signature color of the Casio Oceanus line. That is obviously due to the "Oceanus" brand name, but I think it was done to appeal to the younger Japanese professional to which these watches are marketed towards. They produce a number dressy blue + black watches.

 

[The Knize]

So, my can of navy blue polish/wax finally came from Amazon. As I indicated in my original post in this thread, I had watched a You Tube video that seemed to say using navy polish on black shoes could give one "blacker than black" results.

I have used it on two pairs of shoes so far, one wholecuts in fairly hard leather that I usually bring to a mirror shine on the toes and the other soft leather horse bit loafers that I do not bring to much a of a shine at all. The effect of using navy polish so far seems subtle at best. Certainly I would not say "blacker than black" and definitely not blue. I am wearing the loafers today with a navy pinstriped suit. Perhaps there is some aspect of the shoes in the light that make them go with suit and socks better. Fun to play with and quality polish, but nothing dramatic so far!

 

[The Knize]

Perhaps there is some aspect of the shoes in the light that make them go with suit and socks better.

I need to revise this a bit. When I got home last night I noticed in the evening setting sunlight that the loafers really did seem to have a distinct bluish cast/hue to them. They are softer leather, so maybe they absorbed more blue polish. Interesting that lighting makes that much difference. Today I am wearing black AE Park Avenues that I put some navy polish on this morning. They are nice and shiny, but just look black to me.