Shell Shocked: End of an era

I made the most startling discovery recently. Men don’t wear shoes anymore. They wear sneakers, running shoes, casual shoes, basketball shoes, hiking shoes, tennis shoes, sailing shoes, work out shoes and Air Jordan shoes.
I was waiting for my flight at an airport recently and having nothing better to do I began to look at men’s shoes as they paraded to and from their gates. As I began to inspect hundreds of men’s feet I realized that not a single man wore the old fashioned traditional shoe, be it loafers, black or brown laced shoes or anything that used to go with wearing a suit.
Since no one wears a suit anymore it stands to reason that footwear styles would change. I’m sure that Nike, Allbirds, Puma, and New Balance had something to do with that. And when Air Jordan ran away with the marketplace the dye was cast.
I remember that my wife and I were vacationing in Russia some years ago and I was forewarned that teenagers would literally rip Air Jordan sneakers from your feet. They seemed to prefer this prize to Rolex watches. Did the trend start then? Possibly. I believe that the trend really started in the United States when casual Friday was invented. And then casual every day.
But some people still dressed more formally for work and wore suits, sports jackets and shoes. The pandemic caused many people to work from home and alas and alack, no one wore shoes anymore. I personally haven’t worn shoes in years.
But there are still remnants of the good old days. I was invited to a family wedding recently which required the men to dress in black tie. And with formal attire comes traditional shiny black shoes with laces. It was the first time in years that I wore what we used to call regular shoes. And they really hurt my feet.
But wearing “real” shoes for the first time in years reminded me of the major transgression during the shoe wearing age — not having your shoes shined.
When I was a kid teachers would reprimand me for not having my shoes properly glowing. I wasn’t sent to the principal’s office or anything like that but it was crystal clear that polished shoes were an important element in judging men. Men with unpolished shoes were considered second class citizens.
My dad showed me how to shine shoes properly. Do you remember the tin can of shoe polish along with the rag and brush that were staples in every home? I was happy to turn the task of polishing shoes over to the professionals in later years when I had to wear a suit and tie to the office.
I would get my shoes shined in professional shoe repair shops. You’d have to practically leap up to a raised platform, sit on a hard chair and place your feet on what looked like two stirrups. And my how professional shoe shiners loved using that brush. It was like watching Gene Krupa playing the drums.
You don’t see much of this anymore. It’s a lost art. No one polishes sneakers. But the sneakers we wear today, or whatever you want to call them, are so much more comfortable than the old shoes. Today you feel like you’re walking on air. You feel like you can run the marathon and back. And many of us do.
Will traditional shoes make a comeback? They will when the Edsel, knickers, the Studebaker and Edwardian suits make theirs.
Art Stevens is a long-time columnist for the Islander. His tongue-in-cheek humor is always offered with a smile.