About a year ago, Derek at Die, Workwear! posted an article about the Swann Club, an annual meeting of hardcore shoe aficionados in Paris. Since then, the idea of shoe polishing as a social occasion has stuck with me, and so I eventually decided to try it myself. I invited a couple of my blogger friends over and we shared our tools, tricks, and libations, and ended up getting some pretty great shines on our favorite shoes. Edwin, Jacob, and I all have different tools and different methods when it comes to taking care of our shoe investments, so it was surprisingly enlightening to learn about different procedures and sample a wide variety of products. We may have been drinking bourbon and scotch instead of polishing with Dom Perignon and using old t-shirts instead of Venetian linens, but nonetheless I think we achieved everything we set out to accomplish, and had a great time doing it.
San Francisco Swann Club – the Inaugural Meeting
