Q & A: Episode 5

Transcription

Hi I'm Kirby Allison and we love helping the well-dressed take care of their wardrobes. Thank you for all of your comments and questions that you guys have posted on our YouTube channel. After reading them all and answering as many as possible, I've selected five that we're going to feature in today's Q&A video. Each of these individuals I have selected will receive a complimentary pair of our Sovereign Grade shoelaces as a token of our appreciation for their participation in our channel. Remember if you have any questions or comments while you're watching one of our videos, please ask them in the comments section below. I try to get back to as many of those questions as I possibly can.

Our first question today is from an Ashaari Ahmad. His question reads "the weather in my area is very rainy. Can you suggest a method to take care of my shoes like waterproofing them or anything. Thank you sir". So first and foremost the most important thing that you can do to really protect your shoes is a regular polishing. Especially finishing any shoe shine with the Saphir Medaille d'Or Pate de Luxe wax polish. The reason is that the hard waxes in a proper wax polish are going to leave a protective wax layer on your shoe that just helps protect the leather from water and any other potential damage. Because wax in fact is waterproof or impervious to moisture, and so not only do we recommend polishing the uppers or the actual leather with the wax polish, but it's also important to remember that the welt or the piece of thread that you use to sew these the outsole to the welt of the shoe needs to be waterproofed also. And so we recommend taking a little bit of a neutral wax polish, you know at the end of a shoe shine with a small welt dauber, and just applying wax to the welt and buffing that so that you seal those threads from any water damage. And if you don't have a welt brush, you can even use a toothbrush. Now if you know that your shoes are going to be exposed to more than just a light rain, then you can actually apply something called the Saphir Super Inulver which is a non-silicone based waterproofing aerosol. Now we recommend this for regular use with Suede, but you can also apply this to really anything: to fabric shoe like a slipper, or even a pair of leather dress shoes. Now just keep in mind if you apply this to a pair of leather dress shoes it's going to slightly dull the shine but it is going to offer you enhanced water protection. If you have a pair of shoes that you use just for rainy days. The Saphir Super Inulver would be an absolutely fantastic product apply to that shoe. And if you don't want this to affect the shine, now you can try spraying this to the bottom of the soles to waterproof the soles or Saphir has just launched a new product called the Saphir Sole Guard which is not only a solid conditioner but contains a waterproofing agent in this to help further waterproof leather dress soles. Now again, going back, if you have a pair of dress shoes that you use just for the rain, one of the things that you could also do is have a rubber day-night sole put on. So if you don't want to pay to have the entire sole replaced, then you can also take your shoes to a local cobbler where they can apply a very thin rubber layer on top of the leather outsole to just help further protect the shoe from water. Water can absolutely ruin a leather dress shoe. That's why we really recommend making sure that you take special care to polish your shoes regularly, to waterproof them, or even better, have a separate pair of shoes that you use only on the days that you know that you might be walking in the rain. You know, for more information about how to waterproof suede, take a look at a video that we have on our channel called How to Waterproof Suede Shoes. We go into detail about how to use the Super Inulver. And stay tuned, because we're going to film a video on how to waterproof leather dress shoes as a result of this question. Thank you for your comment and we look forward to sending you a pair of our Sovereign Grade shoe laces.

OK. So our second question is from our How to Repair Scratched Shoes video and it's from a Bobcats Motorsports. It reads "Hey I like your video. It was helpful. How do I stop my shoes from cracking?" A great question. So the most important thing that you can do to prevent your leather dress shoes from cracking is really to regularly condition and polish the shoes using a product like the Saphir Renovateur, which we call here at The Hanger Project liquid gold, will ensure that your leather dress shoes are properly hydrated, fed, and nourished and you don't have to worry about them drying out or cracking. Another thing that's really important to prevent cracking is making sure that you avoid any type of water-based or silicon-based shoe polishes. What happens with a water-based polish or a silicon-based polish which is a way to cheapen the formulation of the shoe polish, is that these products actually clog and seal the pores of the leather dress shoe and prevent the leather from breathing. This can absolutely cause cracking because it prevents the leather from being nourished from a product like the Saphir Renovateur. So if you're someone that has been using a Kiwi or like a cheap Meltonian shoe polish, we absolutely recommend pulling that polish off with a product like the Saphir Reno'Mat and then thoroughly conditioning the leather regularly with the Saphir Renovateur or the Saphir Pommadier Cream Polishes which are also fantastic nourishing products. And remember, anytime that your shoes have become wet and then the leather dries, it's going to dehydrate that leather. This can happen after you've used something like the leather cleaning soap well really anytime your shoes become soaked. When that leather dries out, it's always going to dehydrate a little bit. And it's important to use a product like the Saphir Renovateur or just a Saphir Pommadier Cream Polish to thoroughly recondition and feed that leather. A great question, Bobcat Motorsports and I look forward to sending you a pair of our Sovereign Grade shoelaces.

Our third question today is from vocalpatriot on our How to Tie the Berluti Knot video, and it reads "does the aristocracy of Italy refer to the loops as Bunny yes, I don't know how the bunny ears slipped past me in that video, but I have been teaching my oldest son Nathaniel recently how to tie his shoes. So, if you don't have children yet, you'll soon find that bunny ears can be very helpful in trying to teach them how to tie their shoes. You know, I tried to teach Nathaniel the Berluti knot, but it's a little bit of an advanced knot so we're just sticking with the basic shoe knots for the moment. But yes. At my house, in the morning especially, we're using the term bunny ears quite often and I guess it just slipped right past me whenever I was filming this video. I've gotten a lot of comments about that, and you're right, bunny ears probably isn't the best term to describe the loops of your shoe laces, especially for this sophisticated audience that we have here on our YouTube channel. I thank you vocal page for your question. I chuckled when I read it, and I look forward to sending you a pair of our Sovereign Grade shoelaces.

Our fourth question today is from Gabriel Acosta on our first shoe polish video on a pair of my George Cleverley bespoke shoes. And it reads "Can we use Saphir Renovateur on Chromexcel?" For those of you that aren't familiar with chromexcel, it is an oiled leather that is produced in Chicago from the Horween leather company and that's the same company that makes the famous Cordovan leather. An oiled leather goes through a different tanning process where it's really infused with neatsfoot oil and other oils to give it a really soft kind of almost rugged texture. The Wolverine Thousand Mile Boots and the Thursday Boot company are two boot companies right now that have some really popular models out being made with oiled leather. And it's just a different texture that is unwaxed so we really don't recommend using the Saphir Renova t eur on an oiled leather. Because again, the waxes from the Saphir Renovateur are going to change the surface texture of the leather. It's not to say that you can't use it, you can but you just need to know that you're going to put a shine because of the waxes onto the leather. Now Saphir has a product that they've developed specifically for oiled leathers called the Oiled Leather Creme, or we call it the Greasy Leather Cream and it's basically a non-waxed oil based conditioner. It's available in 4 colors that we recommend using it for chromexcel. For more information about how to take care of your chromexcel boots, take a look at the video that we filmed on that topic. Thanks Gabriel for your question. We look forward to sending you a pair of our Sovereign Grade shoelaces.

Our last question today is on my Favorite Ties video and is from a Basha who asks "Would you mind doing an EDC or an everyday carry video?" So, great question, Basha. You know, I actually, in college used to carry a lot of stuff on me either in my jacket or my trousers, you know but then I learned that really what everyone was telling me was true. And that's that the less you carry in your jacket or in your trousers, the better. And there's really two reasons for that. One, you know if you're carrying a lot in your pockets or in your jacket it can actually prematurely wear or actually damage your suit. I mean you've all seen someone walking around with a huge leather wallet in their back pocket and they've actually worn a hole in their trousers or their jeans. And so for that reason, I really try to carry as little as possible. But the second reason is that the more that you're carrying on your person, you know just the more bulk you have in your pockets and it really just disrupts the drape and the elegance of a nice suit or even a pair of blue jeans. So, you know my everyday carry is actually quite simple, you know of course I've always got my car key in my trousers. But you'll see that I just have my key fob alone. I don't have any house keys or anything like that attached, because I want as little in my pockets as possible. So I keep the keys to my house either in my car or in my briefcase. Instead of a large wallet, I actually have just a small credit card case that is actually from George Cleverley made out of Russian Reindeer. We sell this on The Hanger Project of course, and I've just got a few credit cards. You know, I've got enough room in the middle to just keep a few hundred dollars, and then just an ID and my you know my insurance card. But I can put this in the breast pocket of my jacket. And it's not bulky that is really going to disrupt the drape. You know, I can throw this in my back pocket or even put it in my front pocket. And it's not going to be some huge unsightly bulky wallet. So I have a larger wallet that I call my travel wallet. This is an Ettinger wallet that I keep in my briefcase and this allows me to kind of store all that other stuff that you might occasionally need and want to have accessible or with you but that you don't need everyday to carry in your everyday wallet. So I've got a travel wallet, you know in here I've got some British pounds, I've got some euros, so that if I'm traveling internationally, you know I have at least enough cash to kind of get me to my club. You know I keep tipping money in here, you know and then I've got a spare driver's license which has gotten me out of trouble at the airport and on several occasions. And you know, my club cards and other things I might need. So, you know I would never carry this on me because it's gigantic you know. If I put this in my breast pocket, you know you'd be hard pressed not to see it. And this particular travel wallet is actually larger than a standard American wallet by design because as most of you probably know, you know European and British pound banknotes are actually about 30 percent taller than American dollars so you need a taller wallet in order to be able to accommodate that without having the note stick out of the top of the wallet. So you know, this rather large thick wallet I mean it's easily an inch thick. You know I keep this in my briefcase, and it's never something that I would carry on me especially on a daily basis. And lastly of course, you know I'm always carrying my cell phone with me. This is an iPhone 10, and you know, I have a white rubber case on here because as those of you who own iPhones know, I mean you can't drop this phone on carpet without risking having it completely shatter. I have a white case as opposed to a black one, because I often take the phone out of my pocket and I put it on top of the table, again so that I'm not sitting with it in my pockets. And so I like the white case because it just draws my attention to it and I find that I forget my cell phone less often with the white case than I did whenever it had a black case. Now that said, if I'm going into a formal business meeting or if I'm doing something where I know that I'm going to be walking around with my phone a lot, I actually will take the case off because again, if I'm in a business meeting or walking around with my phone formally, it just helps me do this much more subtly than if I've got the rubber case on it. And then lastly, one of the things that I've learned to travel with are just some small note cards. And the reason is again, if I'm at a lunch meeting or a business meeting and I want to take some notes, even though you know everyone travels with their cell phone, I still find it rude to pull out your cell phone and take notes because you know even if you announce it, you know someone might think you're texting. So I still like to have some note cards that I keep my breast pocket. Again, they're not very large, I keep just a few sheets with me, and you know, I can pull out my fountain pen or whatever I'm traveling with. Take notes, put that in my breast pocket. I find it much less offensive than pulling out a cell phone at a table. So, Basha, I think this is a great question. As you can see, my personal everyday carry is actually not that many things, but I carry a lot of other things in my briefcase that I think you might find interesting, so we're actually going to put it down as a video to film. So stay tuned, and we'll release a proper everyday carry video, but not stuf that I keep on my jacket pockets but stuff that I carry in my briefcase. Basha, thank you for your question, and I look forward to sending you a pair of our Sovereign Grade shoelaces.

So thank you for all of your questions. These Q&A videos are really some of my favorite videos to film because it gives me an opportunity to really just acknowledge how much I enjoy all of your questions and comments on the YouTube channel. I find it an absolute incredible way to really kind of personally engage with you guys and at least for me, I really feel like we're having a conversation on the YouTube channel. I know a lot of you very consistently ask questions and so it's fun to kind of see that relationship kind of develop and evolve as we publish more videos. So if you're someone that's asking questions or making comments on our channel, thank you. Or if you're someone that hasn't yet asked a question, because you think I might not be reading those or that I would never respond, I really encourage you to ask your question or make your comment because I do in fact read all of the questions and comments and I try to get back to absolutely as many of those as possible. If you enjoyed this video give us the thumbs up or better yet subscribe to our channel and turn our notifications by clicking the bell on the top right hand corner so that you learn whenever we release new videos. And of course, please visit hangerproject.com where we have the largest most comprehensive collection of luxury garment care and shoe care accessories in the world as well as many other incredible products for the well-dressed. And while you're there, subscribe to our newsletter to receive notification of new product launches, promotions, as well as a weekly digest of all the videos we publish here on this YouTube channel. I'm Kirby Allison, and we love helping the well-dressed take care of their wardrobes. Thanks for joining me.