Shoes have great power, I'm telling you man

You may think I'm kidding, but I'm not.

Imagine that you are invited to a party. You walk in, and you start telling every person in the room that you have good taste, that you know how to take care of things, that you are a clean person and that you favor good things over cheap ones and that you are either successful or you are in your way to become a successful man. People will avoid you for the rest of the night and run away every time you walk in the kitchen.

That's what shoes are for. Shoes will tell all those good things about you, and then some more, and you wouldn't need to open your mouth once.

Shoes do the talking for you. They can say good things about you or they can say terrible things about you. It depends on what shoes you are wearing, if they are good or cheap ones, if they are well taken care of or not, if they are shiny or dirty.

And you know who pay attention to shoes? Women. Because they understand the power of shoes and they can tell if you understand that power or not.

So you need good shoes. It does not matter how well you dress, if you are wearing the wrong shoes, you kind of f*ck it all up.

© You, but Dapper

What do good shoes look like?

There is a whole chapter about shoes on 'You, but Dapper', and it would be really cool if you buy the book, but whether you buy it or not this is what you need to know:

-Expensive does not always mean good

Yes, Ferraris are f*cking expensive and f*cking good. But not all cars are Ferraris. Same thing applies to shoes. There are f*cking expensive shoes that are f*cking good and some very expensive shoes that are not that good.

So, don't use price as your only reference when you buy shoes. Pay attention to other things.

-Good shoes are made of good leather

There is bad leather, good leather and fake leather. Bad leather is a waste of money, and fake leather will turn your shoes into a steamy sauna for your feet, so you have to get the good leather ones.

Makers who use good leather typically pay a lot of attention to the detail. Even if you don't know a lot about shoes, pay close attention to the details of the shoe. You are spending a lot of money on them, so take your time looking at them. Don't be like the guys who just kick the tires of the car before buying it. Look at the stitching, look at the termination on the sides, the small details. Does it look good?

-Good shoes are heavy

Good shoes use material that have weight. Leather weights. Wood weights. The shoe must feel solid, and have weight. You are not getting them to go for a run, so heavy is good.

-The interior is as important as the exterior

Look inside. Is where your feet go and you want to make sure that you can see that there is quality inside. Make sure that they used real leather there too. Some makers use fake leather inside. Touch it. Feel it.

-Good shoes are really f*cking comfortable

Try them on. You need to feel the difference between whatever you were wearing when you step in the store and the f*cking expensive shoes you are wearing now.

If you don't want to take them off, that's a good sign. If you don't feel it, pick another pair. Don't buy into the 'they will get more confortable with time'. Yes, they tend to expand and get more comfortable with time, but you want to be comfortable from the start.

-Feel them

Feel them. Look at yourself in the mirror. Now try the ones you were wearing before. Feel the difference? Don't just look. Feel it. If you do, then you are getting it.

The price is not going to be to your liking. Good shoes are not cheap. But if they are good, they will last you more than five pairs of cheap ones. If you take care of them, they will look better with age, and even more comfortable. And if you respect the shoe, the shoe will reveal its powers to you.