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• The Handbook

Take Care of Your Kicks

Derrick Miller, creative director of Barker Black, explains how to get the most mileage of out of your shoes.

"Shoes need to dry out, but never put your shoes anywhere near a radiator," warns Miller. "It will dry out the leather and basically melt the shoe from the inside out."

This is especially true if you're going sockless. But they needn't be fancy. "For me, it is not the material that makes a good shoe tree but the shape. It needs to retain the shoe's original shape so it should come as close as possible to the shape of the shoe."

Miller's ritual for shining his shoes? Sunday in front of the TV. "I lay a coat of polish on each shoe letting it sit until I am done with all of them, before buffing them all off with a brush. Shoes that are in really tough shape get an extra coat of polish and are left overnight and buffed off in the morning."