Canada has a junior military called Cadets, one for three military elements, land, sea and air. Cadets are for young people 13 to 18. You're issued a military uniform with brass buttons, cap badge and leather shoes that are required to be polished like a mirror. You have to see yourself in them. We each had our own techniques for polish.
Cadets with the enviable girlfriends showed off their prize donated shoe polishing apparatus. We were genuinely envious of those cadets with the gorgeous girlfriends that helped in the defence of their country. Our best shoe polishing tool had to be donated or stolen.
I learned to use Kiwi Shoe Polish. It's a black paste that comes in a small round tin. Rub the stuff along the shoe and use anything silky to polish from there. That silk was the donated or stolen tool- women's panties are the best shoe polishing tool there is. I'm not making that up. We all found a way to steal a pair, even those fellows without girlfriends. If a girl's boyfriend was a cadet, it was an unspoken secret everyone knew her old panties were donated to the defence of Canada.
How did we use them? We secured one shoe at a time in a workshop vice, took an end of the silk panties in each hand and whipped them back and forth in a sawing motion over the shoe, especially toes and heels. That done, it looked great, almost a mirror shine, but to get the real see-your-face-in-them mirror shine, the trick was to add a pinhead more Kiwi wax- just a dot- and make fast circles with the silk, spitting in it as you go. After that was done, a last strong burnish with the donated or stolen polishing tool got that final mirror shine, ready for the parade square.
No one I knew polished anyone else's shoes, that would be deemed a humiliating issue, forcing someone to do that. If anyone demanded it, I'm sure it would have resulted in a fight to the near death. Other than cadet service, I haven't polished leather shoes, although I have a few pairs. But if I had to, I'd know how. I know more girls now and am definitely less shy about asking for a tool for shoe polishing. That was good practice for asking for dates. Asking for a shoe polishing tool donation for the defence of your country was the greatest cadet line and ice breaker.
I've never had my shoes shined (I've shined my own dress shoes and boots), but I have seen shoe shiners in airports, upscale hotels, and at BDSM events.
The reason you don't see them more often, of course, is because few people today wear the kind of shoes that require shining. Most men today wear sneakers or work boots, though some executives do wear dress shoes, and the few shoe shine services cater to those men in the places they're likely to be, but most of us peasants don't go to those places and aren't likely to see them.
O yeah I've seen em even had em try and get me to get my shoes shined. You see em in my town at the county fair most commonly. I didn't do it at the time because the boots I was wearing weren't the kind that could be polished.
If I see the guy again when I go back I'll him shine my boots since I have a pair of leather ones now.
They are not common in the UK. There are a handful of stands in the main London terminii and posh hotels, but they rarely seem to be manned. You are more likely to find them in the USA. I have only had mine shone once, and it was not impressive for the price. I would only consider doing it again if going to an important meeting and my shoe finish needed urgent repair.
I have. Such a long time ago. The kind of shoes that need to be shined haven't been very common for decades. Of course, I never worked on Wall Street or wore expensive suits.
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