I am sure there are lots of shoe aficionados here. This is the thread to discuss your balmorals, your bluchers and your brogues, and leather wise your cordovan, chromeexcel, horween etc here.
My shoes are modest. I have a few pairs of Dr Martens, some Solovair ( their Gibson boot, the brogue boot, another Gibson plaintoe blucher and a monkey boot) , Cheaney oxford toecap, and a Cheaney country shoe.
I use Saphir mink oil and Saphir polish for their upkeep.
More sartorially evolved forum members can flaunt their Edward Greens and their John Lobbs , their George Clevaerleys etc here.
The brands of shoes you mention are superb (by reputation), I've never bought a pair, partly due to budget constraints, partly because I rarely go abroad and partly because the ones which do retail in India have such higher prices than their online US discounted prices that I don't feel like buying in India (e.g. Steve Madden, Aldo, Cole Haan)
I can't imagine buying shoes without trying them on, so the online bazaar hasn't opened any new doors for me. Therefore it's Clarke's, Ruosh, etc for me till now. I've seen amazing cordovans with friends, snooty friends who look down on Allen Edmonds as mass-market and will not touch a Cole Haan.
But I've switched entirely to Saphir for leather care. I have their Renomat, the mink oil, the Renovateur, the cream polish, the wax polish and mirror-gloss wax polish. Unfortunately, I seem to find it hard to get cream polish to match the colour of my shoes other than black, so it's mostly black and neutral polishes for me.
I take care of my belts too with them (I'm quite happy with Indian belts from Zodiac and others), and the leather care makes all the difference. And I've learned so much from Kirby Allison's videos: in fact, it was he who sold me on the Saphir range. Bloody good salesman.
The two things I've not picked up from him are his expensive chamois and his horse-hair brushes. I buy my brushes locally from Amazon India and I think they're great, after having worked through 2-3 brands.
I've used the Renomat on one pair of full-brogue wingtip-toe derby once, to remove oil drop stains. It worked very well, but once you touch Renomat to your leather, it's an uphill task rejuvenating it using multiple rounds of mink oil, then multiple rounds of Renovateur, etc. Needs a couple of weeks and (for me) 10+ rounds of the various magic potions treatment. Renomat really sucks the life out of your leather. Scary stuff. Totally safe, though.
Can't imagine using forty-rupee Cherry Blossom shoe polish on multi-thousand-rupee leather any more. The synthetic paraffin and chemical based goop they sell (and which I've used for the first fifty years of my life, knowing nothing better) is so sad compared to good stuff. And one doesn't need to go all the way to Saphir -- even just the Woly and other cream polishes available in India today are so much better than Cherry Blossom.
Another total eye opener was the first time I used horse-hair brushes. My first HH brush was a Woly, bought from the local Hypercity outlet. It was
ten times as expensive (Rs.450) as the Cherry Blossom or Kiwi lying beside it (Rs.40). But having tasted that polishing ease once, and having actually touched those bristles, I now don't know how I used those cheap synthetic-bristles brushes for so many decades. HH brushes take one-tenth the effort to get the same shine.
I think you can guess: I'm a DIYer.
For trekking: I'm one of those Decathlon till I die types.
My last trek was through Thorong La. 5,410 metres. The last stretch through the pass, water in my water bladder and feed pipe began to freeze, and I realised why people wear three pairs of gloves: my fingers started to freeze with just two layers. But the Quecha equipment were perfect.
www.fellmonger.in
