Bad shoe trees can deform your shoes. That is a fact. I have seen it and I wish I had taken photographs of it. This is not a sales tactic either. In reality, I don’t care what products you buy. But I do feel the need to inform you of the pitfalls of your choices and tell you what the salesmen (who earn commission) won’t.
The reality is that certain cheap shoe trees can deform your nice, leather shoes. The biggest culprit is the one in the photo below. If you only wear junk ones, then no sweat, buy the cheap shoe trees. But if you purchase nice leather dress shoes and see them as an investment not only in yourself but also in your wardrobe, then it is best you have all of the necessary information to make an informed decision.
Now, some people think that because I say ‘Don’t buy cheap/bad shoe trees’ that it must be I am peddling the expensive ones that I sell. BUT NO, this is not the case. There are plenty of mid-tier trees that you can purchase that do a great job. You can find them at: Herring Shoes, Septiteme Largeur, Bexley, and Meermin. I am sure many other places sell that $40-$50 cedar tree that actually has a solid shape and will do the trick. That is what you need.
If you want to go to the upper echelons, that is also cool. But it is not always 100% necessary. I think that a shoe tree should correlate to the price of your shoes. I often find that a 20%-30% price ratio is a good rule to stick with.
So, don’t buy bad shoe trees if you care about your shoes. Invest a few dollars more and get a whole world better. And if you have a bunch of those Nordstrom trees or ones similar, use them in your more rounded-toe and suede shoes.
—Justin FitzPatrick, The Shoe Snob
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Just playing devil’s advocate, Nordstrom shoe trees were actually offered from XS( mens size6-7) to XXXL ( mens sizes 15-16) and the two-pronged expansion on the vamp or toe box only impacted the quality of the shoe if improperly inserted into the shoe. As far as the narrowness of the the shape of the shoe tree heel, well, heel counters on 90% of dress shoes were much broader back when we sold shoes (yes even Ferragamo shoes). Cedar is cheaper but you could shave it down with sand paper to preserve the life of your shoe trees and they kept going. Also, you forgot to mention that wide foot customers honestly never experienced the damage and “stretched out effect” of ruining quality leather as are feet we’re pretty much doing that to the shoe. We just wanted mostly the trees to wicker away the sweat to prevent bacteria and cracks in the leather. Cedar is also the good for that. All for the price of $19.95 with a lifetime warranty!
thanks for reading hermano! The shaving down point was a good one. That is true indeed. The point was more about ‘bad shoe trees CAN ruin your nice shoes’, not that they 100% will and it again depends on your shoes. Wide ones can widthstand them better. But they still don’t do the function well, which is maintain the actual shape of the shoe. They always do this poorly. But again, they can work in rugged shoes/boots, but I don’t think that they are a solution to anyone who invests more than $500 into their shoes.
Yes Justin, The shoe trees pictured with NO printed in front of them are the exact set of trees that did not fit a pair of loafers of mine and began to create a crease that ran length wise on the outer sides of the shoes. I purchased the correct trees and there certainly is a difference. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing Arthur!