In some cultures, people wash the feet of guests who arrive at their home. At my parents’ house, I didn’t wash the feet of guests, but I did offer to shine their shoes.

And a surprising number of guests accepted.

When I was in Cub Scouts, we were able to select projects that, when completed, went toward credit for badges. Badges are how you advance in Scouts.

At some point, my dad found an old shoeshine kit, bought it, and gave it to me. It was a wooden box with two sloped lids angled towards the top. The handle was a wooden rail where the person getting the shoeshine placed their foot.

My decision to pursue shoe shines as a service option came from what my grandfather had always said: “Make do with what you have.”

Polish, brushes, and shine cloths were something I had and could use to get a badge.

So, I did.

Shiny shoes were part of an expected appearance in 50s and 60s America. Especially if you were an able-bodied young man and had the capability to shine your own footwear.

Today, you can buy a handheld quick-shine sponge that has a small supply of a clear liquid that makes your shoes look good, but only briefly. The shine doesn’t last long.

But this was not the case when I was a kid growing up on Beech Street in Ashdown, Arkansas. Having polished shoes was expected.

Recently, I needed to buy shoe polish to replace a can I’d finally used up.

I couldn’t. It wasn’t available.

Thinking that maybe they were just low on stock, I checked to see how long it would be before it was available. Turned out it hasn’t been available for a while.

And won’t be again.

The company that made Kiwi Shoe Polish, SC Johnson, stopped making it in 2023.

According to some news reports from around that time, the demand for Kiwi Shoe Polish and related products dwindled to the point that it just wasn’t worth it to the company to make it any longer.

After checking the lid on my can of brown Kiwi Shoe Polish and seeing the Kmart sticker on it, I could see their point. Kmart went out of business where I live years ago, and most stores, even Kmart, stopped using paper stickers for that method of pricing.

Not having access to carbon dating, I went with the 39¢ price on the can, which solidified its age.

I know that I just made the company‘s point about diminished demand. It wasn’t that I was avoiding buying their product; it’s just that for me, shoe polish is like Brylcreem. A little dab’ll do ya.

That, and most of my shoes and boots are black, so my personal need for brown shoe polish isn’t much. Even when I was a kid, most men wore black footwear.

Back to shining people’s shoes in my parents’ home.

If a woman accepted, they were asked to remove their shoes so that I could shine them. I’d hold the shoe as I shined it with a brush, and sometimes a shine cloth.

A shine cloth is the long strip of material you see the shoe shine guy popping in the air as he shines a shoe. You see this a lot in old movies.

If a man accepted, they kept their shoe or boot on and stood on one foot while placing the shoe being shined on the footrest.

I’d use the brush (made of horsehair) to clean the shoe of debris and then lightly apply the polish.

The next step is where many shoeshiners (I may have just created a new name for shoe shiners) differ on technique.

I believe the most effective next step is to use the brush to evenly apply and distribute the polish, while other shoeshiners believe you should use the polishing cloth.

The cloth can’t get into the crevices of the sole and other parts of the shoe the way the brush can. That’s my take on it, anyway. However, there are plenty of folks who are quite effective using the cloth instead of the brush.

Regardless of which way you decide to go, the end result is what counts. And there’s no end result without shoe polish.

With no Kiwi Polish being made now, I had to resort to the black market. Of course, I mean the black shoe polish market.

I found some cans of Kiwi black on eBay. New and unopened, I snatched three of them up and had them delivered.

The laws of supply and demand apply here. When they don’t make something any longer and you want it, you pay an inflated price for it.

And I did.

But judging by how long that 39¢ can of Kmart polish lasted me; someone in my family will likely inherit these three cans of black polish.

And since it’s hard to find now, don’t expect me to offer you a shoeshine when you come to my house.

But I did pick up some of those quick-shine sponges just in case your shoes really need the attention.

 

©2025 John Moore

John’s books, Puns for Groan People and Write of Passage: A Southerner’s View of Then and Now Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, are available on his website TheCountryWriter.com, where you can also send him a message.