hi everyone its Justine. when you buy
shoes the price and all the brands are not indicators that you're getting good
quality, unfortunately. but there are several details you can easily pay
attention to when you're shopping for shoes, that will save you a lot of
trouble slash pain slash regrets. I'm gonna show you shoes from my own
collection, which you've seen in the previous video a few weeks ago about my
shoes and you will see the materials as well as the construction, both things
matter tremendously at the end of this video you also get some shoe shopping
tips that you might or might not know, it's not always obvious, let's go,
first, the material is really important shoes are usually made of fabric or
suede, which is a little bit brushed leather, or flat regular leather or
plastic, most shoes fit into those four categories. the shoe will tell you.
for example: on those ballerinas it says here (I still have a label
underneath) that this is suede leather, the inside is leather but you see it's
not suede, it's not hairy, it is regular flat leather and the sole is plastic. on this shoe
here which is a made in France, handcrafted shoe, you can see inside on
this label it says the upper is in leather, the inside here, everything is in
leather and the sole also, here you see a plastic element, I'll get back to that
in a minute, but basically the shoe will tell you,
each material can be good or bad depending on how you see it, leather is
made from animal skin so that's an obvious argument against leather if
you're vegan or a vegetarian, it is sensitive to water and sun. it is a very
noble material so it needs to be prepared before it's used on shoes. that
makes it more expensive, more premium. and it is soft and flexible because it's
it's skin so it gets more and more comfortable over time when you wear the
shoes. it's also quite breathable and it is biodegradable. plastic on the other
side. or the official name is polyurethane. the
scientifical term it P.U., it's plastic, is a lot cheaper which is the
main reason why many cheaper brands will use that in their shoe production. it's
very durable more. durable than leather but it's so durablel that it is not
biodegradable. leather needs roughly 50 years to biodegrade. PU needs 500 years.
it is less breathable than leather. it is in fact not breathable. it's plastic. it is
also a bit sensitive to UV rays and it might lose or change its color if you
leave the shoes in the sun. and when you hear that shoes are made of vegan
leather, so-called "vegan leather", it's in fact PU that is prepared to make it look
like it's leather, but it is PU, it is plastic, coming back to leather, for one
second. I forgot something. not all leathers are good quality. there is
leather and leather. depending on where and how its produced. for instance if the
leather is very thin flexible and supple. it's probably higher quality. also if you
see a little scratch on a shoe when you try the shoes on in store. and the
scratch has the same color as the surface of the leather. that's a very
good sign, it means that the skin has been prepared properly. it has been
tanned well so that's higher quality. if you have a scratch on your shoes later,
it would be really easy to just fix it with shoe cream that is transparent,
instead of having to look for a tinted cream that has exactly the color of your
shoes. to finish on the materials let's talk very quickly about ribbons and
embellishments and stuff that's usually shown as decorative elements on top of
the shoe. the throat, this part here, the front upper part,
let's say that's leather and on top of that you have ribbons or beads sewn into
the into the leather, the leather is flexible so it's stretching and it's
supposed to bounce back into place but the beading on top is stiffly sewn onto
it: this is gonna make the holes of the sewing grow with time, you can end up
with holes in your leather or and the wool stuff that is sewn on top stiff
ends everything so your shoes are going to be a lot less comfortable, I am not a
fan of embellishments and stuff on top of
shoes... you see that in fancy shoe stores. cheap stores or also on super high-end
designer shoes: I don't think that's a sign of quality and durability... let's
move on to the construction of the shoe the next super important part. example:
that's the upper here outside and inside, both matter, that is the sole, the heel -
where it is placed matters a lot - and then the arch here is
especially important. the higher the heels the more that is important. let's
dig deeper into each of those elements. usually the upper and the sole are
produced separately and then they are attached together either with glue or
with stitches. both methods can be good if they're done properly. here's how. if
you see stitches like on this shoe here. all around. then the thread of the
stitches should be waxed. that's extremely important. you can know that if
you scratch a little bit with your nail, or here, and you don't see little hairs
coming out, that's a good sign if the threat remains compact and flat, so to
speak. wax makes the thread more durable
because it protects it and it also makes the seam waterproof. very important. if
the sole is glued instead of being stitched like on those ones then take
the time before buying the shoes to look at all the edges. here you should see
glue nowhere. if you see visible glue somewhere. it's a sign of very cheap
production. so take the time look at both shoes from all angles. the salesperson is
going to think that you weird but that's okay because you know what you're
doing :-) all the edges should be impeccable. that's actually a good shoe and if you
have edge paint like here, the leather here is this color but they painted the edges
to match the color of the heel and the rubber sole, which is good, then this edge
paint should also look impeccable, which is the case. then under the sole what do
you see? this is just leather: you see it's absorbing a lot of things I stepped
onto, it's dirty and it's starting to be eaten up by all the little sand pieces,
glass pieces, little stones I stepped onto. the sole is starting to deteriorate
here. that's why I prefer a rubber sole. it's less slippery than that, huge factor
for me. and you could technically just replace this rubber sole when it gets
used up. without that leather part starting to get damaged. if you buy shoes
like that and you want to add a rubber sole. any shoe repair shop around the
corner of your house can do that. and you can just replace the rubber sole every
now and then. when it needs it. the next point is the placement of the heel under
the shoe: here are 2 examples. on this one, you can tell that the entire heel is
really in the middle of this part of your foot. that's proper heel placement.
that's another good example: you see the heel starts more at the back but it's
going that way, so the part that is supported on the floor is really under
your heel, where it needs to be. sometimes you see shoes, especially ankle
boots: if they're cheap and poorly constructed, the heel goes down here
completely vertically. that can't be, the food doesn't work like that,
that's poor construction. then the arch is essential, especially on high
heels. you see this curve here? it should follow the natural curve of your foot. if
you wear those shoes and you feel that you are like crrrrr in them, that's terrible.
the food should naturally lie on it and feel comfortable, and have if possible the
full surface as a contact point. now you might think ballerinas have no arch... they
are completely flat, so by definition they cannot be comfortable. you have to
wear them with an insole inside, that compensates for the flatness of the shoe
itself, otherwise it will never work with the natural arch of your foot. ballerinas
are not a comfortable type of shoe. then inside the shoe you should be able to
see a full lining. here it's in a darker color so it's easy to see it, it's stitched
here all around. if you put your fingers inside, up to the tip, up to the toes, or
you look inside, you see that the lining goes up to the end: it's a full lining. this
one is not good: when you see it from the top, you don't notice anything, it looks
like it's lined. but look to the front, can you see? it stops right here.
so all the front part of the foot is on the hot ground every time you make a
step... cheap. they save money on the corners. there are two main points that
get shocked every time you make a step because we. humans. are not meant to walk
just on 2 feet, there is the heel here, and there's the front part where you have
the balls of the foot, where it carries most. those two part get shocked with
every step so you need, in good shoes, to have a cushion. here you can see the
little cushion under the heel but we're missing one here inside. so half of
the work done... last but not least, some useful tips that I think not everyone
knows; first, always try on shoes to see the true size when your feet are swollen.
that means at the end of the day or on hot days. this way you see the maximum
expansion of your foot. feet are compact in the morning and they expand during
the day, by up to half the size, so that really matters. another thing to test
before you buy is to press on the sides of the shoe to see if the shoe is also
flexible sideways. that's an indicator of comfort and that's especially important
if the shoe is a light shoe or a flat. do protect your shoes with a waterproof
spray thing, it's not a marketing trick, it's really useful I think. do it right
after you bought the shoes, before you wear them for the first time, do it a
couple of times during the year every now and then just so you don't forget
and every time they got wet. it protects the surface, it makes it easier to clean
and it makes it last longer. when you store your shoes, you know those little
hangers with papers that you have inside the shoes when you buy them? that's
really good, you should keep that. put those hangers, put the paper, especially
in leather shoes or in boots - shoes that have a shape that's supposed to stay the
same (so not fabric, harder materials). you'll really preserve the shape a lot
longer. thumbs up if you learned something new, something useful, thank you so much! I also did a similar video on how to recognize good versus bad quality
in clothing, so if you're interested in that, I'll link it here and in the
description below, have a look there. many of you found it useful and even shared
further tips in the comments, so I find the comment section
of that video extremely helpful. I do fashion videos twice a week, every
Wednesday and Sunday so if you want more, subscribe to this channel right here. I'll
see you soon again and until then you can go analyze the shoes in your closet :-)
take care, bye bye!
