Our Story

Dad always had three colors of leather shoes (Black, Brown, and Tan) in his wardrobe. He would match his Blacks, Greys, and Blues clothes with Black shoes. Different shades of browns and tans would get his tan or brown shoes for the day. We would watch him match his belt and his watchstrap with his shoes. He would not only match the leathers but even metals (i.e., belt buckle, watch strap buckle, and metal on the shoes).

On Friday (as it is a weekend in Dubai), he would take out his shoe care kit. It had an outlandish smell of wax polish and turpentine. There would be pieces of worn-out t-shirts cut in squares for him to use as polish applicators and buffing. We would observe him wrapping the piece of the t-shirt onto his fingers and apply polish in a circular motion. He would carefully use water during the polishing process to bring out the extra shine on the toes and the heel of the shoes.

He would let the shoes aside for 30 minutes after applying the polish. And he would end it in striking shine by buffing them with a horsehair brush. Subconsciously, we kids were picking up these habits and choices. Coincidentally, my grandfather also took care of his shoes the same way, and I guess Dad picked them from him.

One of the peculiar shoe preferences that we picked up from dad was him only buying leather-soled shoes. In my twenties, I too bought only leather-soled shoes. They had confident masculinity about them. The sound of crushing sand under the sole had a particular expression of good quality.

I am sharing some of my childhood pictures (at the bottom of the page) in which you will notice how my parents would dress me up. You see, dressing up with appropriate shoes, socks, watches, and accessories was second nature to us.

In the late 1990s, there was a radical shift in footwear trends. Many fast-fashion brands started mass producing imitation leather shoes that had glue construction and rubber soles.