George Cleverley Travel Shoe Trees
You will no doubt be aware that the past few weeks have been men’s fashion month - if not, why are you here?
That wonderful bi annual festival of complaint. In particular, the state of the industry, the death of the suit, ugly sneakers, the perils of square meals in expensively good restaurants and constant night after night carousing with peers.
A tough life.
I’m just back from Paris, a city I love, a city with an energy and sense of youthful vigour which intensifies with every passing week.
The trip was productive, the industry isn’t in as bad shape as everyone says, yes there personally are too many ugly sneakers, but, no the suit is neither dead, nor aspic ready costume.
Oh & I ate in some nice places…
Travel with work, allows me to indulge in one of the few things I excel at, packing. Je suis un expert. You know, I’ve got it down pat.
The one thing I struggle with, shoes. The not wearing same shoes two days in a row thing is ingrained, although sometimes I slip, but if I’m away from more than a night, then I need to take a pair with me.
So, how to stop them losing shape, that’s easy enough, just roll up some socks and stuff them in. Sure, that’s the accepted wisdom. I just don’t buy it.
What I do buy, and have bought numerous pairs of are George Cleverley’s one size fits many, travel shoe trees.
Cleverley in the Royal Arcade, is a dangerous place. A place designed to haunt your sleep in the middle of the night, forcing to face up to the fact that there are shoes you never knew you needed and now you will struggle to live without. Essentially Disneyland for grown ups who ought but will never know better.
Before you make the full fat Cleverley commitment, their shoe trees are a very decent starting point.
Ingenious in design and beautiful of construction, these remove the weight of traditional shoe trees, whilst being adjustable.
Made here in the UK from beech with a hollowed out body, weight saving vents cut through the wood, and rather than the usual spring loaded system a swivel handle which extends or retracts the heel allowing the tree to fit across a range of sizes and shoes.
When not traveling with them, any non Cleverley encased trees tend to live inside a couple of pairs of Anatomica Wakouwa sneakers, Ps. please start making them in Japan again…
Now, being strictly technical, I’m going to stick my neck out & say they are considerably lighter than normal trees. I probably ought to check the weight, then again, I won’t. That said, whilst a tiny bit heavier than a pair of socks they are a far better and to my mind, if you care about your footwear, the essential option.
