turms - kings of clean

by markdivision2

So you’ve reached the age where trainers just aren’t cutting it any more and finally stumped up the cash for a pair of big boy shoes. It may just be something that isn’t white and has actual laces instead of elastic, or you may’ve even gone all out on a pair of hand-crafted, vegetable-tanned, custom-made, waiting list-only Oxfords. Whatever your choice the point is, you’ve made the investment and you’re feeling pretty damn pleased with where your legs end and the ground begins. But wait; there’s still work to be done, for with great shoes comes even greater responsibility, and that means looking after your new purchase properly. Cedar shoes trees are of course a must after a hard day’s moving and shaking out there on the mean streets, but your shoes need more – and if you possess the means what they might need is the Turms shoe care box, in all probability the finest thing of its kind in all the known shoe-loving world.

Based in Montegrenaro near the east coast of Italy, Turms are mostly behind making lasts for some of the biggest footwear names around, but it’s the cleaning kits they produce that really have to be the final word in shoe shine. The top of the line model in Italian walnut has every polish, brush, tool, wax and nourishing cream your shoes of suede or calf could ever need, all housed in a hand-crafted, leather-topped foot stool angled perfectly to hold your size 11s while you work your magic. It really is a handsome thing of rare beauty, and certainly a sight to behold should you ever find yourself in the same room; no mean feat given their rarity in this country – I know of only two unbespoken for.

Of course, these things come at a price and that price is roughly what it might take to pay some shifty street urchin to do the same job approximately 500 times, but then, you wouldn’t have the satisfaction of doing it yourself. Or – more likely if you can run to one of these – having your butler do it for you.