As long as people have been wearing shoes and boots to protect their feet, there has been a need for maintenance of them. Keeping footwear clean and well cared for has been necessary since the advent of shoes. Well cared for shoes and boots can last years and travel many miles protecting the feet of their owners.

A shoe shiner, boot polisher or bootblack is a profession full of people who buff and clean shoes and boots with polish. The term “shoeshine boy” was adopted because a male child traditionally filled this job. Some shoe shiners also repair shoes and offer general fixes to shoe problems such as sole repair or new laces. This profession is still common practice in many countries. Often, the wage of a shoeshine boy will be a significant portion of a family’s income if the father has died or can longer earn money. In the United States today, shoe shining is generally done at home or by a cobbler in a shoe repair shop.

Shoe polish was not a product commercially available until the early 1900’s. Until then, shoeshine boys used homemade concoctions. Some homemade shoe polish was commonly made from grease and oven soot and made black boots look like new. Linseed oil was later used for patent leather and could make it seem almost reflective. Some of the poorest (and often the best) shoe shiners used plain old spit and a rag or bristled brush. With the quick motion of the rag or buffing brush they could create a friction that would buff the dirt right off the shoes and create a high gloss.

By the mid-20th century, cowboy boots were all the rage again. This time, shoe shiners had commercial products at their fingertips. Shoe shiners were again on every street corner and in every transportation station ready to keep those boots sparkling. Keeping cowboy boots free of dirt and dust was the only way to wear them in the days of Western movies and glittering cowboy stories. With the cracks and crevices produced by the leather, this was a tall order and kept shoe shiners in business for years.

Many famous and important people have risen to the top starting at the bottom of your shoes. Rush Limbaugh, a famous conservative radio talk show host, shined shoes as a boy to earn money. Lee Trevino, a professional golfer born in Dallas, Texas, earned money as a shoe shiner at the golf club where he also caddied. James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul”, is also a former shoeshine boy. He used to shine shoes while singing and dancing in his hometown of Augusta, Georgia. The street where he polished people’s shoes is now called James Brown Boulevard.

Shoe shining is not dead, but certainly an art form that will never again be the same. With shoe repair shops, online cobblers and at home kits, getting your shoes professionally shined is a luxury of the past. The glory of sitting high in the shoe shine stand while your shoes are cleaned to perfection is not something that the next generation will get to experience.

You can’t help but to see the ads all over television and in magazines. Back pain cures are big business these days. According to the ads, every time you get an ache or twitch or pain in your back, just pop a few pills and you will be as right as rain and back to doing the things that hurt your back in the first place. What the ads fail to tell you is that pain relievers such as naproxen and ibuprofen do not cure the back pain. They just make it so you don’t feel it for a while.

Back pain can be caused by many things including over use of back muscles, stress, and misalignment of the spine. But by far the leading cause of back pain in adults is poor posture. Poor posture is something we develop over time by being unmindful and lazy about the way we carry ourselves. When we droop our shoulders, we are putting stress on our back. When we sit in an office chair without supporting our lumbar region, we are causing the back muscles to compensate in aberrant ways. When we sleep in a bed with no support, we strain back and neck muscles and put pressure onto certain points on our back and shoulders. If we walk crooked or favor our heels or toes, we put strain on our hips and back.

Scientists and researchers are discovering that there is a strong connection between what we wear on our feet and how we walk. Wearing cheap shoes with no ankle or arch support can force us to walk in unhealthy ways which can cause pain everywhere from the ankles to the head. The proper way to walk is to balance our weight evenly between the feet so that one foot and leg does not have to take on the majority of the work. The weight of our body is transferred from our heel to our toe as we walk and, in order to do this smoothly, we need the arch in between to have support underneath it. Unsupported arches cause the foot to spread and can create uneven walking. When walking long distances, the ankle also must be supported so that it does not wobble side to side.

Investing in a good quality shoe is an investment in the health of your back. While quality shoes are generally more expensive than their bargain bin cousins, they will last for many years whereas cheap shoes must be replaced often as they fall apart. The marks of a quality shoe that will help your posture are good arch support, a firm upper to support your gait, and a cushioned inner sole to guard against the jarring motion of walking on a hard surface. Often these kinds of shoes will have leather uppers because leather is a strong but supple material that can help support the foot.

In order to keep your shoes at their best, have them repaired when needed. Worn soles can be replaced, laces changed and heels mended. This way, your investment will last you and your back for many years to come.