Mens Summer Shoes

The winter months are finally behind us, the sun is shining.  I love it, I went to a wedding down in St.Ives last weekend. It wasn’t perfect on the Saturday but on the Sunday we went for a walk along the coast.  I watched the football and I had fish and chips on the beach.  Shear bliss!

So what does this have to do with shoes, well it got me thinking about my summer shoes collection.  I have a couple of pairs but with this being my first summer working with a footwear company I feel obliged to add to this.  I think it’s a good excuse to go shopping anyway.  So here we go with my top 5 pairs of shoes to get you through the summer.  I’m sure I could survive on less but hey, who wants to struggle when you can have it all!  Maybe my wishlist looks a little dated or maybe you think it’s a little lame but I’m open to feedback.  I haven’t even checked them with the girlfriend yet so I’ll probably have a whole new list next week!

So, how did I come to this list?  Well, I’m glad you asked.  First of all I thought about what I have planned.  You see I love the beach, I love watersports, the odd walk in the hills and then it’s always nice to have something smart to wear on the town or out in the evening.  Generally I don’t go for the plain old white shoes, I like a little colour in my life and given the weather I’m starting to feel a whole lot brighter all round.  In addition I would like a bit of a tan to show off so I don’t really want boots as I’d rather be in shorts and I’m not sure shorts would work with boots.  Secondly, I’d rather have something light as opposed to dark to try and accentuate any little tan I might get.  As I write this I’m currently thinking about how vain this all sounds, and it is horribly vain.. it is a bit pathetic but then you may well have some kind of distorted logic to convince yourself one pair of shoes is better than another when there are so many to choose from.

So here we go with this in mind I’ve decided I will be looking to get a pair of sandals for the beach and ideally something a little smart so I can wear them to work as well.  Now for me, I can’t help but look no further than the classic Birkenstock.  They’re not for everyone but they are so comfortable!  They’re timeless, well made and Birkenstock have been operating since the 1700’s so they’re obviously doing something right.  Secondly I like to get out and about I like to go up the hills and I love exploring around the rocks at the beach so for shoe number 2 I’ve gone for the North Face Hedgehog IV GTX.  These are breathable, waterproof and offer excellent grip and protection perfect for a scrambling around the coast on a warm summers day.

For shoe number 3, I’m thinking I want something for a night on the town as I enjoy an evening meal and a nice glass of Rioja.  Relaxing on the continental coasts of Spain, sitting back listening to lapping waves and a sunset which caresses the horizon of the sea, I need something to go with a pair of chinos so for this im going to choose some leather Camper Oxford Mil shoes.  Then finally for the general day to day and leisure shoes what better than some summer blue vans clean, crisp simple and perfect without socks.  I’ve gone for the snorkel blue as much as anything because I love the name but the colour is perfect and then some of the Puma TX-3 just to finish it off.  Why, well I don’t really need them but I love them.  They’re bold, they’re bright they are perfect for the summer and they have that little hint of a classic retro design.  Let me know what you guys think and if the girls want more style tips to help out your boyfriends we’re always on hand. Otherwise, even if you think a little visit from Trinny and Susannah wouldn’t go a miss!  I still want to hear from you.

Still it a bank holiday weekend, chuck a shrimp on the barbie, have a drink, but most of all enjoy the weather.. It’s summer after all!

Written by Glen

Where did shoes come from?

Today I thought we'd go back to the roots of footwear. Investigating exactly how far back in time shoes existed. Many historical references indicate footwear was present during the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Etruscan, Roman, Medieval, Renaissance eras.. many have solid evidence and artifacts to support these beliefs. Using common materials such as bark, leaves and grass, our ancestors would protect their feet by tieing these materials under foot with vines. In warm countries sandals would be made from woven palms and grass, whilst in cold countries heat insulating materials were used such as the skin of animals. Shoes really can be a fascinating subject when considering the status they conveyed in different periods. For example in ancient Greece and Rome footwear was seen as a sign of wealth.

To begin, we must go far back in time. We're talking 40,000 BC during the middle of the Palaeolithic age (the prehistoric era of mankind's history)  where the most primitive stone tools were used and hunting, fishing and gathering was in its prime. But hang on.. isn't this the time that Caveman were around? Yes it is. But dont illustrations of Caveman show them barefoot? Yes they do. Am I making this up? haha no. On the contrary, there is no solid proof that footwear was ever used by Caveman, except for a small significant discovery by a man named Erik Trinkaus.

Erik Trinkaus is an expert on human evolution, a modern Charles Darwin if you will. Born in 1948 he dedicated his life to studying biology, human diversity, and more specifically the evolution of the species HomoSapien (modern human being). With his PhD in anthropology, Erik studied at the Washington University in St.Louis and discovered something quite remarkable. Looking back to the Palaeolithic age being, it became apparent the size of the toe bones had began to shrink. Using extensive data about how shoes change the way people walk, Trinkaus concluded the smaller toe bones indicated mankind had started wearing shoes. His discovery was founded on a simple fact.

Bone size is not universal and is effected by numerous factors of a persons lifestyle.

Bones react to the stresses we put on them. When exercising your body, not only will your muscles increase in size, but so will your bones. For the most of history, humans have large toe bones. This is likely due to more walking, climbing and practical movement then we do today. Despite the oldest surviving shoe being 10,000 years old, this discovery indicates 40,000 years ago, the skeletons that were discovered still had strong, thick bones.. but there toes were smaller.

Having pieced together this fascinating information, Erik concluded the only thing that would take away stresses on the toes, and not the legs is shoes. So does this mean Cavemen are the founders of footwear? I truly don't know for sure, and I doubt anyone ever will. But its a curious thought that does make sense. What do you think?

 

Written by Keiran

Buffalo Boots. Exclusive to mastershoe-myshu

Buffalo boots, remember them? A massive platform with a massive personality! They were undoubtedly one of the most memorable pieces of footwear of the 90’s. The original Buffalo wedges were first made famous when they shot to fame almost as quickly as the Spicegirls (the girlband) who wore them. Within months of them being worn in the pop video they could be seen propping up schoolgirls up and down the country.

They’re certainly a definite marmite shoe, you either love them or hate them but what you could never do is ignore them. Buffalo boots started the platform craze, they were bold, eccentric and now they’re back. Big time! Bigger, Braver and in even more exciting styles and colours than ever!

Now from a personal perspective just to put you in the picture here I’m a 30+ year old male and I’m probably not the most fashion conscious person in the world. I try to make an effort when I go out in the mornings and on the odd occasion I might even jazz up my outfit with a hat. So, I may not be the most suitable person to write this blog but on the flip side I do like people watching I believe I can appreciate style when I see it and I think it’s pretty empowering seeing someone walk the street in something out of the ordinary. For sure it looks a bit different, but if you have the confidence and it make you feel good why the heck not! This in my opinion is what the Buffalos do as well. They stand out, they make an impact. They’re a statement piece but you know what else they look fun, there crazy and there colourful. The new range comes in the traditional white and black but then they also have the hot pink trim, animal prints in both Leopard and Snake skin and last but certainly not least the Boutique Black Floral design which is also exclusive. Exclusive to us, that’s right you heard us right.. Exclusive to mastershoe myshu!

So what do I think of Buffalo boots? Personally I don’t really know… I’m certainly clutching for dear life on rhetorical fence but then I also have a little sister obsessed with them, bloggers who want them and a magazine who were desperate to put them in a fashion shoot. As a kid at school I still remember the kind of girls that made you go weak at the knees, strutting them down the playground, so maybe it’s just me being scared of something different and getting a little older and more decrypted than I would like to admit! Either way make your mind up for yourselves. Try some on, experiment, have a little fun! I certainly believe it’s good to dabble in something a little outside of your comfort zone every now and again. I even experimented with a red pair of jeans the other week to break out of the typical jeans and checked shirt combo, and it did feel good.

Whatever the case if you do give them a go you’ll feel like a urban Mary Poppin’s floating timelessly through the decades without a care in the world, and your head in the clouds (literally) but more importantly you’ll feel good and you’ll certainly get some attention with the new range of Buffalo Boots.

The History of Mastershoe-Myshu

The History of mastershoe-myshu

Mastershoe-myshu is a UK based footwear retailer and is a trading name of Giles Uk Ltd, which also trades under the names Mastershoe, Myshu, and Sportshoe.The business  is owned and run by two brothers. 


Mastershoe first began trading in 1982 in The City of Bath’s ‘Camden Town’ on Walcot Street in the former Red House Bakery,  where the shop was well known for it’s quirky layout and with all the right shoes on display and the left shoes being sent down the ‘chute’ for purchase.  This unique layout was only changed as recently as summer 2013 when the Bath Mastershoe store underwent a refit. Although the refit has now updated the Bath store, it still keeps it’s original charm and quirky nature, including a ‘Welly Room’ dedicated entirely to wellington boots.


At it’s height of High Street retailing Mastershoe and Sportshoe, as it was then known, had 8 stores across the South West with 4 of these in Bristol centre alone.  Nowadays due to the huge growth of online retailing Mastershoe concentrates on 3 retail shops in Trowbridge, Bath and Bristol.

The Trowbridge store is situated in the town centre of Wiltshire’s County Town at the main entrance to the Shires Shopping Centre. Formerly a court room, a dance hall, and café and more recently a Woolpack Inn,  this Grade 2 Listed historic building was built in 1854 and was intended to become a magistrates court.  Opening in 2002 Mastershoe makes full use of the space this building provides, and offers a wide variety of footwear from many global brands including Nike, Converse, Timberland, DC, Dr Martens and Merrell, to name just a few.



The Bristol Mastershoe store opened in 1992 and is situated about half way up the popular Park Street.  In 2011 the Sportshoe store, located on the opposite side of the street, merged with the large Mastershoe shop to give the full range of footwear under one roof trading as mastershoe-myshu.   Park Street features many niche shops and boutiques,  as well as the bigger names, and even a Banksy mural.  With it’s wide and varied ranges of footwear including El Natura Lista, Camper, Onitsuka Tiger, Vibram and Converse, Mastershoe fits in perfectly. 

In 2006 Mastershoe-myshu joined the online retailing world and opened the website mastershoe-sportshoe.co.uk

Based in Trowbridge the website strives to give customers far and wide great footwear brands at competitive prices, and prides itself on it’s fantastic customer service.  Initially, the Mastershoe website began life in the Trowbridge store, however by 2009 it had become so successful it moved out of the store and into warehouses close to the old Stone Mill Building, where it enjoyed a full site redevelopment,  and was rebranded as mastershoe-myshu.  It  has gone from strength to strength ever since.

Place footwear - whats it all about?

Hi everyone!  Hope your all well it’s been a busy old month at Mastershoe, HQ.  We’ve been getting ready for the new summer ranges and have had lots of photos to take, shoes to admire and an extra little bonus yesterday which made all of our hard work worthwhile.  Sadly, I can’t tell you about that yet but rest assured we’ll keep you all updated once the time is right.  In the meantime I thought I’d let you in on another nugget of good news which is the arrival of some highly anticipated Place sandals.

So who are Place?! That’s what I said anyway...  As a business the boffins behind the footwear at Place have been in the industry for the past 33 years.  Their parent company ‘Langer’ became the first custom made foot orthotic laboratory in Europe.   Fast forwarding to the present day, millions of custom insoles later and Langer are the World’s leading foot health care supplier to the medical market.  They cater for all types of individuals ranging from elite athletes to acute diabetics and even people like me who have different size and shaped legs and feet.

The company themselves put their success down to their unique BFT technology (a foot-bed design feature) which is present in every shoe and sandal. Sadly they only design female footwear as a general rule of thumb however for medical purposes they do offer a range of custom made Birkenstock’s with personalised footbeds.

From a healthcare perspective I can also personally vouch for the effectiveness of this technology.  As a former runner I had to have knee surgery at 18 and have only recently got back into this sport having finally found what appears to be a solution, insoles capable of supporting my body in a way that works for me.  These were prescribed for me medically and while each case would have to be judged by a trained professional it is reassuring to know first-hand that they’re obviously doing something right.

We have two styles of Places sandals at the moment, the Ibiza and the Capri.  So feel free to have a look and if you struggle with anything from your posture to pressure points in your feet or aching legs, maybe just book an appointment with your doctor as well.  My luck only recently changed after receiving some useful advice from a Physio who suggested I would need to be referred and regardless of the right or wrongs behind this it’s made a massive difference once I requested an appointment with a specialist!  Anyway thanks for reading and I hope you like the new shoes.

My Leather brogues

“You need two things in life, good shoes and a good bed because if you’re not in one then you’re in the other”. I’ve no idea who wrote it, but it’s a quote I’ve remembered for years. I would love to say it was a nugget of wisdom my grandfather passed on as I perched on his knee listening to war stories in front of a roaring fire as a lad but that would be a lie. I think I instead just read it on the internet, somewhere.

Anyway enough procrastinating, this is my first blog for Mastershoe so go easy on me. It did get me thinking about my shoes though when I thought about what to write; you see a good quality pair of shoes will last a lifetime. Sure they’ll need repair and maintenance from time to time but that all adds to the character of your shoes, it’s what makes something unique to you in a world of mass production. I have a lovely pair of brogues at home which were custom made in Thailand for my girlfriend’s brother who has a healthy love of fashion cause them to become surplus to requirements. I love them as well, they are tan leather and they were perfect but this weather over the past few months has been relentless, my feet have got wet and I have to admit my shoes are in a pretty bad way.

What happened? Living in England wasn’t the best of starts but over the past few months they have now developed an ink stain from being in a gym bag with a pen, water marks and now the sole is also rather worn. Don’t get me wrong I can appreciate these things happen. I know I haven’t particularly cared for them how I should and I can be philosophical but I’d rather they just looked nice!

Obviously re-soling is standard practise in managing the on-going life of your shoes but it did get me wondering how you should actually care for your shoes. How do you care for them? For example you don’t just have leather anymore there’s patent leather, smooth leather, waxed leather and then you have suede and nubuck which are variations of leather and they all require different types of care. Then you have the sheepskin boots which seem to mark at the slightest contact with anything and the all elusive running shoes which seem to be permanently marked and even wellies. Do you clean your wellies? I didn’t even know you needed to care for wellies to be fair, but you can and then you have the range of care products. There are 3 or four different types of brushes you can get. You then have Gloss polish, restorative polish and dubbin. This is literally only halve of it as well so there’s no wonder people may not realise what they need.

I often get caught in a thought or an idea and once I get something in my head I find it hard to switch of, until I feel I have at least started to quench my thirst for knowledge. Did you know for example just because you bought leather boots they’re not actually waterproof leather boots unless they’re sold as waterproof or treated post purchase. Even then they only stay water proof if you continually maintain them as required. It’s sounds obvious now I think about it but until now it isn’t really anything I’ve given a lot of thought. Which is arguably part of the problem, why would you, it seems a thing of the past getting up in the morning and polishing shoes for school. Throughout my youth as a child I would only clean my shoes when they were particularly dirty and then if they started getting scuffed you just bin them and start again. It’s the same with suede shoes once they got stained I’d just stop wearing them, eventually buying a new pair and it would start all over again for the Saturday night on the town.

As a business, yes we want to make money but do we want to encourage this wastefulness? Surely it would be better helping you care for what you’ve got and then if you’ve got the spare cash in the future you can just get yourselves another pair to add to your collection. We at Mastershoe should be on hand to provide this kind of information. We should be identifying what care your shoes need, what products are worth investing in and also how to carry out this care and maintenance. Of course, doing all of this does take time and to be fair we haven’t got it ready yet but it will be soon.

In the meantime here’s a little treat for you, I was going to put about how to care for your Sheepskin Boots but men don’t have those, so… I decided I’ll tell you how to keep the waterproof stuff waterproof and if you don’t have anything waterproof the it’ll keep what you do have in the best possible condition. Just remember, look after your footwear ‘cause shoes have feelings too!

Waterproofing your footwear

Water and salt damage can be expensive! Water can destroy the suppleness of the leather, without protection, leather becomes dried out so it will eventually start to crack, damaging your footwear. You can prevent this and reduce the weathering of your shoes and boots by treating your leathers. Salt and other harsh chemicals can also stain and weaken your waterproof shoes whether they are made from leather, suede, nubuck, synthetics or textiles. Luckily this is easily avoided and can be fixed with the use of suitable cleaning products.

How to choose the right water proofing products

When choosing the right product for water proofing and protecting your shoes you need to consider what your shoes are going to be used for (i.e) if you‘re going to spend lots of time in wet conditions we would recommend using a wax product as opposed to a protective spray which is best suited for smart fashion based footwear.

I need to protect my leather shoes as I work in muddy and wet conditions

For this, we suggest using a wax product. These type of products form a protective layer over the surface of the shoe/boot, shielding leather footwear from the damp conditions rather than allowing it to be absorbed into the shoe, however this does temporarily alter the appearance of the shoe due to the nature of the wax based products.

I need to protect my suede, nubuck, synthetic or textile shoes

We recommend a waterproof spray: a spray will provide a mild moderate protection against wet conditions.

I want to protect my shoes but do not want the appearance to be effected

If the appearance of the shoe/boot is important to you then we suggest a weather proofing product such as a spray protection. This provides a breathable barrier against mild- moderate wet and dirt conditions. Sprays are invisible on your shoes/boots.

Any waterproofing treatment will need reapplying at regular intervals and after any cleaning.

Bye Bye Authentic Wedge

Dr Martens - The Authentic Wedge

The Authentic Wedge or 3A63 as it used to be know has to be one of Dr Martens most popular and classic styles.  A staple from the Dr Martens winter range for over 10 years it quickly became an all year boot and appeared in the Spring/Summer ranges as well.  So what do Dr Martens do with this fantastic wardrobe essential....they drop it from the range.  Seriously Dr Martens are no longer making the Authentic Wedge!! I think it's fair to say we are all gutted by this decision, not only is it one of our best sellers I think nearly every female member of our team owns at least one pair.

Dr Martens 3A63 (Authentic Wedge Black) 2013

The Authentic Wedge isn't without it's quirks, a typical DM they take a fair bit of wearing in and can be very stiff to begin with, but once you've worn them in the comfort they give is superb.  They soon become your go to boots for everyday wear.

The classic lines and a simple character of the Authentic Wedge compliments any outfit, so you can wear them all day, everyday whilst the sturdy leather uppers and the iconic AirWair outsole add protection and durability.  Unfortunately they are not waterproof, which for this winter is a bit of a disadvantage, but a simple dubbin treatment adds good water resistance.



The Authentic Wedge has been available in many different colours with Black, Bark & Red always being the staple colourways, but there has also been Blue, Purple, Peacock, Olive, Deep Mahogany and Grape added in for limited seasons.

A Few Authentic Wedge Colours

So what are they replacing it with?? Whilst Dr Martens do have a wide range of ladies boots including the iconic 1460, Brielle, Joylyn, Mayen and Rowena which all make great winter boots the new range for 2014 unfortunately has nothing like our beloved Authentic Wedge, so it's bye bye Authentic Wedge...for now at least, we're all hoping DM's realise how much we all love these boots and bring them back.