As you know, one of worst things you can do to your shoes is shove your foot into them without a shoehorn. Doing so will ruin the heel counter.
Now, when you’re at home, you likely have a shoehorn. If you don’t, you can buy one of these beautiful Abbeyhorns from Leffot (which you can see being made here). If you think those are too expensive, here is a metal one for less than $5.
But what to do if you’re out of the house? Say your friend has a no-shoe policy at his apartment and doesn’t oxhorn shoehorns ready for you to use. My trick is to take a credit card or driver’s license, and use it as a makeshift shoehorn. Just insert it in the back as you normally would, and your foot should slip right in.
Now you won’t have to carry a spare shoehorn in your pocket whenever you visit Asian people.
(Editor’s note – Derek is Vietnamese-American and you shouldn’t read any negative connotations into that last sentence. Also, I can’t believe I actually have to write this. – JT)
(Hi everyone, I’m sincerely sorry if the joke came off flat. I’m Vietnamese-American, and was just poking fun at my own culture. Didn’t mean to Galliano myself. Apologies to anyone offended – Derek)