7 Reasons why you should give this shoe fashion, the boot.
Scotland Yard’s hot shoe secret
A friend, who used to be with the London police, told me how they could spot the pickpockets at Heathrow airport. They would scan a crowd of businessmen and then simply look down. The pickpockets would often wear business dress, but they would always have scuffed and worn shoes.
Now Scotland Yard would be stymied
These days Scotland Yard would be out of luck. Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of Canadian and American young professionals dressed in nice suits and looking sharp… except for one thing… their shoes. Their shoes are modern, expensive and intentionally distressed or left scuffed and unpolished. It’s a new in-look for young men, class with a touch of sloppy. It makes my corporate image consultant’s heart, sink.
7 reasons to run hot shoe-ed from this trend
Anyone who regularly reads GQ probably will be familiar with the fashion. But the big problem with this trend is – those of us who don’t… don’t get it.
If you adopt this trend, certain people in business won’t understand your ‘look’ and these people include:
1. Business leaders
2. Clients
3. Potential clients
4. Employers
5. Potential employers
6. Connectors
7. Decision-makers
Ask yourself
So to paraphrase Clint Eastwood “You’ve got to ask yourself one question…” Can you and your career afford to risk making a poor impression with these people?
If the shoe fits…
At best, these people will think you made the effort to dress professionally but you’ve forgotten to polish your shoes, thus – you’re not a detail person.
At worst the decision-makers will discount you because they assume you don’t understand business and how to dress professionally.
Early adopters beware
This is one of the dangers of being an early adopter of fashion trends in business. Most people won’t get the trend. And if it is a scruffy shoe trend they’ll just assume you are sloppy or worse … a pickpocket.