Shoe shine
A shoe shine is a service provider who shines shoes . Taking care of the shoes includes cleaning and polishing them with shoe polish and wax. In the past, this activity was mainly carried out on the street. Nowadays, shoe shiners are more and more often working in buildings, such as at trade fairs, store openings or they have their own workshop.
history
While the activity was widespread in Central Europe until the 1920s and 1930s, it is now more used at trade fairs and other events. The European Shoe Shine Association estimates the number of shoe shineers who do their job at a high level at 80 to 120 people in the EU. In Asian countries such as B. India, however, the activity is still widespread today and occurs among other things as child labor .
The activity of the shoe shine is often wrongly compared to the use of shoe shine machines . However, these devices do not take into account the specifics of the respective footwear.
Social
Similar to the work of a hairdresser, the work of a shoe shine also has a social function of communication.
Work under duress only appears to have the purpose of caring for shoes and serves to humiliate, reinforced by the stooped posture during work. Examples from the Second World War can be found in concentration camps or from occupied countries.
Shoe shine in Mumbai , India
Shoe shiner in Istanbul (2003)
Shoe shiner in London (2014)
Shoe shine in KaDeWe (2014)
Web links
- Shoes make the man - article at faz.net
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cleaning your shoes for a few rupees at zeit.de, accessed on July 19, 2011.