How We Clean and Check Every Pair
A shoe reaches this site only after it has been authenticated, washed, sanitised, graded and photographed as it actually is. This page sets out what happens in between, and just as importantly, what washing a worn shoe can and cannot undo — because that gap is where most disappointment with second-hand footwear comes from.
Where the shoes come from
Our stock is sourced directly from suppliers in the USA, the UK and Germany. Buying at source rather than through a local middleman is what keeps the price where it is, and it also means the pairs arrive in bulk and unsorted. Nothing is listed in the state it arrives in. Every pair goes through the same sequence below before it gets a page on this site.
The sequence
1Authentication
The first question is not what condition the shoe is in, it is whether the shoe is what it claims to be. Our inspectors check construction, materials, stitching and labelling against what the model should have. A pair that fails is not graded, priced or listed — it leaves at this step, which is the only point in the process where that decision costs nothing. If you want to run the same checks yourself on anything you own, we have written them up in how to check if shoes are original.
2Cleaning and sanitising
Each pair is cleaned and disinfected before it is assessed. Method follows material rather than habit: what suits a knit upper will mark suede, and what lifts scuffing off a rubber midsole is far too aggressive for leather. The principle is the same one we set out for buyers in our guide to cleaning pre-loved sneakers, applied before the shoe is listed rather than after you receive it.
3Grading
Only once a shoe is clean can it be graded honestly, because dirt reads as wear and flatters nothing. Grading happens against the same published percentage bands every pair on this site is measured by — Premium at 90–100%, Excellent at 80–89%, Very Good at 70–79%, Good at 60–69%. What each band means in practice, sole by sole and upper by upper, is set out in the condition grading standard.
4Photography
The pair is photographed as it is. The images on a product page are of the physical shoes you will receive, not stock imagery of the model and not anything generated. This matters more for used footwear than for new: with new stock one photograph serves a thousand identical pairs, whereas here every listing is a single item with its own marks. If a shoe has a scuff, the photograph has the scuff.
5Listing
The pair goes live as one item in one size. When it sells, it is gone — there is no second pair in the back. That is why sizes disappear from this site in a way they never do in a shop selling new stock, and why a pair you are considering is worth taking seriously the first time you see it.
What cleaning does not undo
Being straight about this is the point of the page. A cleaned worn shoe is a clean worn shoe, not a new one, and three things in particular survive any process:
- Creasing across the toe box is the upper permanently folded where the foot bent. Nothing flattens it out. On leather it is often the clearest sign of how much a shoe has been used.
- Yellowed midsoles and outsoles are oxidation, a chemical change in the rubber from light and air. It is not dirt, so scrubbing does not touch it. We do not bleach soles back to white — that damages the material and, more to the point, it would misrepresent the shoe. Yellowing is reflected in the grade instead.
- Compressed cushioning is midsole foam that has taken thousands of impacts and lost some of its rebound. It cannot be restored, and on running shoes it is the thing that actually determines remaining life. If you are buying for mileage rather than for looks, read when to replace running shoes first.
None of these are defects. They are wear, they are visible in the photographs, and they are priced into the grade. A pair sold as Very Good is expected to show them; a pair sold as Premium is not. That distinction is also what your return rights are measured against, which we cover in returns and exchanges on pre-loved shoes.
What to do when your pair arrives
Open the box and compare the shoes against the product photographs and the stated grade while the 7-day return window is still open. That is the check that matters, and it takes a minute. Look at the midsole for compression, the toe box for creasing and the outsole tread for remaining depth. If what you are holding does not match what you were shown, we want to hear about it straight away.
After that, how long the pair lasts is largely down to storage, and in this climate that is not a trivial point — humidity does more damage to footwear in Pakistan than wear does. We have written that up separately in storing shoes in humidity.