Behind every successful man is about a dozen shoes that carry him and protect him and help him carry out his purpose in life. In order to have a complete wardrobe and prepare yourself for anything life throws your way, you need to have at least one of each of these pairs of kicks in your closet:


Five Kinds of Shoes That Every Man Needs

1. Italian Mens Shoes
   
   It doesn’t matter if you’re a construction worker or a desk jockey. You should have some Italian mens shoes in you closet. You might not wear them every day (or maybe you will), but every man has to attend a formal occasion every now and then. You’ll have weddings to go to. You’ll have funerals to go to. You’ll have retirement dinners and award banquets to go to. When these occasions arise, you’ll need your Italian mens shoes to look presentable. You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg out of high end mens shoes (but you won’t regret if you do). A nice, reasonable pair of Italian mens shoes will instantly make your look chic, and will last you a lifetime.
2. Loafers
   
   Loafers are the vanilla of shoes. They won’t make your ensemble, but they’re easy and they compliment everything. If you love yourself, you should get yourself a nice pair of luxury Italian loafers for men. They’re like butter on your feet (We say that to suggest they’re very comfortable. Buttery feet sounds less comfortable than we intended). They go with anything. Whether you are going to be spending the day on a boat or sitting at your desk, or having a night on the town, your loafer will look appropriate for the occasion.




3. Work Boots
   
   No matter what walk of life you have, you need a good pair of work boots. A good pair of work boots are like the armor a knight wears. You’ll thank your lucky stars for your work boots when you need something that offers ankle support, protects your toes, and provides the traction to walk on all terrain. You might not think you need work boots, until you drop something super heavy on your toe because you’re wearing boots that aren’t equipped for the work you’re doing, or you have a heavy and dirty job to accomplish and can’t be worried with whether or not your luxury ostrich skin boots are being damaged in the process.

   Even if you have a desk job and don’t find yourself needing good work boots often, when the occasion arises for them, absolutely nothing takes the place of work boots. Every man needs a good pair of work boots.




4. Gym shoes
   
   There are two kinds of people in the world: People who work out at least three times a week, and people who don’t get enough exercise. If you are in either of these categories (and you are, because you’re a human), you need a good pair of gym shoes. Either for when you go to the gym and work on your fitness, or to give you one more good reason to go to the gym and work on your fitness. Either way, every man needs a good pair of gym shoes in his closet. Maybe in his bag that he takes with him everywhere he goes.




5. Casual street shoes
   
   Let’s not over-complicate things. Sometimes you need to dress up, sometimes you need to dress for manual labor, and sometimes you need to be able to dress for nothing at all. You need a sturdy and reliable pair of comfortable kicks that you can wear to run errands in, go to the grocery store in, take the pup to the dog park in, get the car washed in, or just spend a lazy Saturday at home in. Your casual street shoes are your Vans, or New Balances, or Keds, or Converse All-Stars, or whatever it is that you prefer to wear when you have zero statements to make with your appearance.

Guys might not throwback beers and gab about their vast shoe collection over a poker game, but that doesn’t mean that shoes aren’t important to dudes. No matter what walk of life you have you need shoes, and you need more than one pair of shoes. These are the essentials.