I bought these shoes for a wedding I was attending, with the expectation that I would be able to dress-up a casual outfit with them in the future. Sadly, there will be no future for these shoes. After the ceremony and reception for the wedding (roughly 6 hours of wear, and I didn't dance at the reception), these shoes had scuffs where the finished leather started to separate from itself on the toe, the scuffs turned into gouges when I tried to wipe them off. I used the same buffing cloth as I would for my Red Wing boots and other brown dress shoes. The leather seems extremely brittle and thin, almost like a veneer. The closest thing I can think of to describe this is when a leather office chair starts peeling with age. Scuffs are normal wear and tear, and anyone who owns a few pairs of dress shoes knows that they're something you have to deal with and buff/polish/oil out, but the scuffs are not just surface. Would not recommend.