The Shorewood Man’s Guide to Matching Shoes with Suits

The other day a friend asked me if it was acceptable for men to wear gray shoes with a gray suit. I immediately protested. “Not unless you want to look like you’re wearing an adult onesie.”

It was a tad curt, I know. But the ensemble in question happened to be the exact same color as the shoes. I do acknowledge that there are many shades of gray (pun intended), and depending on the contrast, you could theoretically pair gray with gray. Like, a dark gray/almost black pair of suede Oxfords with light gray pants.

But I digress.

The point of today’s post is to talk about how to match your shoes to your suit. But rather than write about it, I created this simple guide that addresses proper shoe pairings for all basic suit colors:

As you can see, blue suits can go with either black or brown shoes. Though, depending on the fabric of the suit and design of the shoe, brown tends to be a tad less formal.

For less traditional hued suits—perhaps you are a Robert Graham fan?—a good rule of thumb is that cooler colors generally go with black and warmer colors with brown. But as always, there is the caveat of personal taste and style.