shoe-leather

English

A pair of black leather shoes

Etymology

shoe + leather

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈʃuː.ˌlɛ.ðɜː/

Noun

shoe-leather (countable and uncountable; plural shoe-leathers)

1. Leather that is used to make shoes.
2. Leather from which shoes are made that is worn out through walking.
   • 1874, John Ruskin, Fors Clavigera: Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain (Orpington: George Allen), vol. IV, letter xliv, p. 166:

     He walked to Ulverstone; spent nothing but shoe-leather on the road.

   • 2011 August 13, Peter Atkinson, “Save on shoe leather [letter]”, The Daily Telegraph (Travel), page T13:

     Save on shoe leather [letter title] ... Pounding the sidewalks can seriously wear you out.

Adjective

Wikipedia

shoe-leather (not comparable)

1. Basic, old-fashioned or traditional; specifically (journalism) shoe-leather journalism or shoe-leather reporting: journalism involving walking from place to place observing things and speaking to people, rather than sitting indoors at a desk.
   • 2008 April 23, Mark Glaser, “Public Documents + Shoe Leather Reporting = The Smoking Gun's Staying Power”, Mediashift, Public Broadcasting Service:

     When we set out to produce the site full time, everything we did went on the site, but the reporting for the site hasn't changed. I don't think it ever will. It's basic shoe leather reporting, hunting down sources and documents and confirming authenticity.

   • 2009 July 5, Walter Kirn, “Wasted Land”, New York Times:

     The book, wrought from old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting of a type that’s disappearing faster than nonfranchised lunch counters on Main Street, isn’t chiefly a tale of drugs and crime, of dysfunction and despair, but a recession-era tragedy scaled for an “Our Town,” Thornton Wilder stage and seemingly based on a script by William S. Burroughs.

   • 2009 September 23, Erica Noonan, “Reporting on the threat posed when reliable reporting fades away”, Boston.com (The Boston Globe):

     Yes, old school, shoe-leather reporting uncovered the Watergate and Pentagon Papers scandals. But it was disturbingly ineffective during the McCarthy witch hunts and the US invasion of Iraq.

   • 2011 July 29, Michael Wines & Sharon Lafraniere, “In China, tweets shake the hold of state media: Microbloggers' reaction to train crash shows new influence on government [online title: In baring facts of train crash, blogs erode China censorship]”, International Herald Tribune:

     Since then, China's two major Twitter-like microblogs have posted an astounding 26 million messages on the tragedy, a potent amalgam of contempt for railway authorities, suspicion of official explanations and shoe-leather journalism by citizens and professionals alike.

References

• “shoe-leather” in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Online.
• “shoe-leather, n.” in OED Online, Oxford University Press, 1989.