shoe leather

British  

noun

1. leather used to make shoes

2. to avoid wearing out shoes, as by taking a bus rather than walking

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Example Sentences

“Despite the kind of complacency that some people might feel, we still got work to do. We’ve got to keep burning that shoe leather until we get everybody out of jails and prisons.”

From Seattle Times

After weeks of calls, emails and shoe leather, the supercomputer is becoming a legend too.

From Salon

Like many activists worldwide, Ms. Timchenko and her colleagues at Meduza are growing ever more adept at combining new technology and old-fashioned shoe leather to report on their country without censorship.

From New York Times

NJ Baker is done with “stupid women who start out with intelligence, then turn into blithering idiots over men who aren’t worth their shoe leather.”

From Washington Post

But the research wasn’t all libraries and journalistic shoe leather.

From Los Angeles Times