Haha, I've had this problem too! Stuffing newspaper into the toe of your shoes really works. I've tried it a few times and the results were pretty good, you just have to be patient and wait a few days.

Okay, I'll take this one too! I just tried this on my old leather shoes. It really helped. Even though it didn't stretch much, they became softer. Maybe try buying some paper shoe trees to put inside for a few days; that might work even better.