Where to Florsheim dress shoes rank?

Hello all.

Just bought some Florsheim shoes at the dept
store on clearance for 50 collars.

They're a shiny black wing tip w/polished leather soles. A very traditional looking shoe but it seems like good quality and for the price, I had to bite.

It is, however, returnable, and would appreciate some background on Florsheim and if any of you have owned a pair and how they rank on the list of shoe greats.

Regards.

HB

Florsheim used to make nice shoes, but now they're mass produced and low quality.

I purchased a pair about 7 or 8 years ago. While they look nice to begin with they wear terribly and will soon look ragged.

at fifty bucks, you did OK.

unless they're florsheim kenmoor's, they're not very good.

i think the current kenmoor's are ok, but nowhere near as good as AE or Alden.

I want a pair of really worn looking, beat up wing tips. Are these a good brand to get and then wear them out intentionally (like in the rain, etc.)?

Originally Posted by ts4them

Click to expand...

I want a pair of really worn looking, beat up wing tips. Are these a good brand to get and then wear them out intentionally (like in the rain, etc.)?

Your toe may fall through the bottom...

I have a rapidly-wearing pair of Florsheims on my feet right now. They do indeed look sleek on the shelf, but they wrinkle coarsely, deeply and very fast, despite being worn in rotation and using shoe trees.

So I decided to use them for an "antiquing" experiment. Nothing like SF antiquing from the Wiki, really just a paint job. They started out dark brown. I painted them thickly with white cream polish, smeared it around a bit with a cloth, them painted them lightly with black cream polish. I let that dry, polished to a shine, added another layer of white, polished again, and added a final layer of black. The result looked like old painter's shoes. So I used a clear polish, which reactivated the deeper layers and blended them together much more smoothly. Then polished to a high shine. It's a kind of variable mid blue-grey with brown antiquing, which resembles wrought iron.

The creases seem perfectly reasonable on wrought iron shoes.

^ So do you love them now? Is it worth all that trouble?

Originally Posted by ts4them

Click to expand...

^ So do you love them now? Is it worth all that trouble?

Yes, they're cool! At least until I get caught in heavy rain. Even then, the instant rust effect could have its moment.

I don't have many shoes so they'll all get plenty of love.

Like the others stated Kenmoors are pretty much the only shoe in florsheims current range worth a mention. Additionally in my limited experience with the company I have seen a few other variants of the Kenmoor she that are also goodyear welted. I have also seen in Australia and a Hong Kong store Florsheims that were goodyear welted and made in Italy. A fairly well constructed shoe but the styling was a little bit "off." That said I am curious to what Florsheim will offer next in the off chance that they might reissue their old designs or offer something a little more classic looking and elegant.

I think $50.00 could be a good deal but it depends on the quality of shoe and styling of course.

HB[/quote]

They're a few months old, worn every 3 days or so. Blends into my urban environment.

I'm wearing burgundy Kenmoors today...they're one of my fave shoes, very comfortable and look good with denim. These are goodyear welted and I thifted them for $15 in perfect shape with minimal wear

Originally Posted by Tampan

Click to expand...

They're a few months old, worn every 3 days or so. Blends into my urban environment.
Is that a Florsheim wholecut???

I own four pairs of Florshiem. One is old stock USA made Kenmoors and is a good sturdy shoe. Another is new stock made in India Kenmoors with a leather upper that I find to be too stiff and rarely wear. I also have a new pair of Royal Imperials (Florsheim has a new line of Royal Imperials only available at the Florsheim stores that are made in Spain - nice styles and confortable) that I wear on Fridays. The final pair I got for $48 off ebay and I purchased them only to experiment with burgandy colour tones. After the experimenting, I wear them because for $48 they look perfectly serviceable and fit fine.

I would not say that any of these are quality shoes but they are perfectly serviceable for occasional use. I would certainly choose the leather sole Florsheims over a Kenneth Cole shoe.

On a surprising note, Florsheim actually has 5 or so imperial models that are goodyear welted. I like this model http://www.florsheim.com/flstore/style.do?cID=11074 and would actually consider buying it if I needed it.