Big +1
The Park Avenue did not work out for me, and the rutledge in black didn't look quite right. This might fit the black cap toe gap that I have...
lol, that is your argument? a car with 50 miles? yes, its called a test drive, people do it all the time. the "usage" of those shoes are negligible, thats what a pair of brand new shoes look like after a couple hours of wear, if that. lets not forget, these are shoes that are going to see the tile of a public bathroom floor, the ground, dirt, sometimes rain, and will be used in one full day more than they are used now.
by lunch time, the owner of these shoes will put more usage into them then they came with... so ya, keep them and enjoy them. no need to nitpick, you aren't buying a fine painting
Call up your local AE store and check if they are doing the sale in September... 15-20% off. Thats pretty good, you can save a decent amount off $460 shoes. I don't know if this is company wide, but if they don't have the sale, call the store on Newbury St in Boston and ask them when their sale is, and if you can order through the phone when they are on sale...

Call up your local AE store and check if they are doing the sale in September... 15-20% off. Thats pretty good, you can save a decent amount off $460 shoes. I don't know if this is company wide, but if they don't have the sale, call the store on Newbury St in Boston and ask them when their sale is, and if you can order through the phone when they are on sale...
I'm looking to see if I can do better than that. I've found that you can pretty regularly get AE firsts for 30% off or better if you know when and where to buy, but realized that I cannot recall seeing any similar discounts on any Independence line shoes in the past year. It may simply be that I was not looking and missed them.


They do - I have the PTBs and the tassel loafers and love both of them. C&J just puts SO much polish on them, they are a little bit of a pain to deal with. Take my PTBs for example - 9 months of 2x / mo wearings and they still spew each time I wear them.

Agreed. They start with the same raw material, but the finishing products they use are seemingly different. Also, color variation from hide to hide can be quite striking.
For those of you that like monk straps, Grenson has a new one out, albeit expensive.


I actually agree completely. The black shell it's sort of a wash, although I may still prefer calf there. I greatly prefer the Walnut calf color to the shell counterpart.

