English Shoe Durability in Practice

One of the main reasons people give for buying english shoes like C&J or EG is that they're supposed to last longer due to goodyear welt, good leather soles, etc.

Has anyone actually noticed this in practice? Although I know the construction is better, I'm not sure if I expect my English shoes to last appreciably longer than my Ferragamos.

Everyone feel free to comment or post pictures of your well-worn shoes. (I have a feeling that a lot of people on here buy them and then hardly wear them).

who's that guy?

maybe a bit longer, but the high end ferragamos are pretty good too.

ZON_JR, you are a nasty troll. I don't see how you remotely consider this funny or ironic.

Weren't you warned before not to post this image?

Originally Posted by j

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Stop posting this guy.

Originally Posted by archetypal_yuppie

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One of the main reasons people give for buying english shoes like C&J or EG is that they're supposed to last longer due to goodyear welt, good leather soles, etc.

Has anyone actually noticed this in practice? Although I know the construction is better, I'm not sure if I expect my English shoes to last appreciably longer than my Ferragamos.

Everyone feel free to comment or post pictures of your well-worn shoes. (I have a feeling that a lot of people on here buy them and then hardly wear them).

What if I told you they don't last longer at all? What would you choose then?

There are other qualities that matter, of course, but I'm curious whether peoples' experience is inline with the durability theory, specifically.

Almost every picture I see on this forum is of shoes that have never or barely been worn.

Originally Posted by archetypal_yuppie

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One of the main reasons people give for buying english shoes like C&J or EG is that they're supposed to last longer due to goodyear welt, good leather soles, etc.

Has anyone actually noticed this in practice? Although I know the construction is better, I'm not sure if I expect my English shoes to last appreciably longer than my Ferragamos.

Everyone feel free to comment or post pictures of your well-worn shoes. (I have a feeling that a lot of people on here buy them and then hardly wear them).

I used to buyshoes with glued soles like most if not all Ferragamos. They lasted a couple of years. On the other hand I wear my British shoes for decades and they look better than new.

^ Comforting.

if the shoe has a leather sole, it is going to wear down, approximately at the same rate as any other shoe with a leather sole.

Rubber soles will also wear down at the same rate as other similar rubber soles.

Another factor is catastrophe, so maybe you mean your foot bursting through the leather straight up and hissing like in Alien. I don't know whether English shoes have tensiliary strength, as Ice Cube might say. All I know is that this has never happened to me.

Last but not least, is your shoe splitting at some seam. If your shoe is glued together at some point of stress, this is highly more likely. Cheap shoes are much more likely to be glued at some point of stress. It's cheaper to make shoes this way.

If you have never, ever ever had any durability problems with shoes regardless of how cheap they are or how cheaply they are made, then you don't need to worry about durability. use some other factor in your buying decision.

Suspect it's much like new, $200K+ performance cars: most who buy them don't commute daily in them and only drive them occasionally on sunny, warm wkends...so have no real idea how they would hold up in daily use vs dry/wet weather/bumpy urban rds, etc

Most of the famed UK/EU brands are some 2x cost of Alden shells; doubt UK/EU stuff lasts any longer in similar daily use (even with rotation for use every 2-3 days) in NYC weather and in extensive business travel (where rotation is often less possible)

Yeah. Unforch allen-edmonds and alden are butt ugly and poorly finished, in my opinion.

NYC really is a disaster for shoes though. it sucks. rainy days are 'gamo days now

Take a scroll through the "shoes with character" thread. Edit: be patient, a lot of the older posts have their pictures removed. Things get going around page 3.

they won't last any longer than other gemmed shoes, in fact your blake stitched italian shoes may outlast them.

Originally Posted by imatlas

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Take a scroll through the "shoes with character" thread.

Edit: be patient, a lot of the older posts have their pictures removed. Things get going around page 3.

Sorry