How much are the shoes gonna stretch?

Hi Dave,

My venture into well made english shoes finds them all (excepting my new Lobbs) being very tight initially and mostly just where you describe....across the ball of the foot.

The EGs break in (stretch) for me much more quickly than the C&J (Sanders and Sanders if they are the current mfg) Polo Bench made shoes.

My Polo Benton is still very tite across the foot and probably now I would call it a 5 hour shoe. That is after 3 long days of inhome breakin and 2 days of wearing out of the home. My EGs would have broken in by now. I do see improvement so expect that they will be quite OK by the time I have 100 hours or so of wear on them.

As long as you normally wear D or medium and the length of the shoe seems correct, I would expect that they will loosen up as you wear them.

Perry

My Tellman's came in today and fit me much better already (after an hour of wearing) than my Benton's do after a week.

I can't wear a 1/2 size longer as these at 9D are plenty long so the size is right. It will just take some wearing in.

On the tightness you experience in the 8.5D.....how tite is tite?? Kinda tough question eh? If you can get away with wearing them for an hour or two at first I think they will be OK. Try wearing them a couple of hours today, 3 tomorrow, etc. (All on a rug so they are returnable or saleable as new).

If the ball of the foot is at the shoes widest point and the toe is not scrunched up against the front than the length is correct. So as long as the shoe is not way way too tight I think you will find that the leather stretches and makes the circumference of the whole area around the ball of the foot longer and hence more comfortable for you.

Good luck,

Perry