i have come to rethink my strategy about resoling shoes. to provide some perspective, i take good care of my shoes; until i purchased a new pair this year, i had not bought another pair for about eight years - just resoled the existing shoes, kept the uppers polished and the sides of the soles dressed, and so on. I wear Allen Edmonds shoes for the most part, with a few pair from Alden, for work. Most of them have leather soles - but a few use a rubber sole material, good for rainy days. those rubber soles wear out pretty quickly, though.
at first, i sent the Allen Edmonds shoes back to the manufacturer for resoling/reconditioning the leather, but that is a fairly expensive proposition given the price of the shoes. i irotate shoes, but about once every five-six years, the soles tend to wear thin. the last time, about two years ago, i had a local cobbler resole the shoes (a pair of double-oak sole Allen Edmonds shoes, blucher style, calfskin uppers). he commented that the regular soles of shoes today aren't generally of the same quality as they used to be, and that he thought it would be best to replace the soles of my shoes with a higher quality sole, J. Rendenbach (J.R.) leather. At the time, I thought he was just trying to upsell me and charge me more, but I acquiesced, figuring i don't resole that often anyway. As it turns out, though, the cobbler was telling the truth. the J.R. soles have been very durable, wearing much slower than the stock soles on any of my Allen Edmonds shoes. When I tried on shoes recently, i noticed that the Alden shell cordovan shoes I just purchased and a similar Allen Edmonds cordovan shoe that I tried on use the same higher-quality sole.
It says something about shoes today that spending three hundred bucks means buying a less durable sole, and that the vaunted manufacturer's replacement service likewise uses the less durable sole. I think it's worth checking with a good cobbler first. any thoughts about resoling shoes otherwise?
I have a question about some other brands I saw, but which I decided were too rich for my wallet - Crockett & Jones and Edward Green. provided they fit my feet, what distinguishes these shoes from the US-based brands I looked at, aside from originating in Europe? they were a fair bit more expensive.
ps - I'm very happy with the Alden shell cordovan shoes so far. They feel at least as comfortable as the Allen Edmonds shoes I have. They feel somewhat heavier & more sturdy - i think the steel shank accounts for that. the leather upper looks great - 'color #8,' a sort of very dark maroon, with a shine that is well short of patent leather but more than i see from my other shoes, even freshly polished. I'm confident that the upper and soles will last a long time, though I have had a couple of pairs from Allen Edmonds that are over fifteen years old and still look great.
thanks.
