MoneyWellSpent
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To add to the discussion of gaping...
I purchased my first pair of Allen Edmonds shoes a month or so ago: a pair of black Park Avenues, first quality, purchased online directly from AE. I was sized in an AE store and also sized myself according to the very easy to use and seemingly accurate fit guide on AE's website. Both gave me a result of 10.5D, which seems to be spot-on. Anyway, the shoes arrived and I was mostly happy with them, but I had some slight gaping on the RIGHT SHOE ONLY. It started to bug me before I'd ever even wore the shoes, and I posted pics here in this thread a couple weeks ago. Here's one of them:
The general opinion of the posters' in response was that I should return them and try to get a pair that doesn't have any gaping. As I haven't worn the shoes outside at all, I plan to indeed return them.
Here's where it gets interesting. A few days after I posted about the gaping on my Park Aves, I received a pair of brown Fifth Avenue SECONDS from the shoe bank. Same size as the Park Aves of course, but the Fifth Aves have absolutely no gaping whatsoever, to my relief:
In my mind, this is proof that the gaping issue is absolutely NOT an issue of fit (generally), but it's instead some type of flaw/manufacturing defect. Of course, that's not to say that gaping CANNOT be caused by improper fit, but this wasn't so in my case. Just something weird going on with the right shoe from my pair of Park Aves. The issue is evidently not something that would cause an otherwise first quality shoe to be sold as seconds, however, or perhaps it's just not something AE checks for in the QC process. Some might say that there's no way to check for it until the shoe is on the wearer's foot, but comparing my right Park Ave to the left one, you can notice an outward bending near where my inside ankle would be, almost as if there's simply too much leather there:
On the whole, I'm much happier with the SECOND quality Fifth Avenues which have no gaping at all, and no other visible flaw that I can see that caused them to be deemed seconds. Not to mention, I of course paid less for the seconds. I do think the gaping issue is something that should be addressed and resolved by AE, as it's clearly not simply an issue of improper fit.
Overall though, I'm still very pleased with my experience with Allen Edmonds products. I'm happy with my Fifth Avenue seconds, and looking forward to replacing my Park Avenues with a pair that doesn't gape.
Best of luck! I hope your next pair doesn't have a problem. It will be interesting to see what happens, and please keep us informed. In any event, I'm glad your Fifth Avenues are working out so well!