Brogue shoes (Barker)

[Wilx]

Hey guys! I need your help because I don’t know much about shoes.

First question is: how people on the street determine which shoes are bought in Walmart (Walmart is just an example, by Walmart I mean something very cheap) and which are quality ones?

Why I’m asking is because of this choice I have right now. Here are two brogue shoes that I like.



These ones are from ASOS for £35.00



And these are the Barker shoes.

The thing is that I don’t want to look cheap. But can people even notice that first ones cost very low?

Now the second question: I plan to buy shoes that I could walk in four to eight hours on the street daily. I also plan to attend different clubs and events. Some people told me to use sneakers for that but I don’t like urban style that much. I prefer something more classy so I’m looking for brogue shoes. Or is it a bad idea?

I had Hugo Boss shoes and that’s what happened to them after one month (even though I didn’t walked that much)



Also later I stumbled upon some people claiming that shoes like that aren’t meant for driving or long walking. They also started to look a little bit creased (but maybe that’s because I didn’t bothered myself with using shoe trees).



Anyways are Barker shoes any good quality? Because I was considering to buy those brogues but eventually came across the following review.



Also some people told me that both ASOS and Barker shoe pairs have leather sole that isn’t good for walking outside especially considering the rainy weather that happens quite a lot in the places I live. They told me that if I want to walk in those shoes I need to use rubber sole.

The main reason for that was the Paisley drawing. I find it really good looking. I tried to find some other brogues with similar painting but cheaper and I couldn’t.

Are there some other manufacturers that do brogues with nice drawings or patterns? Also I’ve heard about some tattoo masters that do that kind of stuff but I don’t have a clue how much it will cost (maybe if it isn’t too expensive then I could buy simple shoes and ask for the tattoo?).

I really need some advice because those shoes cost nearly €260 while minimum wage in the place I live is €380. So as you can understand the price really matters for me. I don’t mind to spend that much on shoes but only if they are good and I can walk in them a lot.

Also what you think of these shoes (in terms of style)?

 

[breakaway01]

I'll start with your second question. No leather shoe will last very long being worn 4-8 hr daily with visits to clubs, especially shoes with leather soles in wet weather. If you walk a lot, you'd be lucky to get 6 months out of a pair under those conditions. Ideally you really want to have several pairs of shoes that you can rotate (with shoe trees!), so that the shoes can dry and return to their original shape between wears. Leather soles wear significantly faster when wet. The problem is that "good" shoes (full-grain leather, soles that are stitched on rather than glued on) are relatively expensive, even though they will last much longer than cheap shoes with proper care. With your budget, I'd suggest getting one 'nice' pair of shoes and rotating with a couple of cheap beater shoes. Learn how to take care of your shoes and definitely use shoe trees. You can find 'good' shoes with rubber soles, or you can have a shoe repair shop fit a thin pair of rubber sole protectors (one brand is Topy) onto the leather soles for not too much money.

Which gets to your first question. You can tell from the wrinkling of the leather on the sides that they are using very cheap leather (not surprising as they are 35GBP). They almost certainly have glued-on soles at this price point (the visible stitching is very likely nonfunctional). Will people on the street be able to tell? No, probably not, although they may start to crease earlier and more severely than a shoe made of better quality leather, especially if being worn daily. In a dark club setting I doubt anyone would notice. Barker makes some good shoes. I am definitely not a fan of the pattern. Also check out Meermin, Yanko, and Loake 1880 for reasonably well-made shoes on a budget.

 

[Veremund]

Hey guys! I need your help because I don’t know much about shoes. First question is: how people on the street determine which shoes are cheap and which are quality ones? Now the second question: I plan to buy shoes that I could walk in four to eight hours on the street daily.

1. Cheap shoes fall apart very quickly. Quality shoes last decades if maintained well.

2. You’ll need to rotate through several pairs or shoes, say 4 or 5, and maintain them well. No shortcuts here.

 

[cellphoneguy81]

What kinds of pants are you wearing when you are “walking the streets” hours at a time?