Dacks and other Canadian shoe brands

[suitforcourt]

Rainy day shoes. These Dacks were rebuilt with Vibram Londra soles and a dyed brown welt foe the contrast look.

 

[SecondHandStyle]

Thrifted these beautiful single strap Dack’s Custom Grade shoes a while back and forgot to post.

Tragically a Size 9D so I can’t hang onto them but fingers crossed something like these comes up in my size

 

[Jiqea]

Picked these up at the thrift recently! They are custom grade but unsure of the leather type. Also, I am unfamiliar with this style of sizing for Dack’s, which number is for sizing, etc.

They are from the very early 50's or maybe even the last half of 1949. Rare pair. Clean them up and post some photos. as Ken pointed out, they are 12C.

 

[SumGuy]

Thrifted these beautiful single strap Dack’s Custom Grade shoes a while back and forgot to post.

Tragically a Size 9D so I can’t hang onto them but fingers crossed something like these comes up in my size

You don't often see Monk straps with a cap toe and a toe medallion. Those must be pretty rare. I'm not the shoe expert that others are here, so I won't bother to speculate as to the age of these.

Also, Being a size 9D is not a tragedy if you normally wear size 9D. Its just something that you just have to get used to, as most of the time, the thrift shops locations can't pick and choose they shoes they get, and you must deal with that.

 

[SecondHandStyle]

You don't often see Monk straps with a cap toe and a toe medallion. Those must be pretty rare. I'm not the shoe expert that others are here, so I won't bother to speculate as to the age of these.

Also, Being a size 9D is not a tragedy if you normally wear size 9D. Its just something that you just have to get used to, as most of the time, the thrift shops locations can't pick and choose they shoes they get, and you must deal with that.

Yeah it was something that caught my eye right away regardless of make. Them being Dack’s just made it all the better!

And you’ll have to be patient with me lol, I haven’t yet mastered stoicism

 

[SumGuy]

I think the biggest tragedy is that they are not goodyear welted. Followed by the secondary disappointment that they don't fit you, because those really are unique.

Not being goodyear welted isn't a fatal flaw, as they can always be converted into a Blake stitched shoe, but even if that is done, they can only be resoled a couple of more times before they need to be completely re-constructed.

Are the non-goodyear welted construction Dacks of cemented (i.e. glued) construction? I think I did read that the Bespoke/Extra Quality shoes used blind/hidden stitching, but I don't think the Custom Grade shoes did. The grain of the leather also looks interesting, I'm not sure if it is cowhide or not.

 

[zeromus]

I'm normally a 9D.... If you do want to sell them, depending on price of course and my budget when the time comes drop me a message I don't own monkstraps but have always wanted to grab a pair and they'd enter semi-regular use in the office once every couple weeks if they're in solid condition. Re-soling won't have to happen too often since they would largely live indoors so they'd live a good long life doing what they were made to

Though I have no clue how that particular last would fit and sometimes a 9D is too narrow by a smidge so it would be a bit of a hoping game to some extent.

 

[SumGuy]

Zeromus, the Dack's last is generally very true to size. I am also a 9D, and I have a number of Dack's shoes in 9D, and they fit fine. I have both Custom Grade and Bespoke/Extra Quality level shoes, and there is no size difference. I sometimes do have an issue with some other vendor's 9D shoes, as some (mostly Italian loafers) that run a bit narrow, so for some of them, I need to get a 9E size instead of a 9D for comfort. In most British shoes, I look at getting a 8.5D, and they fit well (some are a little longer than others, but width is fine)

 

[Jiqea]

Zeromus, the Dack's last is generally very true to size. I am also a 9D, and I have a number of Dack's shoes in 9D, and they fit fine. I have both Custom Grade and Bespoke/Extra Quality level shoes, and there is no size difference. I sometimes do have an issue with some other vendor's 9D shoes, as some (mostly Italian loafers) that run a bit narrow, so for some of them, I need to get a 9E size instead of a 9D for comfort. In most British shoes, I look at getting a 8.5D, and they fit well (some are a little longer than others, but width is fine)

There is no thing as "the Dacks last". Dacks used dozens of different lasts over the years ( at least 87 by my count). I agree that most fit true to size, but there is so much variation between the last shapes that is is very hard to make broad generalizations. I comfortably wear a size 10D with some lasts, but require a 10.5D or even E, with others.

Dacks began producing some models using cemented construction in the 1960's. I have only seen two pairs of Dacks, both from the 1950's, that had hidden (blind) welt stitching. One was on a pair of S.E. Dacks and the other was on a pair of very early 1950's Custom Grades. The Bespoke Quality and Custom Grade shoes, without evidence of welt stitching on the soles that you are commonly seeing are cemented.

As well the circa 1920 Dacks military boots I have seen were all blind stitched.

 

[SumGuy]

Jiqua:

Thanks for the information on the different Dack's lasts. I have no evidence regarding which lasts my examples of Dack's shoes are unless there is an embedded last code in the digits commonly found on the inside of the shoes (same area where the size/size code is). I can say that in my case, the 9D Dack's shoes that I do have pretty much all seem to fit. I don't know if there was a "standard" last that was used for most of the production shoes, with other lasts being made available on request, or if most of the lasts are something that fit well on my particular foot shape. You would be in a far better position to speak to that. I can say that all of the Dack's 9D shoes that I have fit just fine on my feet. They fit about as well as Florsheim 9Ds. I do have some Italian shoes (Tosi and some other unknown Italian loafer) in which the Italian 9Es fit about the same as the Dack's/Florsheim 9Ds. The English made shoes that I have are 8.5Ds, and they fit, for the most part, like a very slightly looser Dack's/Florhsheim 9D. I also believe that the general consensus is wrong regarding the English vs. American (aka Canadian) sizing is off. I have seen countless instances that an English shoe should be sized one down from the American size. I think to be truly equivalent, the sizing should only be a half size down. I don't know that there is an exact correlation between English and American shoe sizing, but I think an English shoe, for example in this case, an English 8.5D shoe size is more like an American 9.25 size (if a size 9.25 existed, as in a little bit bigger than an American 9D, but not quite as big as an American 9.5D).