Anthony Jordan
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2006
- Messages
- 508
- Reaction score
- 10
Buy with caution. I have been curious about these for a long while (as witness my earlier participation in this thread) and when I saw that they were offering a half brogue with an Adelaide throat in black (something I had been looking for for a long time but didn't have much of a budget to spend on) at a good price, I decided to buy a pair. This was from their £50 Prestige Collection. Bearing in mind that they describe their shoes as a G (relatively wide) fitting, and I take an 8 1/2F in every English brand I have tried, I was very surprised when I had to return my 8 1/2s on the basis that they were even tighter than the one pair Charles Tyrwhitt/Loake 8Fs I have in my collection. I had to go up a half size to the 9s, which are on the big size but bearable, especially with a thicker pair of socks. When you add to it that the shoes were scuffed in places coming out of the box and had two small holes punched for no apparent reason into one of the quarters, it added up to an underwhelming experience. Whilst the 9s are better they are not entirely satisfactory inasmuch as (small scratches on the leather aside) the toe punching (which forms an arrowlike shape) does not run along the centre line but on both shoes points off to the right, slightly in respect of the left shoe and quite markedly in the case of the right shoe! Aesthetically they are not too bad; the black leather/natural linen lining looks good and the proportions are fairly sound, although I feel that it might have looked better with a shorter toecap (and probably did in the 8 1/2). Although the leather is quite stiff and I think corrected grain it doesn't have that plasticky sheen that some corrected grain does. The sole has an open welt rather than being channelled (not that one would expect anything else at this point) and the heel would benefit from being combination leather and rubber rather than all rubber but the underneathh is overall reasonably well presented. At the sale price I would say that it is a reasonable shoe (provided you canget one with the right fit) but, although very substantially better than the really cheap shoes sold under the "Clifford James" brand or any other circa £50 shoe, for quality of finish and in points of detail it still does not compare favourably with the Loake 1880s and entry- to mid-level Alfred Sargents with which it should be competing, judging by its hype/branding.