Allen Edmonds Appreciation Thread 2016 - News, Pictures, Sizing, Accessories, Clothing, etc

[nqtri]

Are there routine calender sales?

Brooks Brothers is having 30% off corporate discount this Thursday. Their Medallion Perforated Captoes (made by AE) are basically Strands with BB soles.

 

[mosy]

Brooks Brothers is having 30% off corporate discount this Thursday. Their Medallion Perforated Captoes (made by AE) are basically Strands with BB soles.

how does one access the corporate discount?

 

[jcman311]

Quote:

None of that is meant as judgment; there's nothing wrong with wanting better shoes and feeling comfortable in JAB. Hell, I have a couple JAB suits, including one I'm wearing tomorrow morning to an interview. But you might be surprised what you can find for a lot less that you would expect.

This is always a good lesson but one that is hard to learn (just as is with shoes) FIT FIT FIT. It is always about tailoring and fit, not really about the cost.

Btw, great photos today @CMT1 , @offset , @middlepP , @nbj08 , @hohneokc , @SLCRich , @Scarlet , @smfdoc , @naspratt , @itzafugasi , @BL70 , and anyone else I overlooked. We havent a good run of pics like that in a while. Keep it up!

 

[nqtri]

how does one access the corporate discount?

For me, it comes from my fraternity.

 

[MattRiv]

So my story is that I started to progress in my caree and I wanted to start dressing more for the job I wanted instead of the job I had. So I walk into a Cole Haan store and bug s pair of loafers (Steen replicas) that I thought were nice shoes.

Fast forward a few months to the Nordstom anniversary sale anniversary sale and I needed w black pair of work shoes to pair with my burg CH and settled on two pair of TBNY derbys, one black and one brown.

After that I stumbled upon this forum after googling "best shoes for the money" and found out about AEs. I ordered a pair of Gobis for that winter and was very happy with the purchase. The next Nordy sale I was torn between s pair of walnut Strands and two TBNY shoes and took the strands home.

Now I have 7 pairs and my wife visibly cringes if I even mention shoes.

 

[jcman311]

Also, if the wife ever questions/mentions the amount spent on my shoes I point to the ring on her finger and how much that cost. I dont think my shoes account for 1/3 of the cost of that ring. (and I have some shell pairs)

 

[cc808314]



how does one access the corporate discount?

My company has an account with BB. Check yours.

 

[pbrandes]

My personal journey followed the classic Five Stages of Footwear:

Denial - these cheap Eccos are good enough. Shoes are shoes, who needs anything better?
Anger - WTF??!!! I just bought these Eccos six months ago and they’re already falling apart!
Bargaining - Hey. the AE RDA sale is going on right now. Since my upcoming business trip will take me near their only retail store in southern CA, I might as well swing by and take a look...
Depression - Oh crap, just got my credit card statement...
Acceptance - I guess this is where my disposable income is going from now on...​

 

[ace13x]

Just trying to gauge interest before I go listing these on B&S or ebay/grailed. I have a pair of Natural shell cordovan Dalton seconds in 9.5D that, after two gentle wears, I realize don't fit me the way I'd like them to. I've struggled over this for quite a while now, as these are one of my "grail" boots. If they were 9E or 9EEE I would never let them go.

The "defects" that likely made them seconds:
1. A very slight error in punching the toe medallion on one of the shoes
2. What looks like an errant black mark (sharpie?) on the L edging
3. The L tongue is slightly crooked, but this is a non-issue when laced up.

Otherwise they are perfect, and I have kept shoe trees and dust covers in/over them, and used some Renovateur on them once. Smoke/pet free household.

That said, looking for a good home for them now. The picture below is from when I first bought them - they have minimal wear from two days of indoor office work. I'll try to get some current pics soon as well.

Let me know if you're interested!

Ugh!! If these were 8D/E I'd be ALL over them. First my feet are too big, now too small.

 

[gatszu]

@ace13x maybe you should go cyborg, just switch out to the appropriate size prosthetic feet

. That way you buy all my shoes

 

[misterellington]

**WARNING, WALL OF TEXT**

My dad hands me another dress shirt to try on, and as soon as I did, I could immediately feel the quality difference between the Nordstrom one and this one. As we're about to leave I notice their shoe selection. And about had a heart attack at the pricing. I honestly can't remember the brand but I'm sure it was Italian. (I looked it up later, Di Bianco.)

Long story short, after that trip I started researching and was mind blown at what is actually out there for men's style. Lucky for me, there's an AE store 15 minutes from my work and home. THEN I learn about the shoebank and my life is now over.

Side question, how the hell do you married guys do this???

TL;DR: What got you into wearing shoes of better quality?

I'd always considered myself a somewhat fashionable guy. My father was in show business and taught us four boys all about how to spot quality clothes...what to look for...what worked and what didn't, etc.

The funny thing I discovered after living a good chunk of adult life was how not just me but my brothers saw our clothing styles—what we wore/where we got it—evolved. Every seven to ten years or so, we'd kind of move to a new plateau in terms of clothing quality. Coming up in the Disco era, we followed a bit of what Daddy taught us, but admittedly got caught up in some of the trendiness and with that, some of the inattention to lasting high quality. Even so, I'd note the plateauing every so often and that was a good thing. I haunted discount stores like the late, lamented Daffy's here on the east coast where I gorged on mostly mid-tier items—suits, blazers and shirts with the occasional awesome semi-expensive (for my dutifully-paying-child-support-for-two-awesome-kids-and-a-student-loan budget) find that'd blow the mid-tiered stuff out of the water—the occasional Polo RL, Ferré, Les Copains or JilSander piece. But alas, I couldn't afford that level of gear every time I shopped.

Shoes were my (wait for it) “Achilles Heel”. I had awesome items by LOTS of top-flight makers but gave shoes short shrift (say THAT three times fast). I wasn't gonna spend a lot of money on things that were gonna pound New York pavement. But I had ONE problem. I was a Daddy's boy. HE had custom shoes made (even had a pair of burgundy patent leather horse bit loafers made for me when I was eight years old with leftover leather from pairs of shoes he had made for him and my Mama). HE had a pair of Church's shoes he got in the mid-eighties that my brother still wears. Daddy LOVED nice clothes and had impeccable taste in shoes, and while I wanted those shoes, I couldn't bring myself to get 'em. My shoes consisted of maybe a couple of nice pairs of Santonis, some Justin western boots and lots of awful corrected grain Giorgio Brutini crap that looked snazzy until they creased. I eventually realized I was going through the cheap shoes much faster than the decent quality clothing (Ralph Lauren, Jil Sander, Brooks Brothers and Canali). Then...I lost weight. 66 pounds of it at my doctor's behest as my blood pressure was a bit high.

Once I lost the weight, my shoe size changed. I dropped from a Size 13 to an 11.5-12.—and I had a LOT of shoes. Cheap shoes I could no longer fit. So, after walking for many years past the likes of J.M. Weston, Fratelli Rosetti and yes...both Allen Edmonds stores on Madison Avenue, I drifted into these places—with Allen Edmonds offering the best prices, though still out of my range. I'd tried a few pairs on and THAT was the worst thing I could have done because the feel of proper, sewn leather soles and higher quality materials was something I couldn't go back from. I found THIS forum when I started doing research on Allen Edmonds shoes.

And THEN, I found AEs at a few of my local Burlington Coat Factory stores—for 1/3 the price of what was in the main stores. But I knew my proper size now. Got a pair of snuff suede Schautals (The Macneil suede variant) first—this was in late 2014, then tan Hollywood Web Gem, Navy Suede Stewarts, Black Suede Graysons—all at deep discount and I was hooked.

I'm twenty-three pairs in thanks to these filthy damned barn weasels. And I love it. My feet FEEL better. My high-end clothes looked better with better shoes. A quest for better health and getting THAT, a need for new shoes led me to this forum. I've learned GOBS from the serious shoe nuts here (not just about AEs!), and I can say with 100% confidence...I'll never go back.

 

[Neo1]

@BackInTheJox It's about time someone brought this up! Oh you got me really worked up. I can't understand how AE thinks it would save them money in the long run to have someone buy something, wait a million years, ship back and forth, etc just to keep no inventory and/or avoid shipping costs back and forth to the warehouse. I was told I could get nothing brought into the retail store, and only non-handsewn into the outlet. I'm pretty confident on sizing now so I don't ask for much, but if they continue to get more and more restrictive, I'm seriously outa here - id be done with AE for good.

 

[mreams99]



I've known for a while that AE brick & mortar stores are dropping inventory, especially in non-D widths.  Store managers have told me as much.  But today it's seemed to have hit a new low.  I called the Plano store today, since I'm going to be in the area this weekend, to see what they had in stock in my E width size.  I was told they had a grand total of four shoes in a 10.5 E in the entire store (PA, Cornwallis, Ashton, and LGA).

So I asked the SA (who has always been great to work with) if they could order in an oxford on the newish 201 last.  He said he can probably get in a Jefferson 2.0 in by Friday and I could try it out, no strings attached.  I asked about the Hopkinson (which I'm seriously thinking about) and he told me that there are none made up anywhere in that size.  In other words, the only way I can try on an E width is to buy it, wait a few weeks to try it on, then decide whether I want to keep it. 

Again, the SA was great and I really appreciate him.  But there isn't much point in having a B&M store it you keep shrinking its inventory.  If I have to go to such lengths to try on a size, or just guess and ship things back and forth, in order to buy a $500 shoe, I might as well buy through the web from overseas makers like Bonafe, Carmina, etc.

I know inventory sitting in stores costs money but there is a cost to not having anything for customers to try on.  AE doesn't seem interested in distinguishing themselves from competitors in that price range.

/mini-rant

I've been saying the same thing. Here's my thought:
Inventory is inventory. It doesn't matter if it's sitting in a warehouse or a store. If it's in a store, someone can see and try it. Why not keep more inventory at the store, and ship orders out from the stores instead of shipping them all from a central warehouse?
For example, if I want a 13B Strand that isn't at my local store, they could ship it from another store that has it in inventory (like Chicago).

 

[danwatts2005]



I've been saying the same thing. Here's my thought:
Inventory is inventory. It doesn't matter if it's sitting in a warehouse or a store. If it's in a store, someone can see and try it. Why not keep more inventory at the store, and ship orders out from the stores instead of shipping them all from a central warehouse?
For example, if I want a 13B Strand that isn't at my local store, they could ship it from another store that has it in inventory (like Chicago).

I agree with this, but I figure they would say the difference is rent and payroll.

 

[mreams99]



I agree with this, but I figure they would say the difference is rent and payroll.

I've ordered from Men's Wearhouse, and they seem to use this approach. I've seen times when the store staff is not busy -- they could use that down time to send a few packages. Honestly, if they can use "slack time" labor, it could be less expensive from a labor perspective than using full-time packaging staff at a warehouse.