aero25
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My self-imposed, rebrand-induced, AE hiatus lasted one year, which is surprising even to me. But I go to pick up my Midnight Navy Strands and restock on some polish, and I feel a little like Rumpelstiltskin: Among other things, apparently there is a Feather Welt, my polish is now the “Speed Polish option.” I’m actually pleasantly surprised overall. I think these feel lighter, and maybe (maybe..?) a bit less substantial than my pre-rebrand shoes. But I don’t know; I’m still processing that, and I’m sure when I read back through the thread I’ll catch up on everyone’s well-hashed thoughts.
That said, I love the Midnight Navy. Love it. Even if they did get mixed reviews at the office, no matter. Love the way these look.
(The flaw on the top of the right shoe is my fault. I am not happy about it, and was a little sick when it happened, but user error it is.
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Nothing boring about a great pair and good combo with the choice of pants today.A great time to return if you have shell passion, with a shell trunk show on the horizon. They did one earlier this year and it was by far the best AE trunk show I have seen, with hundreds of first quality pairs shipped shockingly quickly. Was a lovefest here.
There's some stuff, but why rehash?
Black denim and boring burgundy.
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@Brogue One as Bagely says, it's a good time to return with a second shell trunk show starting up in two weeks. See the tags at the top of the page to get details. As for hashing out stuff, there's been a fair amount of renaming things, as you've noted. Bench Welt is not meaningfully different than what we've always known from AE. The other welt options are basically what we previously knew, too, as some of the non-gyw options, just renamed, and a few changes/tweaks. I'll post a little Q&A I had a while back below for general info:
I don’t need to explain to you what the Bench Welt, Storm Welt, or the Custom Cork Insole is, because that’s what you’ve been very familiar with in the past.
In addition to these Welts, we’ve also introduced two other (also 360 good year welted) methods of construction:
- Feather Welt + Light Form Insole (which is a poron insole, cork infused composite mid layer with a removable footbed) that is lightweight, shock absorbing, and recraftable (Nomad collection) Not entirely unlike the Road Warriors.
- Speed Welt + Shock Form Insole (poron insole, cork infused composite mid layer and a EVA midsole) which focuses on flexibility, shock absorption, and a “springy feel”. This is ALSO recraftable (New Americans Collection)