Allen Edmonds Issues

[NCTiger]

Long time reader, first time poster here. I wanted to share my recent issues with Allen Edmonds recrafting and QC, and thought this may be a good place. My wife bought me a pair of Fifth Avenues about 6-7 months ago. These were my first pair of Edmonds, just my favorite. After about 3 months of wear, the soles started separating/spreading.

I emailed AE Customer Care, sent the shoes back, and received an email saying they would be recrafted. I thought that would be great. I eventually received my recrafted shoes, and the soles looked great. Unfortunately, during the recrafting the leather was damaged on one shoe and the other had its own issues.

Once again I sent them back to AE and asked for them to be replaced, as I did not send them shoes with damaged leather. They responded that they would replace these with a new pair as a one time courtesy. I thought that would be great. A few days pass, and I receive the new pair (today)!

The right shoe looked great! The left had some obvious discoloration issues. The discoloration is not easy to see in the first picture, but you can see it better in the second. Unless you are distracted by all of the holes behind the cap.

I think I am just going to live with it and move on to the next brand, which is disappointing. I am going to spend some time reading the shoe threads, but would love a better shoe in the same price range. Happy Friday!

 

[dieworkwear]

me trying to see what issues you're talking about

 

[NCTiger]

me trying to see what issues you're talking about


View attachment 1545669

Sorry, I'm not much of a photographer. The top picture is looking straight down from above the shoe. The sole separated into 2 parts and the "piece" protruded about 1/8" past the top half. Had the second picture been better, it show that the vamp was so far out of place that you could see cork. Third is a large nick in the sole. Fourth shows a cut in the leather (happened during recrafting) that there had been an attempt to repair. The last picture is a row of holes behind the toe cap that should have been covered by the cap.

 

[dieworkwear]

Sorry, I'm not much of a photographer. The top picture is looking straight down from above the shoe. The sole separated into 2 parts and the "piece" protruded about 1/8" past the top half. Had the second picture been better, it show that the vamp was so far out of place that you could see cork. Third is a large nick in the sole. Fourth shows a cut in the leather (happened during recrafting) that there had been an attempt to repair. The last picture is a row of holes behind the toe cap that should have been covered by the cap.

I think you may be overthinking some of these issues. If shoes were meant to be pristine, we would not be dragging them on the floor.

If you have not worn those shoes yet, I recommend trading them in for something more versatile. Allen Edmonds' Fifth Avenues in walnut is a hard shoe to wear. The color is too casual for formal worsted suits. The style is too formal for anything except suits. They're best with casual suits in warm tones, but most men don't have those things in their wardrobe.

 

[rikod]

me trying to see what issues you're talking about


View attachment 1545669

Lol, there absolutely no issues that you would not see after a couple of wears I says. But to be honest the second shoes have the discoloration issue.. a little cognac cream there and they will look better than the original were supposed to look

 

[dieworkwear]

Shoe guys have two modes:

1. Staring at brand new shoes and trying to find the slightest flaw.

2. Looking at ridiculously old beat-up shoes online and saying "look at that patina!!!"

 

[rikod]

Shoe guys have two modes:

1. Staring at brand new shoes and trying to find the slightest flaw.

2. Looking at ridiculously old beat-up shoes online and saying "look at that patina!!!"

Also, when shoe guys are selling their ridiculously creased shoes:

3- “only used 2-3 times”

 

[NCTiger]

Shoe guys have two modes:

1. Staring at brand new shoes and trying to find the slightest flaw.

2. Looking at ridiculously old beat-up shoes online and saying "look at that patina!!!"

Guilty! I haven't had soles begin to separate that quickly before though.

 

[dieworkwear]

Guilty! I haven't had soles begin to separate that quickly before though. View attachment 1545686

I've had that happen and it's fine. The soles don't split or fall off or anything. If it bothers you in the future, just put some sole edging on it. It should hide it for a while.

 

[JFWR]

Long time reader, first time poster here. I wanted to share my recent issues with Allen Edmonds recrafting and QC, and thought this may be a good place. My wife bought me a pair of Fifth Avenues about 6-7 months ago. These were my first pair of Edmonds, just my favorite. After about 3 months of wear, the soles started separating/spreading.
View attachment 1545573


I emailed AE Customer Care, sent the shoes back, and received an email saying they would be recrafted. I thought that would be great. I eventually received my recrafted shoes, and the soles looked great. Unfortunately, during the recrafting the leather was damaged on one shoe and the other had its own issues. View attachment 1545574 View attachment 1545575 View attachment 1545576
Once again I sent them back to AE and asked for them to be replaced, as I did not send them shoes with damaged leather. They responded that they would replace these with a new pair as a one time courtesy. I thought that would be great. A few days pass, and I receive the new pair (today)! View attachment 1545580 View attachment 1545581
The right shoe looked great! The left had some obvious discoloration issues. The discoloration is not easy to see in the first picture, but you can see it better in the second. Unless you are distracted by all of the holes behind the cap.

I think I am just going to live with it and move on to the next brand, which is disappointing. I am going to spend some time reading the shoe threads, but would love a better shoe in the same price range. Happy Friday!

The sole separating issue would concern me enough to have AE recraft it, but the shoes as they returned to you seem to have only the negligible flaws you can expect any shoe to have. As it stands, it was definitely a case of QC from the get go on the sole separating as there must have been some flaw in making the shoe.

The slight creasing at the point you saw is not real damage at all, and any colouring issue you have can be resolved with a few dabs of an appropriately pigmented polish.

Welts are never going to be 100% perfect. If you want to cover up that flaw, just get a cream polish, apply it to a toothbrush style dauber (or a very soft toothbrush) and rub that polish in.