Allen Edmonds Park Avenue and McAllister quality check

[hmdsons]

Hello,

After deciding to finally invest in higher quality dress shoes, I purchased three pairs of Allen Edmonds from Nordstrom at 25% off: Black PA, Brown Burnished Strand and Bourbon McAllister. I wear suits four days a week and figured these balmorals would be a good start.

Since these are my first relatively expensive shoes, I'm not sure how critical I should be. To date I have received the Park Avenue and McAllister.

On the Park Avenue, the right shoe cap toe seems to be stitched a bit higher and on a slight angle. You can't tell too much from the top or with the inner sides facing up, but you can see a larger difference when the outer facing sides are facing up.

I love the bourbon color of the McAllister, however, the broguing seems a bit off. It is especially off in the picture of the left shoe right side by the top.

Below is an imgur link to 7 pics. The first 3 pics are of the park avenue: top view, inner sides facing up and outer sides facing up. The next 4 are of the mcallister, left shoe right side, left shoe left side, right shoe left side, right shoe right side.

http://imgur.com/a/e1Go9

Am I being overly critical? Or should I expect hand crafted shoes to have these imperfections. Would you exchange either or both of these pairs?

Thanks,

 

[The Hunter]

They look fine to me but if it bugs you swap them out. Just know that every pair is going to have its own character.

 

[facet]

Agreed, nobody will notice the PA caps being off (and when will the outsides ever be lined up like in the pics IRL, right?) and the same with the broguing; people will be spending too much time noticing things like the colour, wingtip/captoe design etc. They're nice shoes, just wear and enjoy them.

 

[mebiuspower]

No one will notice except for you.

 

[hmdsons]

Thanks everyone for their feedback. I received the last pair I ordered and I will exchange them due to the following quality issues at an AE retail store in NYC. http://imgur.com/a/1LIeW

I'll keep the mcallister and only exchange the PA if there is a readily available better PA in the store. happy holidays.