Comparable to AE?

[True North]

I am in the process of picking up 2-3 pairs of dress shoes, mostly for work, using mainly SF as my style/quality guide. I (and many others I would figure), am simply not ready to spend +$500 on a pair of shoes yet.

Especially seeing as AEs, which are well regarded in terms of quality and price to value ratio, are easily found in the $150 range. In my forum musings, I have not come across any shoes which offer similiar quality and can be purchased at a similar price range. I would love to find similar quality in perhaps some slightly younger or sleeker styles for the same price. Any suggestions, or just go ahead and hunt down some AEs?

 

[Dewey]

It's not that easy to find good AEs for $150.

 

[Nil]

Originally Posted by Dewey

It's not that easy to find good AEs for $150.

I picked up a pair of AE Fairfax's off of Ebay for $109. They were most likely "imperfect" ones but the only defect I can find is a chip on the bottom of the sole of one of the shoes.

 

[coconut]

I have never bargain hunted for shoes, but I cannot imagine that AE is the only large, $300-area brand that could be found discounted. Try Bruno Magli, Mezlan, or the American-made shoes from Brooks Brothers.

 

[warlok1965]

Some AEs are not that bad style-wise. I own a pair of McClains in brown suede which, if not quite "sleek", are not nearly as blobby as other AE offerings. They can be had for < $150 new.

 

[jyook]

I picked up a pair of AE Hillcrests at the AE Factory Outlet for $129... I believe those retailed for $300...

 

[NoVaguy]

Originally Posted by Dewey

It's not that easy to find good AEs for $150.

?!?!?!?! It's really, really, really easy to find good AE's for sub $150, especially when you consider discount coupons and such.

I just bought the AE Taunton chelsea, NIB, shipped for $178, with a cashback of $34 (through the window's live cashback thing that gave a 20% cashback to my paypal account). And that was a harder style to find. I also got a suede AE Delray, NIB, shipped for about $100. So it's very doable as long as you are flexible with styles.

As for comparable shoes - there are the $199.00 Brooks Brothers styles currently on clearance on their site - those are comparable, but $50 more (plus tax and shipping). And you can always find stuff on ebay - if you know your size, and/or stick to easily fitted models such as bluchers or monkstraps, you can usually find something.

 

[NoVaguy]

Originally Posted by coconut

I have never bargain hunted for shoes, but I cannot imagine that AE is the only large, $300-area brand that could be found discounted. Try Bruno Magli, Mezlan, or the American-made shoes from Brooks Brothers.

no to BM (unless it's the platinum line, and if so, let us know if you have a $150 source), a big NO to Mezlan, and as I pointed out, yes to BB, but harder to find at $150. AE, on the other hand, is easy to find.

 

[warlok1965]

And by the way if you think you won't be buying $500+ shoes in very short order, better swear off SF now while you still can.

 

[eidolon]

I just went on a little AE spree (Soho's for $254 [more expensive than they could have been, but they're worth it, with the Byron gone they're AE's most attractive offering IMO], Taunton's for $160-ish, Dryden's for $130-ish, all NIB, the Taunton's and the Dryden's are both seconds), you can check out their eBay store where they sell discontinued stuff (unfortunately no Byron's in my size

) or seconds if you're positive of your fit. $250-$350 is a difficult price range in my experience. Bump it up a little and you're going through much better stuff (C&J, RM Williams falls around there with shipping from Australia). Although Johnston and Murphy is regularly (and normally with good reason) looked down upon here, if you can stack some coupons onto their stuff they're a good deal (better quality than Pliner and Cole Haan). I've never been a big Bruno Magli fan, although I've come across some Mezlan shoes that are alright. I've never really seen Mezlan's discounted that far, although Magli's pop up now and again. I'd try and make your price range $200-250, because right now there's a seller selling Park Avenue's in pretty much every size NIB on eBay, and if you do the 20-25% off thing through Live.com with shipping they're around $206ish if I recall correctly. If you're solely holding out for shoes around the $150 price range, though, I don't know where you can go for anything that would last you other than Johnston and Murphy.

 

[coconut]

I struggle to grasp why Allen Edmonds seems to lack any competition at their price level. Both Bruno Magli and Mezlan are there as far as comfort and appearance, IMO, but probably not as far as durability.

Is there something about the Allen Edmonds manufacturing process that results in lots of seconds? Is it that shoes made outside of the USA keep their seconds in their own countries? What is the explanation for having so many shoes selling at 1/3 of their retail price? I have heard it attributed to the company's size, but are they any bigger than Cole Haan or Johnston & Murphy?

 

[Dewey]

Originally Posted by Nil

I picked up a pair of AE Fairfax's off of Ebay for $109. They were most likely "imperfect" ones but the only defect I can find is a chip on the bottom of the sole of one of the shoes.

Originally Posted by NoVaguy

?!?!?!?! It's really, really, really easy to find good AE's for sub $150, especially when you consider discount coupons and such. I just bought the AE Taunton chelsea, NIB, shipped for $178, with a cashback of $34 (through the window's live cashback thing that gave a 20% cashback to my paypal account). And that was a harder style to find. I also got a suede AE Delray, NIB, shipped for about $100. So it's very doable as long as you are flexible with styles.
Like I said, it's not that easy to find to find good AEs for $150. You guys jump down my throat and then give stories about how you searched ebay or used coupons and cashback programs to get seconds and styles like the fairfax or styles that you weren't exactly looking for. Not my definition of "really, really, really easy" or "that easy." Good for you guys -- but I think it's still OK to say it's not that easy. Let's not give newbies false hope. Hunting good shoes at that price range can take a lot of time and effort. As eidolon writes, $200-$250 is an easier range for good AEs. And the good ones are worth it. Seconds are not necessarily "good" shoes ... caveat emptor ... just because you cannot see the defect at first, does not mean that you will not discover it later. Or maybe i'm the only one who has been burned on seconds that appear perfect at first ... and warlok1965, if you can point me to some NIB non-seconds <$150 dark brown suede McClains in 10E, I'd be much obliged.

 

[JLibourel]

Originally Posted by coconut

I struggle to grasp why Allen Edmonds seems to lack any competition at their price level. Both Bruno Magli and Mezlan are there as far as comfort and appearance, IMO, but probably not as far as durability.

Is there something about the Allen Edmonds manufacturing process that results in lots of seconds? Is it that shoes made outside of the USA keep their seconds in their own countries? What is the explanation for having so many shoes selling at 1/3 of their retail price? I have heard it attributed to the company's size, but are they any bigger than Cole Haan or Johnston & Murphy?

Many other shoe companies do sell seconds, just not as extensively as A-E. Alden sells theirs through the ShoeMart. Several of the major English manufacturers do sell seconds at their factories in Northampton.

It may be a tribute to A-E's rigorous quality standards that they do sell so many seemingly perfect or almost-perfect shoes as seconds.

For the record, A-E seconds of regular production shoes are only 25% off full retail. The shoes that are really cheap ($129 or whatever) are styles that have been discontinued for at least a year.

 

[coconut]

Thank you for that explanation, JLibourel. I have seen discontinued Ralph Lauren shoes greatly discounted as well. Still, at the $350 retail price, AE's competition seems nonexistent from the standpoint of construction quality.

Dewey: Would you describe your experience of getting burned by seconds?

 

[Dewey]

the last pair of seconds i bought had too-large quarters. they looked right. i bought them by phone, did not try them on in the store, and then the fit seemed a bit off but i figured it would be ok since the size & last were known winners for me. wore them outside ... after they loosened up and i realized something was seriously off with the fit ... sole size and shape looked right ... took them to the cobbler ... was like why do these fit so strange ... he noticed right away that the quarters were too big ... size 10 shoe with size 11 or 12 quarters sewn on. very subtle, not something i would have ever noticed just by looking. had i tried them on in the store, i would have passed on them, probably, since they didn't fit quite right. but i bought them over the phone and wore them too much before i discovered the defect.

i think in most cases, maybe the overwhelming majority, seconds work out ok. but i would not recommend them to my father or my brother as the first pair of AEs, so i would not recommend them to a newbie for the same reason. if the defect is a scratch or crooked stitching, that's great. if you can't see it at first ... who knows.