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The Nid Hog

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Universities seem to have a fairly flexible dress code. Administers all wear conservative business dress, but departments are all different. Most of the people I work with dress pretty outdoorsy. If I have to go to some university function, I might wear a jacket and tie, but otherwise not. If it's really formal, my robes cover up whatever else I'm wearing.
 

paulraphael

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Baker's sent me a pair of 10" black Smokejumpers as a try-on pair, and I was wearing them around the apartment with some black athleisure shorts. It felt a little 1930s Berlin transgressive. My girlfriend kind of liked it. Don't tell anyone I said so.
 

Legal Eagles

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Baker's sent me a pair of 10" black Smokejumpers as a try-on pair, and I was wearing them around the apartment with some black athleisure shorts. It felt a little 1930s Berlin transgressive. My girlfriend kind of liked it. Don't tell anyone I said so.
Tell me you have pictures of this to share!
 

paulraphael

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Tell me you have pictures of this to share!

I meant to, but ended up getting them back in the mail as fast as I could so they wouldn't get scuffed or spilled on or slept on by a cat.

There are plenty of black smokejumper wearers here who could recreate the look . Or improve it ... lederhosen would be better than fleece.
 

wordfool

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Agreed... the days of the white shoe law firm are fast receding into the misty fog of memory... now men leave the house without topcoats and (gasp) hats, wear denim in a social setting, and sometimes even eschew neckties... the biggest disappointment to me has to be the proclivity for grown men to wear short pants in public... is nothing sacred?

In my case your chart should also include the line "Do you regularly need to walk more than a few hundred yards outside in heat and humidity that causes rivers of sweat to run down your legs and your long pants (whatever the fabric) to stick to your skin?" In which case wearing a decent pair of shorts is fine IMO. Just not shapeless, baggy cargo shorts (and no, I don't have an endocrine disorder... my body just can't cope well with a typical NE summer weather!).

It'll be interesting to see how this Covid thing impacts the dress code in cities like New York and London that seem to be desperately clinging on to the smarter side of business casual (and sometimes not even a nod to casual) as the rest of the world moves on to more comfortable, practical options. I'm still amazed at how prevalent suits are in London, even in non-financial parts of the city, for example, and preppy, jacketed summer attire is still far more prevalent in NYC and other parts of the NE than I would have imagined for 2020. I guess I spent too long living in California.

I do still tend to judge people by their shoes though -- one of the few olde worlde judgments my parents successfully jammed into my rebellious brain. Someone can be wearing the best suit or the nicest cashmere sweater, but if their shoes look like **** (style or condition) we will immediately start off on the wrong foot! Give me a nice pair of SDs or service boots over some ratty old oxfords with dangling laces any day.
 

wordfool

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Not sure if this is a White's thing, but my recent Bounty Hunters have enough of a platform on the inside of the arch to serve cocktails on. I don't mind it, it is just like nothing else I have.

I have some old BH that I bought off eBay which I use for yard work. Those to not have it. My HH have not arrived yet, so I can't compare to them.

View attachment 1416850

That seems to be a White's thing although like the infamous "heel shelf" it will vary boot to boot (what with White's apparent trouble with QC standards). I suspect it might look less pronounced as the arch collapses and the upper spreads a bit with break-in.

On the upside, at least the welt trim looks relatively neat. On my SDs it looks like a small child tried to trim the ends of the welt with a butter knife.
 
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Patek

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That seems to be a White's thing although like the infamous "heel shelf" it will vary boot to boot (what with White's apparently having no discernible QC standards). I suspect it might look less pronounced as the arch collapses and the upper spreads a bit with break-in.

On the upside, at least the welt trim looks relatively neat. On my SDs it looks like a small child tried to trim the ends of the welt with a butter knife.

Yes, I think you are right about the shelf disappearing once it starts breaking in and is probably the reason that I don't notice it on my old early '00 BH.

I was actually pretty happy with the quality on these, the stitching is neat and evenly spaced. I was half expecting a spaz attack with the stitching after all the stories.
 

discomute

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FWIW, I will never order a custom build of any White's model with a hard toe, single celastic or otherwise, whether or not they have a cap toe. The soft toe is one of the big value adders that makes custom build's worth it to me. Now, that is not to say that I don't have a couple pairs around with single celastic that were not custom orders that i got from Whitesriver or Baker's eBay store. I have had soft-cap-toe MPs but that was a short lived affair, as my feet don't like White's Barrie last, I much prefer 55, 38, or 4811, so I can't comment on long term, but I have had a pair of soft-cap-toe bounty hunters in cxl for a few years that have seen a lot of wear, and yes the toe did collapse some, but I had no pain or anything, they were, like all of my other soft toe white's exceedingly comfortable.

I have one of each, though they are both fairly new. Cellastic toe has very obvious superior aesthetics. Soft toe was chosen by me as a way to hedge my international sizing guess and the boot wasn't to be formal.

They are what they are, one is slightly more comfortable if the sizing is less than perfect, one looks a lot better. I've not heard of them collapsing but it would be possible with any impact. Mind you it is possible to insert cellastic toes into a rebuild, so if this happened it would be fixable.

The OP said that soft toe was more "sleek" and to me that sounds like a reference to how it looks. And I'd disagree. Structured toe is better in every aspect when it comes to it's appearance.

Agreed... the days of the white shoe law firm are fast receding into the misty fog of memory... now men leave the house without topcoats and (gasp) hats, wear denim in a social setting, and sometimes even eschew neckties... the biggest disappointment to me has to be the proclivity for grown men to wear short pants in public... is nothing sacred?
View attachment 1416839

Spoken like a northern dandy. I lived in Darwin for 4 years where every day the high is between 84 and 93. Where only 30-60 days in the year have an overnight low that gets under 68. Year round no one wears pants - except for sun or insect protection.

Even where I am now, far down south of Australia (south being the cool part) our summer days will often hit 100.

Yeah pants look better, but our fashion sensibilities come from England, which is lucky to have a summer day at 86.
 

wordfool

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The OP said that soft toe was more "sleek" and to me that sounds like a reference to how it looks. And I'd disagree. Structured toe is better in every aspect when it comes to it's appearance.

I'm with you there. Soft vs structured toe is definitely a matter of taste/opinion, but to me there's nothing "sleek" about a collapsed soft toe. It just makes a boot look a bit beat up and ratty IMO.

Yeah pants look better, but our fashion sensibilities come from England, which is lucky to have a summer day at 86.

I think many Brits wear shorts in summer more out of wishful thinking than any need to stay cool. As a Brit currently living in the northeast US I cannot fathom surviving the relentlessly hot, humid summers here without shorts. I consider my genes to be programmed for weather requiring jeans! Just standing on an oven-like NYC subway platform in summer for a few minutes in long pants, even linen, is enough to almost give me heatstroke. Shorts with boots though? I'll leave that to you Aussies!
 
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Jimk4003

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I think many Brits wear shorts in summer more out of wishful thinking than any need to stay cool.
Can confirm. As a resident of Edinburgh, I'm sadly all too used to the sight of overweight Scotsmen stripping to the waist at the first sign of a break in the clouds. 'Taps aff' weather, we call it.
 

Luscombe

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For a combo office/field boot (again depending on the nature of the field work), I would avoid British Tan... it is CXL (sort of) and my feelings on CXL are well known... especially on a field boot which may see hard use.
Legal Eagles, I would be interested in your aversion to CXL on field boots. I get that they stretch a lot. Is there something besides that? I was thinking about the British Tan on a pair of SD's. Just curious about what I might be getting into.
Thanks,
 

discomute

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Without knowing how much of this thread you've read. My issue with CXL is:
a) as a work boot or hiking boot it scuffs very easily. I think it is inappropriate material for "light to moderate hiking" as you put it
b) as a casual or dress boot, you run the risk of getting a "break" which is where a section of leather separates internally and makes the boot look uneven. Now, CXL is absolutely gorgeous, so if this doesn't bother you, or if you are willing to risk it, (I'd estimate 10% based off nothing) then fantastic

My thoughts.
 

Patek

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I'm with you there. Soft vs structured toe is definitely a matter of taste/opinion, but to me there's nothing "sleek" about a collapsed soft toe. It just makes a boot look a bit beat up and ratty IMO.

100%, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. There are certain boots that are intended to be more casual in nature and schlepy such as many Japanese makers. I like those with a soft toe and we'll worn in. The US work boot look is much cleaner and boots worn to the office will look far more formal with a structured toe. After all, I don't think there are many soft toe dress shoes except maybe in the world of fashion.
 

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