Do AE shoes require breaking in?

[Jl24]

So I went to the AE store in SF and the salesperson told me the shoes would feel uncomfortable for a couple wearings before they started to conform to my feet. The leather is a bit high for me on the ankle, but I was told the leater would "wrap" around my ankle once it got broken in.

Is this sales BS or do these higher quality shoes require a break-in period?

 

[Get Smart]

almost all leather dress shoes require a break in. A common rule of thumb is to not wear for more than 3 hours at a time during the initial break in. Whether or not you want to follow this is up to you of course. But I've had leather shoes that started off pretty uncomfortable then they transformed into the most comfortable shoes. The process is a lot like what you go thru with dry denim.

 

[j]

Yeah, they will break in somewhat. If it bothers you (cutting into the ankle bone, it sounds like) you can put some conditioner on the area and work it a bit by hand to speed up the process. I know when I got my first pair of oxfords (Doc Martens, IIRC) that part annoyed me for quite a while, but now I don't even notice it. Either my ankles have grown out or they just toughened up or something.

 

[Jl24]

ok, so it sounds as if it is natural for these shoes to feel uncomfortable at first. This is my first time buying real leather shoes of this quality, so I wasn't sure if I was just getting the sales pitch or if it was a sizing issue. Great, I think I'll pick up a pair of AE shoes as my first step. Thanks guys!

 

[ang_kangkong]

I like cross-pollinating the two SFs, don't you? This link has comments on AE shoes if you scroll down.

http://supertalk.superfuture.com/sho...=13257&page=60