First Black Oxford Purchase: Tips please!

[Roen]

I currently own a pair of black loafers (XC4 Stanton Moc Venetian, $160) and a pair of brown derbys (XC4 Branning Moc Toe, $170), both from Johnston & Murphy. I prefer their shoes (but am no means tied to them) because their soles + dr scholls gel insoles have been effective at getting rid of plantar fascitis.

However, my shoe styles leave me with no true formal shoe.

I'm thinking of getting one, possibly two pairs of formal shoes. The first would be a black oxford. The second would be an oxblood oxford.

Questions:
1. What type of toe should I be getting? Cap toe? Plain toe?
2. What other brands should I look at that cost around the same and offer similar quality relief for plantar fascitis, but are built to higher quality standards? From I read, JoMu is on the higher end of glued shoes.

All input is appreciated!

 

[Kushcoma9000]

I currently own a pair of black loafers (XC4 Stanton Moc Venetian, $160) and a pair of brown derbys (XC4 Branning Moc Toe, $170), both from Johnston & Murphy. I prefer their shoes (but am no means tied to them) because their soles + dr scholls gel insoles have been effective at getting rid of plantar fascitis.

However, my shoe styles leave me with no true formal shoe.

I'm thinking of getting one, possibly two pairs of formal shoes. The first would be a black oxford. The second would be an oxblood oxford.

Questions:
1. What type of toe should I be getting? Cap toe? Plain toe?
2. What other brands should I look at that cost around the same and offer similar quality relief for plantar fascitis, but are built to higher quality standards? From I read, JoMu is on the higher end of glued shoes.

All input is appreciated!

1. What makes an oxford "truly" formal is by having it with "black patent" leather (the shiny leather you've probably seen on shoes; usually worn with tuxedos). General rule of thumb, the darker the color the more formal the oxford (black [patent > non-patent] > dark brown > light brown). Cap toe vs Plain toe: Both are formal but a cap toe may hide any creases that form on your oxford better than a plain toe by de-focusing your attention away from the crease like an optical illusion (the actual toe puff is what directly minimizes creasing in cap toe shoes though). The plain toe is more elegant on an oxford in my opinion especially on a wholecut oxford because there's no extra ornamentation on the shoe, but creases may be more visible (although I heard Cordovan leather [as opposed to calf leather] may crease less). Only the shape of the last and the leather is being shown by the plain toe wholecut oxford shoe, so they're representing the phrase "less is more", which makes it elegant but it can also be formal.

2. If you're curious about which brands to get, check out this website https://www.theworldofshoes.com/stories/brands/
It basically lists all the dress shoe brands in the world and the best part is that you can filter them by price ($ vs $$ vs $$$), country, and the type of sole construction (blake < blake rapid < goodyear welted and Norwegian < hand welted). Once you've narrowed down the brands by the filters, you just have to google that brand's name and go to their website and check out their shoes and then repeat for the other brands (yes it can be time consuming but it's a powerful tool to find what you want). "Glued shoes": If by this you mean "cemented" sole construction, that I would avoid shoes made this way because if your sole wears out, you can't replace it and thus have to throw your shoe away. On the contrary, if your shoe has the sole stitched on (eg blake, goodyear welted, hand welted, etc) then those CAN be replaced once the sole wears down. Quality wise for ready to wear shoes, I suggest getting ones that have a goodyear welted sole construction (hand welted is better but not as common because it's usually on bespoke shoes, not ready to wear) because that makes the shoe more water proof and sturdier than a blake construction.

Hope this helps, let me know if you got any more questions

 

[Kushcoma9000]

Also, you're not going to find the best quality for oxfords that cost less than $200 but you can get relatively okay quality shoes. For plain toe wholecut oxfords that are goodyear welted, the cheapest and the best quality possible you can get them for (from what I've found through my search via theworldofshoes.com website) is from either:

1) Orban's (http://orbans.fr/en/13-leather-sole) for 150 euros which is $176.79. There's a 14 euro shipping fee that's added, bringing the total to 164 euros, which is $193.27 total

or

2) Meermin (https://www.meermin.es/in_en/catalog/category/view/s/oxfords/id/6/) for $175 BUT their shipping is a minimum of $35, thus bringing the total to $210. So it's $16.73 more expensive than Orban's.

Both the websites above also have black cap toe oxfords that are goodyear welted as well, but not at the cheapest price I've seen. The cheapest price I've seen for a black cap toe oxford that's goodyear welted is for about $145 (I don't know how much shipping is) at http://www.duggersoflondon.co.uk/products/charles.html and at http://www.herringshoes.co.uk/loake/200_oxford/black-polished but the latter website doesn't sell to some countries like the U.S.A.

**I did actually find a cheaper black cap toe oxford but I don't know if it's goodyear welted or not. It's about $130 (I don't know how much shipping is) at http://www.theboutiquemilano.com/en/classic-shoes/9-ambassador.html

Comfort wise, I'm not too sure about

Good luck

 

[Roen]

What's more formal, cap toe oxford or plain toe derby?

 

[Count de Monet]

What's more formal, cap toe oxford or plain toe derby?

All other things equal - color, leather, sole type and thickness - a cap toe oxford is considered more formal than a derby. Having said that, a black PTB is or was considered the proper footwear from some US military branch's dress uniform, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[CloudLi]

1. What makes an oxford "truly" formal is by having it with "black patent" leather (the shiny leather you've probably seen on shoes; usually worn with tuxedos). General rule of thumb, the darker the color the more formal the oxford (black [patent > non-patent] > dark brown > light brown). Cap toe vs Plain toe: Both are formal but a cap toe may hide any creases that form on your oxford better than a plain toe by de-focusing your attention away from the crease like an optical illusion (the actual toe puff is what directly minimizes creasing in cap toe shoes though). The plain toe is more elegant on an oxford in my opinion especially on a wholecut oxford because there's no extra ornamentation on the shoe, but creases may be more visible (although I heard Cordovan leather [as opposed to calf leather] may crease less). Only the shape of the last and the leather is being shown by the plain toe wholecut oxford shoe, so they're representing the phrase "less is more", which makes it elegant but it can also be formal.

2. If you're curious about which brands to get, check out this website https://www.theworldofshoes.com/stories/brands/
It basically lists all the dress shoe brands in the world and the best part is that you can filter them by price ($ vs $$ vs $$$), country, and the type of sole construction (blake < blake rapid < goodyear welted and Norwegian < hand welted). Once you've narrowed down the brands by the filters, you just have to google that brand's name and go to their website and check out their shoes and then repeat for the other brands (yes it can be time consuming but it's a powerful tool to find what you want). "Glued shoes": If by this you mean "cemented" sole construction, that I would avoid shoes made this way because if your sole wears out, you can't replace it and thus have to throw your shoe away. On the contrary, if your shoe has the sole stitched on (eg blake, goodyear welted, hand welted, etc) then those CAN be replaced once the sole wears down. Quality wise for ready to wear shoes, I suggest getting ones that have a goodyear welted sole construction (hand welted is better but not as common because it's usually on bespoke shoes, not ready to wear) because that makes the shoe more water proof and sturdier than a blake construction.

Hope this helps, let me know if you got any more questions

Another misconception, cemented shoes can be resoled, you just find a sole and re-glue them together. Resoling has never been an advantage of stitched shoes. BTW, Meermin seconds (new) on eBay runs for under $70 for black cap toe or whole cut

 

[Roen]

Another misconception, cemented shoes can be resoled, you just find a sole and re-glue them together. Resoling has never been an advantage of stitched shoes. BTW, Meermin seconds (new) on eBay runs for under $70 for black cap toe or whole cut

Alas, nothing in my size.