Old polo shoes

[pejsek]

I recently stumbled on a pair of NOS Polo shoes. They are a beautiful chestnut suede wingtip with a nice rounded toe and a commando sole. They were made in England and the logo is just the word Polo in a rectangle (rather than the polo player). I think I recall this logo from the 1970's. The quality seems slightly higher than the shoes I've seen with the polo player/benchmade in England stamp. (And of course worlds apart from those unfortunate Polo shoes now being made in China.) Just curious if anybody knows or remembers anything about these. Even if they're pushing thirty years I'll still count them among my newer shoes.

 

[armscye]

For the first ten years or so, Polo shoes were made by Crockett & Jones, Polo suits by Chester Barrie. Sounds like you got a good deal on a good shoe.

Now anything goes, even with Purple Label. I would opine that Friends Don't Let Friends Buy Ralph Lipshitz (his real name).

 

[imageWIS]

For the first ten years or so, Polo shoes were made by Crockett & Jones, Polo suits by Chester Barrie. Sounds like you got a good deal on a good shoe.

Now anything goes, even with Purple Label. I would opine that Friends Don't Let Friends Buy Ralph Lipshitz (his real name).

So, one should buy Edward Greens, but not if they have the RLPL brand name on them? Does, the same go with St. Andrews suits and RLPL suits? RL has never been "˜anything goes', they have a long-standing business model of using the same sub-contracted companies year after year.

BTW: RL Polo suits were never made by Chester Barrie; that was reserved for RLPL suits.

Jon.

 

[armscye]

Thanks for making my point so effectively: a brand with so many synthetic sublevels and so many job-lots of motley product that even fashion buffs can't keep track. Tell me, is a Vietnamese-made Ralph Lauren "Lauren" dress shirt supposed to be branded above or below a Peruvian-made Ralph Lauren "RL67" tee shirt this week?

It's the ultimate artifice: a clothing brand that manufactures nothing but pretense, styles nothing but ad slicks, headed by a man so fictional he invented his past, and even his own name.

 

[imageWIS]

HUH? Most companies subcontract work out at one level or another. Regardless, if the work being subcontracted is finished work, rough material, and so on and so fourth. You don't have to keep track of which companies RL uses to manufacture which product. They are a publicly traded company and all that information is available through their corporate relations division. And, its not like RL subcontracts to that many companies in the first place.

Plus, we were not discussing the "˜Lauren' brand, but Polo and RLPL, which are definitely a higher quality of garment. There are no "˜weekly' changes towards quality. It has always been the same, with RLPL on top and Chaps at the bottom. Polo, Polo Sport, Lauren, etc...are in between either end of the spectrum. Interestingly enough, the organizational relationships between the different "˜brands' and their perspective qualities are some of the easiest to follow and understand that I have seen in a major multinational corporation of the same toughly the same size and apparent complexity as RL.

Jon.