Mexicorn
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2009
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Hello fellow SFers. I've been lurking a while on these forums and have slowly been studying up on how to try and remedy my current shoe situation...
I'm a graduate student (in physics), so up until very recently, clothing and footwear were much further back in my mind. Last fall though, after getting a teaching assistantship, I felt I wanted to spruce myself up a bit, and got some good advice from you folks the last time I was here. (See: http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=98916 ). Now i'm not teaching anymore, but still enjoy looking presentable from day to day. My shoes however, are still somewhat lacking...
My main problem is really lack of any sort of rotation. For far too long I've been the type of person who buys one pair of sneakers or whatever, wears them every day for about a year, then has to throw them out as they start to fall apart.
Behold my appalling shoe wardrobe (yes, flame away for the crappy cell phone pic):
Attachment 18604
Starting from the left:
A black moc toe Sandro Moscoloni oxford that I got from men's warehouse right before graduating from college. They're the most comfortable dress shoe i've ever owned so I'm hoping to bring them into my rotation instead of hiding them in the closet for the rare times when I need to "dress up".
Next: my current "daily" shoe. Some Doc Martens from bought right before winter. They were kinda rough to break in but are now supremely comfortable and have held up great through the nasty snow/salt i've had to deal with this winter.
The rest: some laughable looking hush puppies from high school (they rip up my Achilles heels whenever I wear them..), some perry ellis suede loafers I bought for a party (hardly worn, but similar deal), and some about to die new balances.
So anywho, now that you'r done laughing at my horrible footwear, on to suggestions. I've perused through various shoe related threads including:
Doc Marten Thread
The Alden Thread
Clark's Thread
And many others including the WAYWT threads etc. And I've gotten a few ideas so far.
1. Doc Marten's 1461 For Life Edition
After seeing how well my current docs put up to a good amount of abuse, I figure a pair of black docs would fit the bill nicely as an alternate for heavy wear. It should be noted that my comute to work is a 1.5 mile walk each direction rain/snow or shine, so I enjoy a shoe that can handle that sort of abuse. I know there has been a lot of praise for the MIE variety of docs, but I enjoy this pebble grain leather look more than the almost glossy corrected grain in standard 1461's. I figure with their "for life" guarantee that the construction should be similar.
2. Sperry boat shoes in navy:
This would be a later purchase for summer mainly, but I haven't tried boat shoes and feel like they might be interesting. I also think the navy color is a nice departure from the standard black/brown i've always used. One caveat though is I've never owned a boat, and spend very little time dockside. Would it be too contrived for a frail nerdy kid to wear boat shoes to his physics building?
3. This one's a toss up, as I'd like to get at least one true dress shoe for my wardrobe. I was thinking something like a black brogue wingtip, but hopefully under $150. I've heard a lot of good things about allen edmonds on the forums, at least in the <$400 range, so a pair of AE's on deep discount like these would seem appropriate:
AE Hudson
AE Birmingham
On that note, I'm also a little wary regarding leather soled shoes, as my aforementioned commute would not be very good to them. How hard are leather soles to care for compared to rubber? Should they not be worn in rain, let alone anything worse?
Last note: shoe trees & polishing.
I see that a lot of people, especially in the men's clothing forum, swear by shoe tries for all their shoes. I know I should probably get shoe trees for my dress shoes, however what about for my docs?
With regards to polishing, I've seen some folks here experiment with polishing a shoe with a different color change the color of the shoe slightly. I've been toying with the idea of taking black shoe polish to my sad little hush puppies, and seeing if anything good can come of it. The shoes are still basically like new, so I feel I should try and do something to make them look a little less laughable.
I know I just spewed out a tremendous amount of drivel that most of you probably won't read, but I feel i'd rather be "too" detailed on some things than me like all the other "my clothes suck, tell me what to wear" threads i've seen in my short time here.
Please feel free to inform, critique, or straight up flame me all you like, as I will take all of it somewhat constructively. Also, if you feel you have something that might be a good addition in a 9.5 or 10 please let me know!
I'm a graduate student (in physics), so up until very recently, clothing and footwear were much further back in my mind. Last fall though, after getting a teaching assistantship, I felt I wanted to spruce myself up a bit, and got some good advice from you folks the last time I was here. (See: http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=98916 ). Now i'm not teaching anymore, but still enjoy looking presentable from day to day. My shoes however, are still somewhat lacking...
My main problem is really lack of any sort of rotation. For far too long I've been the type of person who buys one pair of sneakers or whatever, wears them every day for about a year, then has to throw them out as they start to fall apart.
Behold my appalling shoe wardrobe (yes, flame away for the crappy cell phone pic):
Attachment 18604
Starting from the left:
A black moc toe Sandro Moscoloni oxford that I got from men's warehouse right before graduating from college. They're the most comfortable dress shoe i've ever owned so I'm hoping to bring them into my rotation instead of hiding them in the closet for the rare times when I need to "dress up".
Next: my current "daily" shoe. Some Doc Martens from bought right before winter. They were kinda rough to break in but are now supremely comfortable and have held up great through the nasty snow/salt i've had to deal with this winter.
The rest: some laughable looking hush puppies from high school (they rip up my Achilles heels whenever I wear them..), some perry ellis suede loafers I bought for a party (hardly worn, but similar deal), and some about to die new balances.
So anywho, now that you'r done laughing at my horrible footwear, on to suggestions. I've perused through various shoe related threads including:
Doc Marten Thread
The Alden Thread
Clark's Thread
And many others including the WAYWT threads etc. And I've gotten a few ideas so far.
1. Doc Marten's 1461 For Life Edition
After seeing how well my current docs put up to a good amount of abuse, I figure a pair of black docs would fit the bill nicely as an alternate for heavy wear. It should be noted that my comute to work is a 1.5 mile walk each direction rain/snow or shine, so I enjoy a shoe that can handle that sort of abuse. I know there has been a lot of praise for the MIE variety of docs, but I enjoy this pebble grain leather look more than the almost glossy corrected grain in standard 1461's. I figure with their "for life" guarantee that the construction should be similar.
2. Sperry boat shoes in navy:
This would be a later purchase for summer mainly, but I haven't tried boat shoes and feel like they might be interesting. I also think the navy color is a nice departure from the standard black/brown i've always used. One caveat though is I've never owned a boat, and spend very little time dockside. Would it be too contrived for a frail nerdy kid to wear boat shoes to his physics building?
3. This one's a toss up, as I'd like to get at least one true dress shoe for my wardrobe. I was thinking something like a black brogue wingtip, but hopefully under $150. I've heard a lot of good things about allen edmonds on the forums, at least in the <$400 range, so a pair of AE's on deep discount like these would seem appropriate:
AE Hudson
AE Birmingham
On that note, I'm also a little wary regarding leather soled shoes, as my aforementioned commute would not be very good to them. How hard are leather soles to care for compared to rubber? Should they not be worn in rain, let alone anything worse?
Last note: shoe trees & polishing.
I see that a lot of people, especially in the men's clothing forum, swear by shoe tries for all their shoes. I know I should probably get shoe trees for my dress shoes, however what about for my docs?
With regards to polishing, I've seen some folks here experiment with polishing a shoe with a different color change the color of the shoe slightly. I've been toying with the idea of taking black shoe polish to my sad little hush puppies, and seeing if anything good can come of it. The shoes are still basically like new, so I feel I should try and do something to make them look a little less laughable.
I know I just spewed out a tremendous amount of drivel that most of you probably won't read, but I feel i'd rather be "too" detailed on some things than me like all the other "my clothes suck, tell me what to wear" threads i've seen in my short time here.
Please feel free to inform, critique, or straight up flame me all you like, as I will take all of it somewhat constructively. Also, if you feel you have something that might be a good addition in a 9.5 or 10 please let me know!
