Should I give up on leather-soled shoes?

[MrGimpy]

Originally Posted by Tarmac

How much do you weigh?

If you dont like the leather soles, by all means get rubber. No shame in that.

 

[AnGeLiCbOrIs]

I may get lynched for saying this but I find Bruno Maglis to be the absolutely most comfortable leather soled shoes I own. (I have two pairs.)

Also, despite the "too soft" leather and cheap construction my three year old pair still looks fantastic and shows almost no wear.

Also, for rubber soled shoes, you may want to try Goodyear welted Mephisto shoes. They can be bought cheap on eBay and come in a few decent styles.

 

[yo!]

Thanks for all of the advice everyone.

As for the size issues, It could very well be that I am not a 11D. All stores carry shoes in D width, some carry them in Wide, and pretty much no-one carries Narrow shoes which if anything I suspect that I am a narrow. I have had one shoe saleswoman claim that I am a 12A (fit to the larger foot). Could it be possible that I am a 12A foot and I usually fit fine into 11D? Some shoes feel a little small lengthwise but I have never felt that they were too wide.

As for Tarmac's question, I am 6'1" and a muscular 185. (I sure hope that it is muscle because I haven't lost any weight even at month 6 of my marathon training.)

And to clarify, I LOVE leather-soled shoes. It is just that all of the ones that are attainable to me seem to be of the very tough hard leather.

 

[grimslade]

Originally Posted by DocHolliday

As much as I like AE, they beat the daylights out of my feet. The leather is pretty tough, and so I'd suggest they might not be ideal for this purpose.

We may have been through this before, but my experience is the opposite. I find AE footbeds to be some of the most comfortable around.

 

[Knowledge is King]

I still don't understand what this thread has to do with leather soled shoes. The real issue here is that you need to find shoes that fit better (or have softer leather) and you'll be fine.

 

[dk123]

I agree with the earlier poster who suggested the shoes may be too small. The times when I've had this problem have been due to the shoes being so tight that the leather at the top back of the shoe cuts into my foot. It seems that many people on here advocate buying shoes that are on the small side, but I think this is really problematic from a comfort sense, at least in my own experience.

 

[DocHolliday]

Originally Posted by grimslade

We may have been through this before, but my experience is the opposite. I find AE footbeds to be some of the most comfortable around.

I don't have any trouble with the footbeds, but the leather itself has little give, in my experience. EGs will stretch a bit as they break in, but not my AEs. Also, the higher volume of AE shoes makes it easier for them to slip around on my feet.

 

[The Deacon]

I've had a pair of made in India, Bostonian Malden wingtips for over a decade now and they are corrected grain. After I first wore them, I thought I had discovered the perfect torture device! The leather was so hard on my achilles and dug into the tops of my feet but I couldn't afford another pair until a few more pay periods. I then bought a pair of new Alden captoe bals on sale in downtown Boston that felt like slippers. Perfect fit and soft leather.

I think the problem is surely the corrected grain and not the heel. The Bostonians took about 8 years of very irregular use ( why wear them when I had Santoni, AE, Vintage Florsheim, etc for daily workhorses) to soften enough to be loosely called comfortable. After about 12 years I've finally worn a hole through the sole.