The 2023 Allen Edmonds (AE) Appreciation Thread

[JFWR]

The choose-your-colors custom Strandmok/Sneakers spectator deal was quite spectacular IMO—the closest thing to the old MTO we've had in years.

p.s. - Happy New Year, weasels!

Yeah, I am not going to lie, the team shoes were interesting, save for really silly misses like no orange/blue which is the colour of so many teams.

 

[JFWR]

I kept thinking that AE was saving the best for last, and we would get one last special shoe or boot to end the anniversary year with a bang.
It seemed to me that things really fizzled out at the end of the year though.

Yeah, why wasn't there something for Christmas that was special?

I love AE. And their offerings were nice, just underwhelming. This was the centennial of a major brand and it felt more like a 10 year or 25 year anniversary.

 

[madhat]

After reading this, I can’t believe how lazy that I am. I use only Shell or Alligator belts these days. I just pick a belt in the general color and go.

Yup. Me too. Your belt is 3 ft away with pants in between. Nobody can tell if they match perfectly. I generally wear my burgundy, brown, or caramel shell or croc belt. I do on occasion use my snuff suede belt and fabric belt. I don’t even own any calf ones anymore!

 

[bluejazzmonkey]

Happy New Year B#tches.

 

[JFWR]

Happy New Year B#tches. View attachment 1874208

You need some shoe trees for those cornwallises.

 

[Shoenut]

Carbón for a little night sidebar.

I am getting my wife a special meal because my daughter stopped by and put this picture on the shelf.

Then asks my wife who’s picture is on display. Then my daughter just leaves. It took my a half hour to make her understand that the picture is in fact my wife at 23. To kick it off, now she wants lamb to settle down.

 

[JFWR]

Carbón for a little night sidebar. View attachment 1874219
I am getting my wife a special meal because my daughter stopped by and put this picture on the shelf. View attachment 1874220
Then asks my wife who’s picture is on display. Then my daughter just leaves. It took my a half hour to make her understand that the picture is in fact my wife at 23. To kick it off, now she wants lamb to settle down.

Your wife looked a bit like Selena.

 

[Neo1]

I mean this in a nice way, but all I hope for is that AE surprises me one or two times this year.

This made me really think about things for a moment.

On the one hand, I'm totally with you - I didn't buy many new pairs of AE last year not for some nebulous drop in quality control that somehow AE has slipped so much in the past year. I just find the core styles boring, repetitive & uninspired. I'm always surprised in a good way that they can pull off these shell trunk shows with a good mix of old & newer styles along with the different varieties of shell colors. I think it showed that they haven't totally forgotten about their "base" among all the sneakers.

On the other hand....I recalled a time when I was talking to James (this was a while back). He told me about how AE would produce its first couple styles in India & Vietnam. I didn't believe him and told him as much but he was adamant about it. Come 2022 and this actually did happen. Outside of the Park/Strand/Randolph, AE is producing the sneakers in either India or Vietnam (notably at the same pricepoints as the DR). I always felt as though AE's pricing model was like a total crapshoot, a dart-throwing session where everything was priced the same and clearanced out later in a sort of popularity contest. When AE finally released the first welted DR styles (Cove Drive, Shannon Dr) they were at first priced lower than the mainline. Then they were normalized back to the same as everything else. But now everything is called "imported." AE has (imo, deceptively) blurred the lines between Portugal-made, DR-made and Vietnam/India made. Everything NR caries (welted plus sneakers) is made in India with no exception. At the end of 2022, AE released a Denali "slip-on" that is made in India and listed as recraftable - this is another line crossed. I'm hopeful that we WON'T see more surprises like this in 2023.

 

[Vincent George]

This made me really think about things for a moment.

On the one hand, I'm totally with you - I didn't buy many new pairs of AE last year not for some nebulous drop in quality control that somehow AE has slipped so much in the past year. I just find the core styles boring, repetitive & uninspired. I'm always surprised in a good way that they can pull off these shell trunk shows with a good mix of old & newer styles along with the different varieties of shell colors. I think it showed that they haven't totally forgotten about their "base" among all the sneakers.

On the other hand....I recalled a time when I was talking to James (this was a while back). He told me about how AE would produce its first couple styles in India & Vietnam. I didn't believe him and told him as much but he was adamant about it. Come 2022 and this actually did happen. Outside of the Park/Strand/Randolph, AE is producing the sneakers in either India or Vietnam (notably at the same pricepoints as the DR). I always felt as though AE's pricing model was like a total crapshoot, a dart-throwing session where everything was priced the same and clearanced out later in a sort of popularity contest. When AE finally released the first welted DR styles (Cove Drive, Shannon Dr) they were at first priced lower than the mainline. Then they were normalized back to the same as everything else. But now everything is called "imported." AE has (imo, deceptively) blurred the lines between Portugal-made, DR-made and Vietnam/India made. Everything NR caries (welted plus sneakers) is made in India with no exception. At the end of 2022, AE released a Denali "slip-on" that is made in India and listed as recraftable - this is another line crossed. I'm hopeful that we WON'T see more surprises like this in 2023.

Yes. All of this had led me to chase 80s, 90s, and early 2000s models.

 

[Shoenut]

Your wife looked a bit like Selena.

Didn’t they all.

 

[JFWR]

This made me really think about things for a moment.

On the one hand, I'm totally with you - I didn't buy many new pairs of AE last year not for some nebulous drop in quality control that somehow AE has slipped so much in the past year. I just find the core styles boring, repetitive & uninspired. I'm always surprised in a good way that they can pull off these shell trunk shows with a good mix of old & newer styles along with the different varieties of shell colors. I think it showed that they haven't totally forgotten about their "base" among all the sneakers.

On the other hand....I recalled a time when I was talking to James (this was a while back). He told me about how AE would produce its first couple styles in India & Vietnam. I didn't believe him and told him as much but he was adamant about it. Come 2022 and this actually did happen. Outside of the Park/Strand/Randolph, AE is producing the sneakers in either India or Vietnam (notably at the same pricepoints as the DR). I always felt as though AE's pricing model was like a total crapshoot, a dart-throwing session where everything was priced the same and clearanced out later in a sort of popularity contest. When AE finally released the first welted DR styles (Cove Drive, Shannon Dr) they were at first priced lower than the mainline. Then they were normalized back to the same as everything else. But now everything is called "imported." AE has (imo, deceptively) blurred the lines between Portugal-made, DR-made and Vietnam/India made. Everything NR caries (welted plus sneakers) is made in India with no exception. At the end of 2022, AE released a Denali "slip-on" that is made in India and listed as recraftable - this is another line crossed. I'm hopeful that we WON'T see more surprises like this in 2023.

Allen Edmonds us tracking Florsheim 20 years ago.

Made in India is the deathknell of a shoe company.

 

[CommanderMcBragg]

But the 100th anniversary offerings were super weak.

What did we get? A strand in hickory, a MacNeil limited run, and the football grain that is not football grain? Or was the football grain just part of their team shoes again?

Gentlemen:

Please--no bad-mouthing the hickory Strand in my presence. The hickory Strand was an absolute home run; just look at these bathing beauties...



On another note, please let me know on the off-chance that any of you have a stray left-foot shoe tree, size XL, knocking around to sell me. I just bought an excellent-used pair of AE bals off the popular auction site that included shoe trees, but they both arrived with right-foot trees jammed into them. (The seller was a 75-yr-old lady, and it appears these shoes belonged to her departed husband; I'm thus disinclined to lean on her for the correct tree.) One of my resolutions for 2023 is to acquire more nice-quality shoe trees, as I have a dozen pairs of AE footwear but only 3 pairs--now 3 1/2--of cedar shoe trees.

 

[CommanderMcBragg]

Carbón for a little night sidebar.

Better Carbón than Cabrón, I always say.

 

[JFWR]

Gentlemen:

Please--no bad-mouthing the hickory Strand in my presence. The hickory Strand was an absolute home run; just look at these bathing beauties...

View attachment 1874235

On another note, please let me know on the off-chance that any of you have a stray left-foot shoe tree, size XL, knocking around to sell me. I just bought an excellent-used pair of AE bals off the popular auction site that included shoe trees, but they both arrived with right-foot trees jammed into them. (The seller was a 75-yr-old lady, and it appears these shoes belonged to her departed husband; I'm thus disinclined to lean on her for the correct tree.) One of my resolutions for 2023 is to acquire more nice-quality shoe trees, as I have a dozen pairs of AE footwear but only 3 pairs--now 3 1/2--of cedar shoe trees.

The hickory strands were nice.

 

[ProfilaBinding]

At the end of 2022, AE released a Denali "slip-on" that is made in India and listed as recraftable - this is another line crossed. I'm hopeful that we WON'T see more surprises like this in 2023.

Well, that's not the kind of surprise I was referring to. Perhaps my expectations for 2022 were a bit stupid, but you have to remember is that I was coming off the excitement of the marbled black Strands. I figured things would pick up from there, but the opposite happened for my tastes.

This thread goes in cycles with the imported thing. At least so far, they haven't shown signs that the stuff we love is going elsewhere. I hope that continues. But you have to remember that inflation might be a problem. I'm honestly surprised Alden has as much business as it does with the prices being so high. AE can't really claim they are Alden quality if they keep raising prices to keep up with rising costs. AE might just say "screw it" and put everything overseas if it gets really bad. I want to be wrong on this though.