***The official Alden thread *** Share enthusiasm, reviews, sizing, advice, and photos.

[sevenfoldtieguy]



Happy Tuesday, Ravello WT Boot. These are one go my restoration projects. I have a bit of work to do to clean them up...

Spoiler

-M

Great boots, and great shade of ravello. From what I can tell, it is nearly an exact match to my ravello LWB on double waterloc.

 

[ReppTiePrepster]



Quote:
Fit trumps patina and pristine.

It certainly does!

 

[movoblast]

Interestingly enough, the toes have really nice graining. I think that might be a function of the grain being a bit finer. Almost every pair of scotchgrain shoes I own have "flatter" graining on the toe from stretching. These particular shoes have the crappy leather on the outside quarter just behind the lacing holes. The shoe that was wrinkled like crazy looked like it was a combination of poor leather and lousy lasting, almost like there was a bunch of excess leather in the arch.

I had two pairs of Alden 975s come from Jcrew. One pair, there was a gouge in the leather so I ordered another pair and the 2nd pair used significantly less leather. The 2nd pair looks a lot flatter as a result, and the heels are about half a centimeter shorter. I guess they were trying to conserve leather with the 2nd pair? So strange that I have seen so much variability in the different pairs.

 

[bespoken pa]

Ed from the shoemart is pretty awesome.

 

[movoblast]

Ed from the shoemart is pretty awesome.

I called him too. Unfortunately I have a very common shoe size so there's almost no chance of me getting a pair but I put my name down

 

[bespoken pa]



I called him too. Unfortunately I have a very common shoe size so there's almost no chance of me getting a pair but I put my name down 

Me too, but he called me quickly and offered to put me on the list for the next go around. This works out well as I have other things I would like to acquire anyway. Very polite and responsive.

 

[sevenfoldtieguy]

Interestingly enough, the toes have really nice graining. I think that might be a function of the grain being a bit finer. Almost every pair of scotchgrain shoes I own have "flatter" graining on the toe from stretching. These particular shoes have the crappy leather on the outside quarter just behind the lacing holes. The shoe that was wrinkled like crazy looked like it was a combination of poor leather and lousy lasting, almost like there was a bunch of excess leather in the arch.

I had two pairs of Alden 975s come from Jcrew. One pair, there was a gouge in the leather so I ordered another pair and the 2nd pair used significantly less leather. The 2nd pair looks a lot flatter as a result, and the heels are about half a centimeter shorter. I guess they were trying to conserve leather with the 2nd pair? So strange that I have seen so much variability in the different pairs. 

It can be very frustrating .....

 

[ReppTiePrepster]

I had two pairs of Alden 975s come from Jcrew. One pair, there was a gouge in the leather so I ordered another pair and the 2nd pair used significantly less leather. The 2nd pair looks a lot flatter as a result, and the heels are about half a centimeter shorter. I guess they were trying to conserve leather with the 2nd pair? So strange that I have seen so much variability in the different pairs.

Can we see pics of this? This sounds terrible!

 

[thebeebs]

Model 2210 king nst. One of the top 5 make-ups w/o question.

 

[blope]

J. Crew has great customer service.

I got the Navy CXL LWB, wore them for 6 weeks and they started to split on one of the wings. I called them, they are sending me a new pair of Tobacco LWB, knocked 10% off and sent me a $25 gift card.

 

[Shawnc]



Ed from the shoemart is pretty awesome.

Best of the best IMO.

 

[movoblast]

Can we see pics of this? This sounds terrible!

Heel height is indeed half centimeter off but its hard to capture that in a picture.
Left is first pair. Right is second pair. Right pair has a lot less volume. I'm in a profession where we're trained to detect even half millimeter differences, so to me this looks crazy off. I thought it was just me, so I did a blind test and waited to see if my girlfriend would comment first, and sure enough she did. She asked me if I got a new pair of shoes. I told her it was an exchange pair and she was shocked by how "off" the second pairs look. This is coming from someone who can't tell my captoes apart from my wingtips, so I know it's not just me. She and I both like the aesthetics of the first pair better, but I actually prefer the fit of the second pair (I have flat feet).



I would keep the 2nd pair just for the better fit, but if you look at the pic above of the left and right sides of the 2nd pair, you can see that the right side is affected moreso than the left and the heel heights of both sides are still about half centimeter shorter.

I guess I'm keeping the first pair and sending the second pair back. And I guess this is why you guys have been saying that even shoes that are the same size, and on the same last can fit a little differently.

 

[sevenfoldtieguy]

Can we see pics of this? This sounds terrible!

Heel height is indeed half centimeter off but its hard to capture that in a picture. Left is first pair. Right is second pair. Right pair has a lot less volume. I'm in a profession where we're trained to detect even half millimeter differences, so to me this looks crazy off. I thought it was just me, so I did a blind test and waited to see if my girlfriend would comment first, and sure enough she did. She asked me if I got a new pair of shoes. I told her it was an exchange pair and she was shocked by how "off" the second pairs look. This is coming from someone who can't tell my captoes apart from my wingtips, so I know it's not just me. She and I both like the aesthetics of the first pair better, but I actually prefer the fit of the second pair (I have flat feet). I would keep the 2nd pair just for the better fit, but if you look at the pic above of the left and right sides of the 2nd pair, you can see that the right side is affected moreso than the left and the heel heights of both sides are still about half centimeter shorter. I guess I'm keeping the first pair and sending the second pair back. And I guess this is why you guys have been saying that even shoes that are the same size, and on the same last can fit a little differently.

This is absolutely the truth.

 

[aerosurferlv]

What do you guys think of my tankers? They're navy blue chromexcel with antique commando sole, trubalance last.

 

[rydenfan]

Can you post a better picture? Tough to see the true color