Vintage Dress shoe appreciation, tips, maintenance and advice

[wasmisterfu]

Those bottom ones look late 40s maybe early 50s.

Nope. As I already stated, they’re circa 1977, per manufacturing date code. The same year as the catalog photo. The 3 last Chester was only introduced in 1964:

 

[Hotel Cali]

Daily surfing for shoes over morning coffee ... was searching for Banister shoes ...

Here is another sleek interesting 2-eyelet longwing.

View attachment 1421645


Anyone here has a pair of Banister?

Another standard welt longwing. AE Richmond.

@wasmisterfu . Can you date these? I am thinking mid 90s.

Allen Edmonds Richmond Burdundy Wingtip Oxfords Sz 7 E wide 623 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Allen Edmonds Richmond Burdundy Wingtip Oxfords Sz 7 E wide 623 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[Oshare]

Besides rounds of Bick 4, does anyone have advice on how to moisturize the inside of a shoe?

I noticed some pretty bad creasing along the side of my John McHale Florsheims that I posted the other day. To my horror, I realized that the inside of the shoe is really dried out and cracking badly in spots. I've applied Bick 4 generously, and am wondering if there is anything else I should do?

 

[Nealjpage]

Another standard welt longwing. AE Richmond.

View attachment 1422082

@wasmisterfu . Can you date these? I am think mid 90s.

Allen Edmonds Richmond Burdundy Wingtip Oxfords Sz 7 E wide 623 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Allen Edmonds Richmond Burdundy Wingtip Oxfords Sz 7 E wide 623 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

I'm not sure he'll want to date them. I get the impression that he's a married man.

 

[friendlygoz]

Nope. As I already stated, they’re circa 1977, per manufacturing date code. The same year as the catalog photo. The 3 last Chester was only introduced in 1964:

Bob Powers from the Facebook AE Enthusiasts page posted this amazing guide to dating AEs. Here a link to the PDF.

 

[smfdoc]

Bob Powers from the Facebook AE Enthusiasts page posted this amazing guide to dating AEs. Here a link to the PDF.

Great information. Thanks for linking it.

 

[wasmisterfu]

Another standard welt longwing. AE Richmond.

View attachment 1422082

@wasmisterfu . Can you date these? I am thinking mid 90s.

Allen Edmonds Richmond Burdundy Wingtip Oxfords Sz 7 E wide 623 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Allen Edmonds Richmond Burdundy Wingtip Oxfords Sz 7 E wide 623 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Those were made in 1993.

 

[wasmisterfu]

Bob Powers from the Facebook AE Enthusiasts page posted this amazing guide to dating AEs. Here a link to the PDF.

Pretty good writeup, but it took @BFT9000 (the righteous dude, with the worlds most amazing AE Strand collection on earth) who informed the AE thread (here on SF) on the early 70’s through late 2000’s date coding scheme, to explain to Powers about the date coding.

Frankly, nearly all 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 00’s are pretty quickly dateable based on a combo of branding and date codes. The rest can be roughly dated using branding and the catalog archive... until we go back before the 50’s, where the catalog archive ends... then things get very fuzzy.

 

[CWOyaji]

The American Gentlemen shoes are in great condition but they did have some wear inside one of the heel cups.

I glued the area down with barge cement, then cut a patch from an alligator purse I thrifted a while back

Spoiler: The purse had issues but look at that gator skin.

Alligator skin has a smooth texture which I think will work well in this role.

Let it get tacky dry.

Then laid it in.

I think I'll do the other shoe, too.

 

[stook1]

Gents, excited to share some images of a pair of NOS 93605s that I found recently. Unfortunately, a bit too narrow for me so these will be getting posted to ebay soon most likely. The shell on this pair, at least in my opinion, is really special. They have an amazing museum-ish depth. Very nice. Wish they fit.

 

[Nealjpage]

The American Gentlemen shoes are in great condition but they did have some wear inside one of the heel cups.
View attachment 1422185
I glued the area down with barge cement, then cut a patch from an alligator purse I thrifted a while back

Spoiler: The purse had issues but look at that gator skin.

View attachment 1422189

Alligator skin has a smooth texture which I think will work well in this role.
View attachment 1422186
Let it get tacky dry.
View attachment 1422187
Then laid it in.
View attachment 1422188
I think I'll do the other shoe, too.
View attachment 1422194

That's a good idea. I've got a pair of black shell Leeds that have led a hard life that this might help extend.

 

[wasmisterfu]

Hey, @BFT9000 , if you see this post in your notifications, you should post one of those crazy Strand collection photo’s to this thread (which shall be considered a non-vintage violation, given you have vintage Strands in your lineup).

Seriously, if you’ve never seen one of @BFT9000 strand lineup pictures, then you haven’t seen hardcore shoeporn.

 

[wasmisterfu]

The American Gentlemen shoes are in great condition but they did have some wear inside one of the heel cups.
View attachment 1422185
I glued the area down with barge cement, then cut a patch from an alligator purse I thrifted a while back

Spoiler: The purse had issues but look at that gator skin.

View attachment 1422189

Alligator skin has a smooth texture which I think will work well in this role.
View attachment 1422186
Let it get tacky dry.
View attachment 1422187
Then laid it in.
View attachment 1422188
I think I'll do the other shoe, too.
View attachment 1422194

It’ll be interesting to see how that holds up.

 

[wasmisterfu]

Gents, excited to share some images of a pair of NOS 93605s that I found recently. Unfortunately, a bit too narrow for me so these will be getting posted to ebay soon most likely. The shell on this pair, at least in my opinion, is really special. They have an amazing museum-ish depth. Very nice. Wish they fit.

And there I was... hoping, beyond hope, that I’d scroll to the photo that showed a 13C (or even a 13B or a 14B/C).

And then... 10B. Sadness and despair.

 

[madhat]

It’ll be interesting to see how that holds up.

The gator itself should last a long time, as long as it was conditioned, I'd think.