Vintage Dress shoe appreciation, tips, maintenance and advice

[smfdoc]

For the second day in a row, a delivery truck pulled up and then went away without dropping off my Golden Harvest-ish shoes. 45 minutes later they returned and said they forgot to deliver a package and handed it over. Immediate unboxing and photos were required.

At this point the remainder of my Florsheims were somewhat miffed at the new guy getting all of the attention. Time for a family shot and some individuals.

 

[ZePrez]

Cream polish, even pigment-heavy cordovan polish, will do nothing beneficial for those spots.
A couple of observations / notes:

1. That may be the result of spray-on acrylic color wearing off, but not sure why they're so light in the affected areas.
2. Using acetone on shell will remove any toppings or coatings, but my experience is that the color in the shell remains. I use acetone on brand new shell shoes to remove the acrylic coating. Then just moisturize & brush to get back to shell luster. I recommend using acetone to get any old coatings, toppings, polish, etc. off of the shoes. Then you can analyze better what you're dealing with.
3. Do NOT use neatsfoot oil yet! It will make stripping (& potentially dying) more difficult.
4. I've not redyed shoes before, but that seems like a great fallback if other solutions don't work.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Hi

Trying to wrap my head around the “acrylic coating” on Shell Cordovan. Honest question: Is it how it’s universally treated?
II have 4 Shell Cordovan shoes (3 AE and one unknown, perhaps Hanover) and these don’t seem to have anything (plastic?) coating on. OTOH I have a CG shoe (AE) ...
waiting for the gurus’ explanations...

 

[ZePrez]

For the second day in a row, a delivery truck pulled up and then went away without dropping off my Golden Harvest-ish shoes. 45 minutes later they returned and said they forgot to deliver a package and handed it over. Immediate unboxing and photos were required.

View attachment 1606733 View attachment 1606734

At this point the remainder of my Florsheims were somewhat miffed at the new guy getting all of the attention. Time for a family shot and some individuals.

View attachment 1606735 View attachment 1606736 View attachment 1606738

So love your custom GH that I may invest in another pair of 93602 just for a similar project. Heck! same project, different cobblers... perhaps ... even then

 

[CWOyaji]

Hi

Trying to wrap my head around the “acrylic coating” on Shell Cordovan. Honest question: Is it how it’s universally treated?
II have 4 Shell Cordovan shoes (3 AE and one unknown, perhaps Hanover) and these don’t seem to have anything (plastic?) coating on. OTOH I have a CG shoe (AE) ...
waiting for the gurus’ explanations...

Alden puts a coating on shell, but I haven't seen that on other pairs I own or have sold, and that includes the brands you mention.

 

[stook1]

I definitely will check that blog out. Dang, someone got to it before me.
Edit: That's some incredible insights. Phew, it appears 70s and 80s distinctions is yet discovered. But my sample is small. I'll keep teasing for now until I could confirm if im on the right track

So I have some insight that I can share on the later 97625. I've now handled two pairs, an earlier pair and a later pair. I cannot for the life of me recollect the production year of the earlier pair but the were still v-cleat. At some point in the mid 90s they switched to a rubber heel.

In any event relative to each other the later pair (from 98) with the rubber heel lift and assembled in US markings on the lining are still quite well made. I'd still say that they are better than current AE primarily because of the stitch density and accuracy on the uppers. The SPI on the welt is clearly less than both the earlier 97625 and 93602.

Here is a pic of my old 97625s --- this is the earlier of the two pairs that still had the cleat. These are in near new condition. Note, this is not actually my pic. I snagged it from their new caretaker who's a great guy on the vintage facebook group.

Here is a similar visual of the 1998 97625 I happened to work on this morning. The difference on the welt SPI is actually kinda hard to tell from these pics but it's the first thing I noticed on the pair below. I was originally considering stripping these and coverting them to GH but I have decided to sell them instead since they are a bit long on me. Also, the base color of this pair is kind of dark and I wasn't confident that I could get a proper GH conversion with them.

As far as leather quality goes, it's a little hard to say since the first pair of 97625s are nearly new but the leather quality seems similar to me. Both of them have the higher contrast grain color, which seems to be much more common in these later pairs. I happen to like that color but it's less optimal for GH conversion, in my opinion.

Finally, this is the 93602 from my rotation that I have had for a while. They are, I am fairly certain, from 1984. Sorry, they could badly use a polish - I haven't worn them in a while. Why am I searching so hard for 2nd pair again, lol?!?!.. Anyway, just for comparative purposes. The leather on these is a little different than the newer pairs. Hard for me to say that one is significantly better than the other though. I think the 60s and 70s pairs may be a little better but I haven't tracked down a really nice pair (yet).

 

[smfdoc]

Several people have asked for instructions on creating some home made Golden Harvests. Happy to tell what I did, with no guarantees for your outcome.

Spoiler: GH instructions

The GH were not made in my size and creating my own seemed to be the only answer. I asked around and applied the instructions to my pair of 93602 shoes. First, obtain a pair of 93602 shoes and make sure they fit as you desire. No need to work on shoes that will not fit. These are the pair I received after a purchase on Ebay for $95.

They were dark, even though the photo is indoors. Lots of layers of polish. For better or worse I went straight to acetone for the striping. Get a can from Home Depot and it will run about $9 for a quart. Apply acetone to an area with a wool dauber and use a rag to GENTLY wipe off the polish and color. Do not rub hard. Here is the right shoe after the first stripping.

Why not rub the shoes with firmness? It can cause uneven stripping called "bald spots" and result in uneven dye absorption. I stripped both shoes three times. I then did the welts with acetone and a q-tip to expose the welt stitching. Here they are after that work. Expect all of this to take 2-3 hours. It's not a race. After all of the stripping they should full dry and then use a conditioner to restore moisture. I used several coats of Bick 4.

What about dyes? Full disclosure. I know next to nothing about dyes and shoe dying in particular. This means I took several clues and felt fortunate with the outcome. I used Feibing dyes, because that what someone said to use in the attempt. Get yellow, beige and DYE REDUCER. The reducer is needed to thin the dye, otherwise the yellow will be screaming YELLOW!

I also recommend getting some neutral leather and applying a little dye to see the results when dry.

Cover the welt with tape to avoid dying the welt stitches.

BUY RUBBER GLOVES!!! (Otherwise you hands will turn yellow and your spouse will laugh at you.)

The first coat of dye was about 60% reducer, 40% yellow and a drop of beige. I found beige will very quickly make the shoes too orange. The beige was not used at all on the second or third applications of dye. I recommend you do the first dye application and allow it to fully dry before you make any decisions about color. Look at them indoors and in the sun. You can then decide to apply more dye and if you want to alter the ratios. This was difficult for me as I have never seen an actual pair of GHs. I have only seen pictures and they are certainly not all the same. Work with them until you find a color that makes you happy. I did 3 coats of dye. The picture with the tape was after the first application that included the drop beige. I bumped the yellow slightly and by the end of the third session I felt they were what I wanted. I guess it was pretty close as the cobbler who later did the resole said I nailed it. Beginner's luck. This was the finished product.

I then had them resoled with JR leather, new welt and stitching and new mid sole.

 

[friendlygoz]

Loafers- it dawned on me that my J&M loafers fit my different width feet great though I don’t really know why. The lizard is too big. Maybe AE lasts just aren’t going to work for me. If your interested in the AE Clayton, PM me. 10.5D
View attachment 1606669

I’ve been wanting a pair of Claytons for a long time. Alas these are too big.

 

[friendlygoz]

For the second day in a row, a delivery truck pulled up and then went away without dropping off my Golden Harvest-ish shoes. 45 minutes later they returned and said they forgot to deliver a package and handed it over. Immediate unboxing and photos were required.

View attachment 1606733 View attachment 1606734

At this point the remainder of my Florsheims were somewhat miffed at the new guy getting all of the attention. Time for a family shot and some individuals.

View attachment 1606735 View attachment 1606736 View attachment 1606738

Might be time to take matters into your own hands and find them and bring them home yourself. Sometimes you just gotta do that.

 

[friendlygoz]

For the second day in a row, a delivery truck pulled up and then went away without dropping off my Golden Harvest-ish shoes. 45 minutes later they returned and said they forgot to deliver a package and handed it over. Immediate unboxing and photos were required.

View attachment 1606733 View attachment 1606734

At this point the remainder of my Florsheims were somewhat miffed at the new guy getting all of the attention. Time for a family shot and some individuals.

View attachment 1606735 View attachment 1606736 View attachment 1606738

No lie: those are some fo the best GH I’ve seen.

 

[sam67]

I’ve been wanting a pair of Claytons for a long time. Alas these are too big.

And I haven’t done anything to them. I may have said this but the right foot is tight and the left foot is loose

 

[sam67]

AE Brookwood received today. Mahogany scotch grain calf, 1994-1996. Received ‘wearing’ a lot of burgundy polish. Cleaned with renomat, renovateur, then a little saphir dark brown and mahogany polish.

 

[eTrojan]

That Bone marrow spread and clam dish look scrumptious.

My area still has prohibition on dine in. Even patio dining is a maybe this summer.

The clams were amazing. This was outside on the patio. No other table within 10 ft. It was very comfortable.

 

[JFWR]

For the second day in a row, a delivery truck pulled up and then went away without dropping off my Golden Harvest-ish shoes. 45 minutes later they returned and said they forgot to deliver a package and handed it over. Immediate unboxing and photos were required.

View attachment 1606733 View attachment 1606734

At this point the remainder of my Florsheims were somewhat miffed at the new guy getting all of the attention. Time for a family shot and some individuals.

View attachment 1606735 View attachment 1606736 View attachment 1606738

******* SEXY as HELL.

 

[smfdoc]

******* SEXY as HELL.

After the photos I felt the need to smoke a cigarette.

 

[CWOyaji]

Hanover for Stuart McGuire cognac shell LWBs. These are mint.