Vintage Dress shoe appreciation, tips, maintenance and advice

[wasmisterfu]

I don't have any. Well, correction: I have a pair of PC Polos that I spilled acetone on while stripping the PC coating from a pair of Danbury.

What a wicked web we weave.

These things happen.

I mean they don't happen to normal people, but they do happen to us.

 

[suitforcourt]

Well, I know from a teardown perspective, they don't differ much from a current-era AE or Alden: leatherboard heel stack, 270 GYW construction, glued gemming for the rib, leather insole. They're not even remotely worth the money, given you can have better constructed Alden shell for the price of their Polished Binder (aka Polished Cobbler) stuff. For 900 to a 1000+ bucks, at least give me a leather heel stack. I'm not asking for hand fashioned holdfasts and hand welting, but I do expect something better than a leatherboard heel stack for something that costs over a 1000 freaking dollars.

IMHO, you want an English shoe, but don't want to get ripped off, I'd pick C&J every time over Church's (or EG's ready made line, for that matter).

CJ and EG are for moneybags like you. The rest of us peasants are thrifting and saving our nickles and dimes.

 

[Nealjpage]

CJ and EG are for moneybags like you. The rest of us peasants are thrifting and saving our nickles and dimes.

Gotta get you some higher profile clients. If you put your mind to it I bet you could be the Canadian Johnnie Cochran.

 

[wasmisterfu]

CJ and EG are for moneybags like you. The rest of us peasants are thrifting and saving our nickles and dimes.

Clarification, I was saying C&J over EG's ready made stuff (as they are also into corner cutting nowadays). I only have one pair of boring C&J captoes (and they're not handgrade, just the regular mass-produced stuff). I haven't worn them in years because, despite being beautifully made, they developed very bad heel slip and I never got around to remediating the issue.

 

[friendlygoz]

Did someone say Dack’s camel shortwings?

 

[friendlygoz]

Preston Soto put on video advice he game me about wax polish on shell. It works wonders. My 93605s would not shine at all until I tried this. Now they pop.

 

[Oshare]

Preston Soto put on video advice he game me about wax polish on shell. It works wonders. My 93605s would not shine at all until I tried this. Now they pop.

View attachment 1625074

I've done that a few times also, including putting wax on the vamps. Normally the advice is to not do that because the wax will show ugly cracks, but on shell I never noticed any cracking of the wax.

How do yours look after a bit of walking?

 

[friendlygoz]

I've done that a few times also, including putting wax on the vamps. Normally the advice is to not do that because the wax will show ugly cracks, but on shell I never noticed any cracking of the wax.

How do yours look after a bit of walking?

Same. I applied a thin layer and there are no ugly cracks at all.the picture about if after wearing them for about 5 hours.

 

[Oshare]

Clarification, I was saying C&J over EG's ready made stuff (as they are also into corner cutting nowadays). I only have one pair of boring C&J captoes (and they're not handgrade, just the regular mass-produced stuff). I haven't worn them in years because, despite being beautifully made, they developed very bad heel slip and I never got around to remediating the issue.

For modern day stuff, I agree that C&J is hard to beat for value. They are not cheap for sure, but they are still quality shoes. While you can get cheaper GYW shoes from a variety of makers today, the leather quality is really the differentiator. Even Church's (at a similar price point to C&J) uses lower quality leather from what I see.

Of course, vintage is still #1.

 

[Oshare]

Did someone say "camel"?
Hartt camel skin PTDs during a respite from the ongoing rainy season.

 

[eTrojan]

Agree with you on the negative impact of Prada on the brand’s previously noble identity. That said, my understanding is that the quality and design of many of their higher end/”Custom Grade” traditional dress shoes is still quite high; they are just a much smaller percentage of the brand’s sales now. My two favorite pairs of dress shoes are Florsheim 93605’s, and Church’s LWB on the legendary 73 last. Both manufactured in the early 80’s, and both perfection in their respective niches.

I'm not sure I've seen the Church's LWB. I have three pairs of shortwings from Church's in various flavors, but nary a longwing.

 

[Oshare]

@CWOyaji Can you actually stretch shell 2 widths?

 

[friendlygoz]

Did someone say "camel"?
Hartt camel skin PTDs during a respite from the ongoing rainy season.

View attachment 1625082

boom goes the dynamite! Those are awesome.

 

[wasmisterfu]

Same. I applied a thin layer and there are no ugly cracks at all.the picture about if after wearing them for about 5 hours.

You can use wax on vamps, no problem. You just need to use a thin layer (don’t try to mirror up your vamp, lol). Never had issues with cracking or the like.

 

[CWOyaji]

@Oshare I've done it for all these pairs: 93605s on the top, 97626 below. 13B to fit 13D.

Wait, the J&M shortwings on the left are 13B so that makes it four times. Pair on the right are 13C. This is why I’m now a retired vintage shoe collector.