Vintage Dress shoe appreciation, tips, maintenance and advice

[suitforcourt]

American made Nettletons paired with Canadian made hemp selvedge to end a very warm and humid weekend.

I hope you all had a great weekend.

 

[VAvintagewatches]

This morning, styleforum wouldn't load for several hours. Or it seemed like several hours. I thought it was the last sign before the beginning of the apocalypse.

That puzzled me too. I suspect it was routine maintenance, but for a bit there I was also contemplating the end of all things.

 

[Quantum17]

Earlier in the summer I picked up this pair of 1950's shell John McHale Bluchers (thanks for the hot horse tip Quan!). Historically shell was seldom used in Canadian shoemaking. Prior to finding this pair I had never seen another dating prior to 1960. Post the Florsheim purchase of McHale in 1959, McHale did produce a few pairs in the 60's and 70's, but even those are few and far between and seem to have been special orders rather than a stock list item.

In discussing this pair with Brett Viberg, we wondered if the shell used might have been Horween. Brett kindly contacted Chip Horween and he went through their archive to look for shipments to Canada. Horween only made 4 small shipments to Canada, all to Dacks; one in 1935, two in 1952 and one in 1953. Now I am on the look out for those 1950's pairs of shell Dacks!!

This pair by McHales date to the early 50's, and were made for sale at Fairmount Fine shoes in Sudbury (photo below). Sudbury is a major mining centre, and was populated with American mining executives in the 1950's. I wonder if there is a connection. The 1960's and 70's shell McHales that I have seen were sold in Calgary, an oil town full of American executives.

The advert is from 1953 and shows this style, the Raglan Blucher, but not in shell.

View attachment 1679202 View attachment 1679203 View attachment 1679204 View attachment 1679205 View attachment 1679206

I went through the length of the Canadian thread, and could not find a sample of 60s McHale shell, let alone a pair from the 50s. Even more interesting to see that pair ended up in Nigeria. I am glad the prince reached out to me earlier that morning to discuss some unrelated urgent financial business; somehow, the shoes intervened in our conversation, and so here they are, back to Canada. I suspect it'll travel to Florida eventually (wink wink)

 

[JFWR]

I've been looking at this pair of vintage shoes for sale but they have a scrape on the inside of the right shoe, otherwise they're in good condition. I don't know how much can be done to make it less noticeable or if the scrape would even be noticeable when worn as they are.

Any recommendations on what to do to these, or should I pass on them?

View attachment 1679153 View attachment 1679154 View attachment 1679155 View attachment 1679156

Thanks!

This seems like something you could fix with renovatrice from Saphir.

 

[Quantum17]

This seller has had some great finds. I could swear he's on SF, but couldn't remember whom that'd be.

Florsheim Imperial 93639 12 C Chestnut Kenmoor Longwing Gunboat 1970 VERY RARE | eBay

Very rare and collectible Florsheim longwing “variant” from the late 1960s, model 93639 (Chestnut), size 12C. Original 5 nail leather soles with v-cleat heels. V-cleat on edge of heel and date code BK = 1970.

www.ebay.com

 

[VAvintagewatches]

Wow. Just got to the point in my read-through of this thread where COVID suddenly hit everyone's radar. Crazy to look back a year and a half later, it feels like yesterday. But since then I've graduated high school, started college, gotten a job and my driver's license... and become deeply obsessed with shoes.

 

[happypebble]

Wow. Just got to the point in my read-through of this thread where COVID suddenly hit everyone's radar. Crazy to look back a year and a half later, it feels like yesterday. But since then I've graduated high school, started college, gotten a job and my driver's license... and become deeply obsessed with shoes.

Buy more shoes. No, we don't enable around here. Buy more shoes

 

[JFWR]

Buy more shoes. No, we don't enable around here. Buy more shoes

No, no, no. Buy a lot more shoes.

 

[suitforcourt]

No, no, no. Buy a lot more shoes.

Friendly reminder that our group motto is: If it fits, it ships.

 

[JFWR]

Friendly reminder that our group motto is: If it fits, it ships.

Exactly.

You can't sleep on vintage as all these things are becoming rarer and rarer. Might as well buy now, worry about the credit card statement later.

 

[stook1]

Earlier in the summer I picked up this pair of 1950's shell John McHale Bluchers (thanks for the hot horse tip Quan!). Historically shell was seldom used in Canadian shoemaking. Prior to finding this pair I had never seen another dating prior to 1960. Post the Florsheim purchase of McHale in 1959, McHale did produce a few pairs in the 60's and 70's, but even those are few and far between and seem to have been special orders rather than a stock list item.

In discussing this pair with Brett Viberg, we wondered if the shell used might have been Horween. Brett kindly contacted Chip Horween and he went through their archive to look for shipments to Canada. Horween only made 4 small shipments to Canada, all to Dacks; one in 1935, two in 1952 and one in 1953. Now I am on the look out for those 1950's pairs of shell Dacks!!

This pair by McHales date to the early 50's, and were made for sale at Fairmount Fine shoes in Sudbury (photo below). Sudbury is a major mining centre, and was populated with American mining executives in the 1950's. I wonder if there is a connection. The 1960's and 70's shell McHales that I have seen were sold in Calgary, an oil town full of American executives.

The advert is from 1953 and shows this style, the Raglan Blucher, but not in shell.

View attachment 1679202 View attachment 1679203 View attachment 1679204 View attachment 1679205 View attachment 1679206

Amazing pair of shoes!

 

[smfdoc]

Happy Monday forum pals. It's a rare day where I get to dress professionally and hit the road. My son has a travel day to see a few clients and invited me along for the ride. I figured that I should leave the bib overalls and straw hat at home. With a little rain in the forecast I chose my 96624 Florsheims. These gunboats can handle the puddles.

 

[ccpl14]

My (admittedly kind of beat up) Golden Harvest today:

 

[NotJeffBagwell]

Hi. I'm the guy who is trying to gussy up his vintage, newly-purchased 93602s (so I can run with you guys - the big dogs).

Regarding the insole, I hydrated it (per CWOyaji) and rubber cemented it back in (per CWOyaji and smfdoc), resulting in success.

Hit them up with Bick Leather Cleaner and then Saphir Renovateur.

Here's what they look like now -

Question: Is this roughly the shade that 93602s "should" look?

In respect to shade, they look lighter than, say, photos of 93602s on vcleat.com -

- but darker than photos of 93602s I've seen elsewhere, such as Silver13gt's (as posted on page 2722 of this thread).

Question: If I'm trying to get my pair darker, would I hit it up with some sort of Saphir cream polish? If so, what color would you recommend?

If I'm trying to get them lighter like Silver13gt's (those look awesome btw, Silver13gt), would I give them the Saphir Renomat treatment or some such?

Thanks,
AbsolutelyNotJeffBagwell

 

[CWOyaji]

I Like Saphir Havana Light Tobacco Brown, but here are some other Saphir colors. Dark brown for brogueing and toe tips if you want.

First though I’d try rubbing Clorox 2 (not regular bleach) in the welts to brighten up the contrast stitching. Rinse with lots of water. I use Qtips and keep going in the grooves to clean them, gently so you don't fray the threads.

Oh and I suggest you mask off the welts while you put the polish on, so they don’t get smudged.