Vintage Dress shoe appreciation, tips, maintenance and advice

[Nobleprofessor]

Forgive me for not pawing through the thousands of pages on this thread, but I’m curious about all y’all’s experiences with obtaining your vintage shoes. I’d lurked on this thread before, but not much. And then I found these wingtip Foot Joys at a thrift store just a couple weeks ago (I posted about those relatively recently). Now I find myself wanting to find more treasures like that. Sure, I could buy vintage shoes on eBay and whatnot, but it seems like such a score to find these killer old shoes for like $10 sitting on a shelf somewhere, especially if there’s a bit of a cleanup job involved. I’m wondering how many of you have felt/are feeling what I am right now? I just want to scour every thrift store I can and hopefully find myself some shell cordovan in my size or something.

Can’t win if you don’t play,as they say!—like many here,I’ve certainly found my share of scores in the thrift stores. My best finds include early 50’s Bostonian Denny Murray half brogues,1967 Florsheim 93606’s and some crazy green Nettleton alligator slip ons-all for under $8. However,95% of the time you will wade through a sludge heap of square toed plastic atrocities in 10 different shops before coming across one decent pair of Dexters that don’t fit you. Unless you’re @CWOyaji and seem to constantly find bespoke Lobbs with your initials already in them(ok,exaggerating a bit),the thrift route is to play the long game. But to address the original observation,yes,the feeling you get from that first satisfying score definitely leads to our delightful addiction! -that said,no shame in a great eBay find. It also requires diligence,unless you have a good shoe pal looking out for you and giving you the hot tip as I will show next

In my opinion, success in thrifting depends on the demographics of the area you're looking in and persistence. The ideal thrift store is on the edge of a wealthy area where the donors aren't laser focused on the value of what they're giving away and the thrifters don't know the value of what they see on the shelf or rack. Bonus points if the people working in the store aren't incentivized to mark up valuable items or cull them to send to a "boutique" store where they'll get marked up. I'm pretty omnivorous when I thrift so if I see something in apparel or electronics that'll sell for a good price, I'll pick it up. It's not only shoes. But yeah I've been lucky and found a lot good pairs, some in my size, and am happy to post about those finds. Hopefully the low price tag info isn't too off-putting but I want to show newcomers what's out there if they keep at it and yes, brag a little.

I don't visit thrift stores regularly like @CWOyaji or have his luck.

On occasion I find stuff for myself, or find pairs to flip for a small profit. Instead of profit margins, I consider thrifting a hobby and extension of my shoe interest. It makes each visit more fun.

Also, I spend an inordinate amount of time scouring ebay. E-thrifting can be just as exciting. I've secured vintage shell in my size for less than $50. I've also been lucky to hit listings with typos or mislabelled by seller. The rush from these purchases is just as good for me.

And because the regulars here have memorized each other's sizes (I.e. I DM'd @Thomas Crown directly about those jodpur AE pair), we are also looking out for each other.

I hope that when I retire in 24 years, I will have a daily routine of hitting several thrift shops everyday and turning this into serious side hustle. It will keep me busy and active.

Enjoy the journey and welcome.

I have found great finds at thrift stores — including some really RARE pairs. But, I have also had really good luck with estate sales. At the sales where an old guy had lots of clothes and shoes, I usually find a few vintage pair of Florsheim. It all depends on the expertise of the Estate Sale company. Some will have done very little to price shoes and there will be a sign that says shoes $5 or $10. Other times, shoes are priced individually. Many times in those cases the newer crappy pair of Cole Haan’s are priced at $20 and the old Florsheim are $5. In the rare case where there are lot of quality shoes with boxes and trees, newer shoes are almost always priced higher. I bought a pair of AE Grayson that were NOS for $5. The other pairs for sale were New Nunn Bush and other modern junk in the boxes and they were $25.

The other great resource is here and on eBay. We have one of the very best sellers on here — @vestbash. He has a huge inventory and is great to work with. Once he knows what you like and your size, you will be thrilled with what he finds. There are also several others on here that are sort of informal sellers.

 

[Nobleprofessor]

These started out life in 1975 as Florsheim 93602. Over the years they became much darker than I wanted. I don’t know if someone dyed them or it was just age and excess polish. I decided to return them to a more typical color. Then, I realized these would make a great candidate for a tribute to Weathered Moss. So, this is my homemade version of 93630 or 93633. It’s a little off, but I still like them. It’s pretty hard to beat a vintage Florsheim LWB in any color!

 

[smfdoc]

These started out life in 1975 as Florsheim 93602. Over the years they became much darker than I wanted. I don’t know if someone dyed them or it was just age and excess polish. I decided to return them to a more typical color. Then, I realized these would make a great candidate for a tribute to Weathered Moss. So, this is my homemade version of 93630 or 93633. It’s a little off, but I still like them. It’s pretty hard to beat a vintage Florsheim LWB in any color!

View attachment 1795907 View attachment 1795908

A great effort at hitting the color. Did you have an example to view or did you use pictures? Either way, it would be nice to know what dye and colors you used.

 

[Nobleprofessor]

A great effort at hitting the color. Did you have an example to view or did you use pictures? Either way, it would be nice to know what dye and colors you used.

I started out with 93602 that were very dark. Then, I used alcohol to clean a lot of gunk off. Then, I conditioned and let them rest for a while. They were still Pretty dark. So, I used acetone and get them back to original or close. I sanded the edges and then conditioned and let them rest again. A week later, I used Fiebings Kelly green and Fiebings medium brown. First I mixed a little together. It wasn’t green enough. Then, I used the Kelly Green again, but I put it on and waited 10 seconds or so and wiped it off. It took two tries to get it.

Then, after resting for a day, I used VSC VERY lightly and gently to sort of touch all the edges where a dye would typically wear to sort of patina them. Then, I used Saphir neutral cream to condition and polish. I wish they were SLIGHTLY less green because I was going for Weathered Moss rather than Forest.

The pictures make them look more green. In person they are more muted.

 

[suitforcourt]

Taking a break before dinner and an evening of meetings. Resting at the local man made lake and then will watch a pick up b-ball game.

These are Florsheim by John McHale. Gary Coakley rebuilt with new welts, JR soles, toe taps, and cat paw heels. Just short the grommets for the K package.

 

[CWOyaji]

If anyone is interested, I saved my spreadsheet in Google Sheets as 'Vintage Shoe Thread Tracker'. Have a look and if you want the link, send me a PM. I populated this with my core 60 pair collection. It generates a brand pie chart and tallies where the shoes came from and whether they're vintage. I define vintage as >25 years old.

A bunch more rows, then tabs at the bottom for pivot tables:

Brand and Material:

I don't have some styles (e.g. spectators), but you can add them and it'll tell you how many and what they're made of:

And colors:

 

[ojaw]

If anyone is interested, I saved my spreadsheet in Google Sheets as 'Vintage Shoe Thread Tracker'. Have a look and if you want the link, send me a PM. I populated this with my core 60 pair collection. It generates a brand pie chart and tallies where the shoes came from and whether they're vintage. I define vintage as >25 years old.
View attachment 1796125

A bunch more rows, then tabs at the bottom for pivot tables:
View attachment 1796130

Brand and Material:
View attachment 1796126

I don't have some styles (e.g. spectators), but you can add them and it'll tell you how many and what they're made of:
View attachment 1796128
And colors:
View attachment 1796129

wowsers

 

[suitforcourt]

wowsers

Tell me you're a shoe geek, without telling me you're a shoe geek

 

[friendlygoz]

Sharkskin AE Warton.

 

[friendlygoz]

If anyone is interested, I saved my spreadsheet in Google Sheets as 'Vintage Shoe Thread Tracker'. Have a look and if you want the link, send me a PM. I populated this with my core 60 pair collection. It generates a brand pie chart and tallies where the shoes came from and whether they're vintage. I define vintage as >25 years old.
View attachment 1796125

A bunch more rows, then tabs at the bottom for pivot tables:
View attachment 1796130

Brand and Material:
View attachment 1796126

I don't have some styles (e.g. spectators), but you can add them and it'll tell you how many and what they're made of:
View attachment 1796128
And colors:
View attachment 1796129

Impressive.

 

[isshinryu101]

Forgive me for not pawing through the thousands of pages on this thread, but I’m curious about all y’all’s experiences with obtaining your vintage shoes. I’d lurked on this thread before, but not much. And then I found these wingtip Foot Joys at a thrift store just a couple weeks ago (I posted about those relatively recently). Now I find myself wanting to find more treasures like that. Sure, I could buy vintage shoes on eBay and whatnot, but it seems like such a score to find these killer old shoes for like $10 sitting on a shelf somewhere, especially if there’s a bit of a cleanup job involved. I’m wondering how many of you have felt/are feeling what I am right now? I just want to scour every thrift store I can and hopefully find myself some shell cordovan in my size or something.

Most of the real vintage pairs (pre-1960) are gone, and even 60’s are getting more and more rare. It is a finite number of pairs that were produced. 15 years ago, there were a TON of pairs to be found on eBay. Lotsa 40’s pairs. 5 years before that we still lots of 20’s and 30’s pairs.

 

[isshinryu101]

Taking a break before dinner and an evening of meetings. Resting at the local man made lake and then will watch a pick up b-ball game.

These are Florsheim by John McHale. Gary Coakley rebuilt with new welts, JR soles, toe taps, and cat paw heels. Just short the grommets for the K package.

View attachment 1795992 View attachment 1795993 View attachment 1795994 View attachment 1795995

FYI, there is no such thing as “Florsheim by McHale”. Except for the very first pairs made after Florsheim purchased McHale, they are Florsheim shoes being made in a former McHale factory. Materials, quality control, all that was made to Florsheim standards.

 

[suitforcourt]

#shortwingthursday

John McHale short wing gunboats. I'm going to have a cobbler install toe taps, sole protectors, and cat paw heels to make them versatile. Maybe convert them into spectators?

 

[Nobleprofessor]

There are mixed blessings to having a large shoe collection (some would argue too many). One negative is sometimes I forget about a pair because I can’t keep all of them in one closet. However, the positive side is when I do pull out a pair I haven’t worn in a while, it’s a great surprise and almost a “rediscovery.”

That’s what happened with these AE Shark Shelton Saddle. They are vintage depending on how broad your definition of vintage. Either way, I figured this group would appreciate them.

 

[hamercha]

Have you noticed any minor fit differences across your 8 pairs. I currently have 1 pair of each but I have had another couple of pairs of 93602s in the past. I am about to resell my 97625s since they are a hair narrow for me. I should caution that they are a width narrower than my ideal size in Florsheim. However, I have worn this size in much more heavily worn in 93602s in the past. My 97625s are almost new so I am not sure if there is a slight size difference, it's a wear issue, or just unit variation irrespective of model.

I haven't noticed a leather thickness difference, although I have to admit that I hadn't thought to compare. The 97625s seem to more commonly have great color depth in the grain, which I am quite fond of.

I have 3 97625 in exact same size and width (all 3E). One 3E is much narrower, closer to E.