Vintage Dress shoe appreciation, tips, maintenance and advice

[smfdoc]

Well at $967.32, they definitely won’t qualify for the challenge (unless @suitforcourt wants to grant an exception).

If money were no object, it would be funny to buy a pair, do a great restoration and then return them to Church’s and ask for a refund because they were insufficiently distressed.

 

[tcbinnc]

So I will say it first. I thought that blucher and derby are the same thing.

Can you give me the low down on this? The new thing that I will learn today.

On googling it last night, I thought I had the difference down. For about 20 seconds. Then read some other explanations and lost it again.

 

[friendlygoz]

Can you post some pics of your Hartt custom grade? Soles, interiors and such?

Those boots are gorgeous and holy smokes those trees are crazy.

However, I have to bring this up (as a Lobb’s customer [I have a single pair of bespoke shoes that I had made in London about 11 or so years ago]): What the hell are those sneakers and crap that I see behind the boots?!??

Wait... I said nothing about the most noteworthy part of your post. You have a pair of JL bespoke?! Wow. That’s not just a pair of shoes. It’s an experience. Let’s see them.

 

[M635Guy]

Not sure if this was already posted, but below is a fun video of Soleman Buffalo fixing up a pair of Florsheim Imperial 93602.

Dig the video. The music...

 

[Oshare]

I'm really trying to love this old pair of 93606s I bought on eBay at the start of April.

I really love their shape.
The "just right" roundness and curves from the toe to the waist.
The smooth and soft feel of the leather to the touch.

And I realize I'm talking about an old pair of shoes like a beautiful woman...

Today I thought I'd take them out for proper a date.
Until now I had only walked to the street corner in them a couple of times, and lamented how "mushy" they felt -- like my foot was getting no support from the uppers, and just laying on top of the leather sole by itself.

But today was their chance to prove themselves -- a full day out to see if we could really live together after all.

A relationship often involves seeing past idealistic beliefs of how things "should be" and accepting the other for who or what they are. With these 93606s I think I can get past the mushy feeling. They are pretty comfortable after all.

The deer bone treatment is, in the end, very temporary. I knew the rolls would come back, but the creases also go back to being rough and gritty looking again in no time. Oh well.


Half way through the day, I stopped to snap another photo for the shoe pr0n...... What the?
What's that orange powder on the toes? I didn't walk through any dusty areas.

My guess is that the cork bed is disintegrating, and the shoe is coughing up orange powder from between the uppers and the welt. Anyone seen this sort of thing before?

I'm really wondering if I should try to keep them and send them for a full recrafting... kind of like a face lift and bottom tuck.

Or just sell them on as old beaters... kind of like dumping the relationship and moving on.

I guess love doesn't come easy... or cheap, after all.

 

[actionjbone]

Half way through the day, I stopped to snap another photo for the shoe pr0n...... What the?
What's that orange powder on the toes? I didn't walk through any dusty areas.

View attachment 1198684


My guess is that the cork bed is disintegrating, and the shoe is coughing up orange powder from between the uppers and the welt. Anyone seen this sort of thing before?

View attachment 1198685

I've got an old pair of Florsheims that does that. And I agree, it's got to be the old cork.

Good news is it goes away the more you wear them. One spot on mine has stopped, and another spot does it way less now that I've worn them a bunch.

 

[wasmisterfu]

Wait... I said nothing about the most noteworthy part of your post. You have a pair of JL bespoke?! Wow. That’s not just a pair of shoes. It’s an experience. Let’s see them.

I have a number of noteworthy non-vintage shoes, including a couple of pair of Alden shell (one of which I’ve never even worn) along with NiB AE’s. Problem is, they’re all buried (stacked in shoe boxes, behind more shoe boxes, behind other shoe boxes, behind garment bags). And I gotta do maintenance on all of them. I’ll buckle down and unload the closet one of these days and do a photo parade (and shoe maintenance... which nowadays, I gotta admit that between kids and business, has become a bit overwhelming).

As for the Lobb experience, well, it’s stupidly expensive and like all things bespoke, time consuming. They’re very beautifully made, but given the custom lasting, I was expecting more on the comfort front. That said, I’ve only worn them a few times, so I might be the problem for not having broken them in (but I feel like they weren’t significantly better, out-of-box, than a properly fitting pair of 7 last AE’s). That first pair is brutally expensive, yes the price goes down after your first pair, but it’s still brutal and I’ll likely only ever have one pair. Finally, not that Lobb doesn’t make beautiful shoes, but if I were to recommend anything regarding English bespoke shoes, it’d be to go with shops like Templeman or Cleverley, as they make shoes just as well (possibly better) for quite a bit less, as they don’t have the broad brand recognition of Lobb.

 

[wasmisterfu]

I'm really trying to love this old pair of 93606s I bought on eBay at the start of April.

I really love their shape.
The "just right" roundness and curves from the toe to the waist.
The smooth and soft feel of the leather to the touch.

And I realize I'm talking about an old pair of shoes like a beautiful woman...

View attachment 1198682

Today I thought I'd take them out for proper a date.
Until now I had only walked to the street corner in them a couple of times, and lamented how "mushy" they felt -- like my foot was getting no support from the uppers, and just laying on top of the leather sole by itself.

But today was their chance to prove themselves -- a full day out to see if we could really live together after all.

View attachment 1198683

A relationship often involves seeing past idealistic beliefs of how things "should be" and accepting the other for who or what they are. With these 93606s I think I can get past the mushy feeling. They are pretty comfortable after all.

The deer bone treatment is, in the end, very temporary. I knew the rolls would come back, but the creases also go back to being rough and gritty looking again in no time. Oh well.


Half way through the day, I stopped to snap another photo for the shoe pr0n...... What the?
What's that orange powder on the toes? I didn't walk through any dusty areas.

View attachment 1198684


My guess is that the cork bed is disintegrating, and the shoe is coughing up orange powder from between the uppers and the welt. Anyone seen this sort of thing before?

View attachment 1198685


I'm really wondering if I should try to keep them and send them for a full recrafting... kind of like a face lift and bottom tuck.

Or just sell them on as old beaters... kind of like dumping the relationship and moving on.

I guess love doesn't come easy... or cheap, after all.

The creases don’t look too bad at all (IMHO). The orange dust, however, is weird. I don’t think that’s coming from the cork bed.

 

[wasmisterfu]

I've got an old pair of Florsheims that does that. And I agree, it's got to be the old cork.

Good news is it goes away the more you wear them. One spot on mine has stopped, and another spot does it way less now that I've worn them a bunch.

Now I gotta go look at the toes of my Florsheim’s to see if this is happening to my pairs.

I take back my earlier comment, I guess it most likely is cork dust. I didn’t think the color war right, but I went back to my Dastardly Dexter Dissection pictures and, sure enough, that color looks right:

 

[eTrojan]

If you can grab these, please do. And then we can have twin days!

Not sure the aspiration is twinsie days with a Canuck barrister, but we’ll know in about 24 hours whether my low ball snipe is sufficient to carry the day. In a 13 AA, it usually is.

 

[CWOyaji]

Didn't even need to soak these to bring them back!

AE Fifth Ave 11 1/2 C

 

[friendlygoz]

Didn't even need to soak these to bring them back!
View attachment 1198737
AE Fifth Ave 11 1/2 C
View attachment 1198739

Nice!

 

[friendlygoz]

I have a number of noteworthy non-vintage shoes, including a couple of pair of Alden shell (one of which I’ve never even worn) along with NiB AE’s. Problem is, they’re all buried (stacked in shoe boxes, behind more shoe boxes, behind other shoe boxes, behind garment bags). And I gotta do maintenance on all of them. I’ll buckle down and unload the closet one of these days and do a photo parade (and shoe maintenance... which nowadays, I gotta admit that between kids and business, has become a bit overwhelming).

As for the Lobb experience, well, it’s stupidly expensive and like all things bespoke, time consuming. They’re very beautifully made, but given the custom lasting, I was expecting more on the comfort front. That said, I’ve only worn them a few times, so I might be the problem for not having broken them in (but I feel like they weren’t significantly better, out-of-box, than a properly fitting pair of 7 last AE’s). That first pair is brutally expensive, yes the price goes down after your first pair, but it’s still brutal and I’ll likely only ever have one pair. Finally, not that Lobb doesn’t make beautiful shoes, but if I were to recommend anything regarding English bespoke shoes, it’d be to go with shops like Templeman or Cleverley, as they make shoes just as well (possibly better) for quite a bit less, as they don’t have the broad brand recognition of Lobb.

Well, I’m impressed. I’ll probably stick to buying used vintage shoes and live vicariously through you.

 

[davidVC]

So the welt, if there is one (which at least in the picture there appears to be one), has no outsole to welt stitch (just glue holds the sole in place); but the welt itself is still sewn to the rib. All the stitching is internal and hidden. Again, I’ve seen it once before, twice if @davidVC confirms he had such a pair (I could have sworn we had a post about just such shoes a year ago).

Yes, I had a pair of FootJoy that had the sole glued. Very disappointing when the sole came apart. I wouldn't buy another vintage pair with similar construction.

 

[suitforcourt]

Not sure the aspiration is twinsie days with a Canuck barrister, but we’ll know in about 24 hours whether my low ball snipe is sufficient to carry the day. In a 13 AA, it usually is.

Come on! Twinsy with a cool shoe enthusiast!

Wearing my pair today.