J&M shoes

Johnston and Murphy shoes?

Anyone like them...?

I used to sell shoes and clothing and for me (at least) seem to be very comfortable for the $.

Originally Posted by catman

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Johnston and Murphy shoes? Anyone like them...?
At the risk of being ridiculed by the many, many J&M haters in the forum, I'll admit that I have three pairs and I absolutely love them. That said, I have no experience with any of J&M's inexpensive lines. The shoes I bought were all priced above $250, and many J&M models sell for half that.

I have a pair of J&M captoes that I bought four years ago (when I was 17). They were $125. They have leather soles. I wear them to this day. None of the stitching anywhere on the shoe has worn out. I actually even accidentally spilled gasoline on the toe of one of them one day when the stupid gas pump spurted out unexpectedly. I cleaned them up, though, and besides the gasoline smell that lasted for a week, the leather still looks good.

I have two pair of J&M's, that were made in their old Tennessee production facility. Casual designs, from their "Passport" shoe series, purchased in the mid 1990's and they have been quite comfortable and still have considerable service left in them. The transfer of production overseas, has definitely resulted in a loss of quality in their more recent offerings!

I'm not a fan, but in years past they produced shoes of very decent quality.

I think that the only reason why the forum doesn't seem to favor JM shoes is because JMs are harder to find on sale or clearance where as it is common knowledge that Allen Edmonds can be had for $100-$150 quite easily. And the AE quality will trump the JM anyday (except maybe their fancy made in Italy shoes of which I have no experience).

J&M sees their future in providing Italian designs shoes which are made in Italy or Spain
They still provide 2-3 lines of American made shoes (the Aristocrats and Crown Aristrocrats)
The C.A. are very traditional designs...while the Aristocrats are still traditional but could find a place in a laywers or business man's wardrobe

Unfortunatley the C.A. are almost $400 and their semi-custom program which allows you to pick leathers in a design they usually don't offer and costs even more. Higher end shoes when on sale from other shoe makers can be bought at this price range.

I don't like their new Italian designed offerings. I've tried 5 of them about over the past 9 years.
The quality of the sole was poor and would wear away quickly causing ugly holes to form. Granted I'm tall and well fed which contributes to my quickly wearing away my soles

The stitcing of the lower sole was poor and the welting to the upper sole disappointing...consistently causing the sides of the shoe to become unstitched. The local cobbler would fix this when resoling the shoe...but at $100 on sale at their outlet stores...these shoe were easier to just recycle and buy new ones

I've now moved upscale but might consider an ultra-conservative black plain captoe Crown Aristocrat if the price is right at the outlet store

Originally Posted by catman

Click to expand...

Johnston and Murphy shoes?

Anyone like them...?

I used to sell shoes and clothing and for me (at least) seem to be very comfortable for the $.

Stick to the two aristocraft lines. even then, you can get a better shoe at the price range from AE or Alden, and the AE's are more likely to go on sale and have much more availablity.

I just recently picked up one pair of J&M white nubuck/suede wingtips off of ebay. They are nice, will get some summer wear.

I picked up 2 pairs of Aristocraft J&M's on Ebay. One was a medium used burgundy wingtip which has a great color and fits amazingly well. I will have to get it resoled sometime in the next 6 or so months but it has become my "go-to" shoe.

I also have a pair of Perforated Captoe Derbies in a medium brown which were probably only worn once. They are in fantastic shape and look great with jeans on the weekend. Cannot beat the price I paid for them and I've been very happy.

That said, I don't think I would ever shell out the $250+ for the Aristocraft line and instead would look for AE's or something else on sale.