English Shoe Durability in Practice

Well, for the 6 hours that my Edward Greens have seen use, they've performed admirably.

Originally Posted by archetypal_yuppie

Click to expand...

Yeah. Unforch allen-edmonds and alden are butt ugly and poorly finished, in my opinion.

NYC really is a disaster for shoes though. it sucks. rainy days are 'gamo days now

I agree, I've noticed that my shoes with nails in the toe along with a combination heel wear the longest.

My english cordovan loafers were very hard on the toe, with toe taps added they're very hard-wearing.

So far my favorite brand for hearty wear is the Italian made Polo shoes.

That "shoes with character" thread was great, btw

My AEs (Park Avenues and McAllisters) feel more durable than my sole pair of C&J Handgrades (Audleys).

My Audleys just feel delicate by comparison - I feel like the price difference is largely due to more supple leather + finer construction details, but rather the AE is a more robust shoe. That said, I understand the tanning process for the handgrades yields longer lasting soles, so they should go further before needing their first resole.

"feel" more durable may have no correlation with "are" more durable, but OK.

Originally Posted by archetypal_yuppie

Click to expand...

One of the main reasons people give for buying english shoes like C&J or EG is that they're supposed to last longer due to goodyear welt, good leather soles, etc.

I once owned a pair of black Blundstone boots, which accompanied me across continents, into tropical jungles, up on snowy mountains, and to my casual ex-workplace. I wore them almost everyday for five years (yeah, yeah) and they still looked fairly new.

One day, the soles finally fell apart. I was aghast when I found out they could not be resoled. Five years of amazing memories in those boots.

They are the main reason I started buying English shoes. I don't see many Goodyear-welted shoes with full-grain uppers in the market; English shoemakers have tons of them.

I don't ever want to be forced to throw away a pair of shoes I love, again.

Originally Posted by Max MY

Click to expand...

I don't ever want to be forced to throw away a pair of shoes I love, again.

i can understand the misery you went through...

Cool. Have never heard of Blundstone...

Originally Posted by archetypal_yuppie

Click to expand...

Cool. Have never heard of Blundstone...

http://www.blundstoneusa.com/brand.asp

Originally Posted by archetypal_yuppie

Click to expand...

"feel" more durable may have no correlation with "are" more durable, but OK.

Acknowledged, but as we're talking about luxury/premium shoes there's going to be some difficulty in discerning durability no matter how you slice it. If you want direct experience, the trend will be for people to treat their EGs/C&Js with more care than their lower end shoes.

I don't go in for dress shoes. However, I have one pair of English shoes made of thick country grain leather that have the dainite rubber soles and storm welts and I find they wear very well. I have worn them in fall-winter-spring for 5 years most days. They could use new soles, soon. I use a natural preservative that I mix with polish to make them as water-tight as possible.

I'm not sure what i would compare them to? It took quite a while to break them in.

You can get more wear out of them because they look better as they age. You can resole indefinitely. Also, once you get the bug you will have lots in your rotation which makes them appear last even longer. If you go for classic lasts the styling won't date either.

Originally Posted by Gutman

Click to expand...

You can resole indefinitely.
But wasn't there a thread recently where it was discussed that the major manufacturers have a limited number of resoles... like only 2-4 times max, and then they refuse to work on the shoe any further. I know that DW took alot of flack for his whole gemming critique for RTW shoes but it seems like it could lend some credence to structural integrity vs. # of resoles a good shoe can take.

Most of the famed UK/EU brands are some 2x cost of Alden shells;

Click to expand...

not in a real sense.

Alden Shell shoes sell on the secondary market (ebay, buy/sell) for very close to the price of C&J, Trickers, etc...and in some cases cheaper than EG.

there are G&G shoes (retail $1350) sitting on Buy/Sell right now with an asking price of $500, unsold. EG's were selling for $450 or $500 recently

the famed brands have retail prices that are 2x as much but on the open market dont sell for that much more.

Originally Posted by brandall10

Click to expand...

But wasn't there a thread recently where it was discussed that the major manufacturers have a limited number of resoles... like only 2-4 times max, and then they refuse to work on the shoe any further.

Church's will do 3 resoles, need to find out their Royal Collection. From what I have read about Edward Green, it seems like 5.

There are quality cobblers out there, that could resole the shoes after the shoe-makers refuse to do any more work. For example James Taylor, who specialise bespoke orthopaedic shoes, do external repair work and although they do not have the last, they do a good quality job; they are more expensive than Church's and C&J for resoles (£90).