Vintage Dress shoe appreciation, tips, maintenance and advice

[Humpty_Dumpty_Rises]

Lovely leather and finish on these Hush Puppies loafers. Dainite styled sole has a 'hush puppies' marking to add that extra touch

 

[Raimar]

Catch and release Knapp. I don't see many of this vintage brand but it looks like ebay has plenty for sale.

 

[Letric]

Been working on more pairs and these may be vintage?

Never found this brand/maker before and don't know much. Soles appear to be original but they don't say "Made in England" anywhere. Anyone familiar with Ducker & Son?:

 

[Satoman1]

Been working on more pairs and these may be vintage?

Never found this brand/maker before and don't know much. Soles appear to be original but they don't say "Made in England" anywhere. Anyone familiar with Ducker & Son?:

They sell RTW shoes at many price points and are all made by shoemakers from Northampton (Loake,Grenson, Alfred Sargent, C&J,Edward Green,...). They also make their own shoes but only for bespoke. Adding some photo of the sole and the code printed in the shoe may help find out the maker.

 

[JFWR]

Lovely leather and finish on these Hush Puppies loafers. Dainite styled sole has a 'hush puppies' marking to add that extra touch

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Man, Hush Puppies have absolutely gone to **** as a brand. Their recent stuff is just miserably bad, awful quality garbage. I use them as my dumpster shoes.

Another venerable brand went the way of the Dodo.

The amount of good shoe brands is vanishingly small.

 

[eTrojan]

Opted for gym shoes on Friday, so extending Florsheim week today.

1968 Florsheim Imperial Golden Harvest.

 

[mormonopoly]

One of my favorite pairs, these are 1940s Nunn Bush perforated spectators.

 

[comrade]

Been working on more pairs and these may be vintage?

Never found this brand/maker before and don't know much. Soles appear to be original but they don't say "Made in England" anywhere. Anyone familiar with Ducker & Son?:

View attachment 2115205 View attachment 2115207 View attachment 2115209 Ducker and Son was a RTW and I believe bespoke

Been working on more pairs and these may be vintage?

Never found this brand/maker before and don't know much. Soles appear to be original but they don't say "Made in England" anywhere. Anyone familiar with Ducker & Son?:

View attachment 2115205 View attachment 2115207 View attachment 2115209

Ducker and Son was a RTW and, I believe, bespoke maker with a shop in Oxford,
England that closed in 2016.

Ducker & Son - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[friendlygoz]

AE Clayton today…

 

[Satoman1]

Johnston&Murphy Aristocraft made in Japan ?. Does anyone know when this was made and by whom? first time I saw J&M made in Japan.

 

[Raimar]

Florsheim Shell Cordovan 97624 10D. I wil probably put up for bids to offset recent purchases.

 

[eTrojan]

AE MacNeil — 9147 CG edition. Good for a rainy day in Los Angeles.

 

[friendlygoz]

AE Westgate wholecuts with reverse patina by yours truly…

 

[rdstour]

Johnston&Murphy Aristocraft made in Japan ?. Does anyone know when this was made and by whom? first time I saw J&M made in Japan.

Nice find! I would say based on stamp, that was likely late 90s or early 00s. Likely by Regal.

From what I know:
Two (current) major shoe manufacturers in Japan held the J&M license over the 80s-2010s -- initially it was Regal (www.regal.co.jp) till the late 00s, then over to Otsuka (www.otsuka-shoe.com) -- both hold private labels for other US/European labels (e.g. JPress, Grenson in Japan).

I believe J&M today in Japan is essentially dormant and/or the brand license has lapsed.

You can still find some really nice Japan-made Aristocraft markups if you know where to look -- they had shell cordovan chukkas and a lot of shapely oxfords and bluchers with a lot of vintage touches (E.g. Sulvaprene Heel, the vintage Aristocraft stamps on the heel pads etc.)

I have a pair of Japanese J&M Aristocraft Penny Loafers incoming -- will post when they're here.

 

[poppies77]

View attachment 2116601 View attachment 2116603 AE Westgate wholecuts with reverse patina by yours truly…

I normally don't dig wholecuts, but those are amazing!