ALLEN EDMONDS APPRECIATION THREAD EDITION 2O22

[manowar]

Gents—

Been messaging with @manowar (in part re: the funny magazine garbage).

Would anyone here be interested in contributing to a “styleforum stories” commemorative publication (even if it’s just a PDF for us) to coincide with the AE 100? AE released a book “90 Stories for 90 Years”; it could be a rogue version of this.

I would be happy to handle all the text management / editing / wording; if someone has real graphic design experience (as opposed to my screwing around on a laptop), that would be neat…

If this gets some likes / replies, I’ll throw my email up on a post.

George

I have amateur-level experience putting brochures together in Microsoft Word but nothing particularly good. I know there are a lot of stories worth adding from the good folks around here. We could even start nominating some users.

I have a handful--two Hamiltons, one Patton, a bourbon Randolph, etc. -- all bought at very low prices (sub-$150) that Amazon's algorithm seems to set when the inventory gets down to two in stock (then back up to full price for the last one). I think they are all unmarked, higher-end seconds but are in the range of what sometimes gets delivered as firsts from AE directly--fuzzy welt join, misaligned eyelets (a very common AE issue), etc.

Welp, the $185 Daltons that I had in my cart yesterday pending spousal approval just shot back up to $445. I guess I have my answer now.

 

[dc_slicker]

I have amateur-level experience putting brochures together in Microsoft Word but nothing particularly good. I know there are a lot of stories worth adding from the good folks around here. We could even start nominating some users.



Welp, the $185 Daltons that I had in my cart yesterday pending spousal approval just shot back up to $445. I guess I have my answer now.

Ask for forgiveness not permission… lesson learned

 

[ProfilaBinding]

I watch a lot of B12 bball and thought for sure KU could outrun everyone that year. They almost did, just not a Jay Wright game plan and, ironically, a barrage of 3 pointers.

I was actually thinking of a game in 2008 where KU played Baylor. It was a bizarre game. Wright in my opinion, is probably the best coach out there.

Also, I think you'll like that I wore the Black Hills over this weekend. My pair is a bit wrinkly, but I don't care. They feel great and are more supportive than the Badlands.

 

[Geoff928]

First wearing of the new belt to match some shell burgundy Park Avenues.

Leaving the house for work.

At a desk at one of my client's offices. I think she caught me taking this picture.

The new belt. My first attempt at a belt picture. I'm substandard at taking pictures of shoes, but I'm even worse when it comes to belts.

Starting to have another shoe storage dilemma. I could buy yet another shoe rack, but everything I am looking at looks as bad as my photo taking skills. Thinking about making my own. Have any of you attempted such an endeavor? If I do go this route, I was thinking using 5/8” dowels to connect the two bookend sides instead of using shelves. I know I should use something like cedar, but my shoe closet has so much cedar in it already I don't think any extra would be needed. Plus, I like staining exotic woods and a stain would pretty much ruin that amazing cedar aroma. One of my stops for work tomorrow is near a nice lumber supply store. If they have babinga then I will go the route of making sawdust.

 

[Silver13gt]

Got these natty shell Higgins Mill in the other day from shoebank. Not marked as F2 though, got a great deal with the recent sale.

 

[Genericuser1]

Loden HM’s yesterday and Pattons today same pants

 

[EdwardWilson]

Question for my friends with oxblood, chili, dark chili, burgundy or mahogany shoes.

I had a pair of burgundy shell Mac Neils sent for recrafting, but foolishly neglected to keep the laces, which I swear were a beautiful burgundy-like colour. When they came back, they had new black laces.

Looking at my chili Mac Neils and dark chili Mac Neils, I swear the laces are a dark reddish colour. I contacted AE and they told me they either use brown laces for their chili, dark chili or oxblood shoes and black for the burgundy shell shoes.

If you happen to be wearing oxblood, chili, dark chili or mahogany shoes, would you kindly look at the laces and let me know the colour?

 

[donkeyhoatie]

Starting to have another shoe storage dilemma. I could buy yet another shoe rack, but everything I am looking at looks as bad as my photo taking skills. Thinking about making my own. Have any of you attempted such an endeavor? If I do go this route, I was thinking using 5/8” dowels to connect the two bookend sides instead of using shelves. I know I should use something like cedar, but my shoe closet has so much cedar in it already I don't think any extra would be needed. Plus, I like staining exotic woods and a stain would pretty much ruin that amazing cedar aroma. One of my stops for work tomorrow is near a nice lumber supply store. If they have babinga then I will go the route of making sawdust.

Um, yeah, PLEASE don't stain exotic woods. You should choose an exotic wood because you love its inherent characteristics. Don't alter those characteristics with a stain that, more often than not, looks completely wrong for that type of wood. Keep it simple and finish it with your preferred finishing oil (BLO, tung, Danish, etc.) and then slap on lacquer, varnish, shellac, urethane, or whatever your preferred sealant is. Less is definitely more here.

Making a shoe rack has long been on my project list. I'm trying to finish up a couple of Morris chairs that have been on my to-finish list for a while and now that the weather is turning here, the shop will be back open for Donkey's playtime real soon. As soon as I can clear some of the backlog of projects, I may just sit down and tackle the rack. No need to go the cedar route for a rack if you already have cedar trees inside the shoes (since that's where the moisture is). I wouldn't go with bubinga, either. It's a beautiful wood and should really be out in the open and not hidden in a closet. Plus, if you go with a less expensive, locally sourced type of lumber, you'll have more money left for AEs. And, shouldn't that be the point?

But, hey, you do you. If bubinga makes your heart go pitter-pat, by all means go for it. Just please don't stain it. That's a crime against nature. When that tree was felled somewhere in Africa, it died once. It would probably die again if it knew it was destined for stain on another continent.

 

[AeneasQuebecois]

It is currently the evening of my third day of wearing my new black Allen Edmonds Carlyle Oxfords and, so far, I am quite pleased with them.

The Good :

1. The day after I got them, I wore them for the entire day, much of which was spend on my feet walking around and, although they felt obviously quite new, they were not at all painful.
2. The fit runs quite true-to-size. I wear a US 12 D and they are a hair large on my feet, like most US 12 D shoes. If I were having them made bespoke, I would want them a bit smaller but for an off-the-rack shoe they fit quite well. (I have already injured my feet enough from wearing too-small shoes that I have no desire to do it again, and US 11.5 is uncomfortably too small.)
3. The material seems quite substantive. When I first put them on my feet, both the uppers and the soles felt quite stiff, but in the good, sturdy sense, not in the uncomfortable sense. The hard-countering gives the shoe good structure and is, well, rather hard which seems to be helping the shoe to hold its shape and to grip my foot well. In addition, the leather of the upper returns to its original shape reasonably well after wear. When I got these shoes, the shoe-trees which came with them were much too small (I honestly think this had more to do with the new website than me) and, as such, I have not been able to put shoe trees in them yet. (I got some today, however, and will use them tonight.) Despite this, there is very little creasing in the uppers, even though they are plane-toe Oxfords in a quite large size.
4. They seem to be breaking-in quite quickly and evenly.
5. The heel-blocks, so far, have provided good traction, even in the rain.
6. This is somewhat subjective, but the last-shape is much sleeker and more refined than many of Allen Edmonds' other shoes, which I very much like

The Bad :

1. This is, I admit, subjective, but I found it odd that such a formal pair of shoes came cross-laced with flat laces.
2. These aforementioned laces seem too thick for the eyelets, resulting in quite a lot of friction when I pull on them, much more than in most of my other shoes, whether cross or straight laced. As a result, I will, at some point, relace them and quite probably replace the laces, most likely with round black ones from Fort Belevedre.

Am I satisfied? Yes, as someone who generally does not like Allen Edmonds too much, I like them a good bit more than I expected.
Would I by another pair? No, only because I would want to add another company's shoe to my collection when I buy my next black Oxford.
Would I recommend them for someone else? If you need a plain-toe Oxford, want an Allen Edmonds shoe which is less boxy than the Park Avenue or, for some reason, you are weird like I am and prefer plain-toe Oxfords to cap-toe Oxfords, yes.

 

[konoyaro]

Looking through my past order history with Amazon, I've purchased and kept pairs of:
McClain, McTavish, San Marco, Strand and Randolph
The only time I've returned a pair (Elgin) had to do with fit rather than finish.

So maybe I've been extremely lucky with AE Amazon purchases...

anyone else ordered their AE through amazon? Just curious how the product looked...

 

[H. E. Pennypacker]

Got these natty shell Higgins Mill in the other day from shoebank. Not marked as F2 though, got a great deal with the recent sale. View attachment 1778265

I'm not much of a plain toe boot man, but the HM has got to be my favorite plain toe boot. The quarter stitching is a favorite detail of mine.

 

[Silver13gt]

I'm not much of a plain toe boot man, but the HM has got to be my favorite plain toe boot. The quarter stitching is a favorite detail of mine.

I agree, I like Cap-Toe or wingtip boots, but this deal was good especially being in shell, wouldn’t mind adding a color #8 as well.

 

[manowar]

One day: two pairs of Higgins Mills.

While the second photo is not from today, I realized I have not taken photos of those beauties since the first day they were worn - far too long. HM photos get posted maybe once every ten wears. (And yes I need to clean my porch, the dogs have made a mess of it.)

They are definitely amazing boots, and I am trying hard not to be envious of that pair of F1's in natural cordovan purchased at sale F2 prices. If it was a 10.5D then I'll just jump off a bridge now.

 

[Geoff928]

Um, yeah, PLEASE don't stain exotic woods. You should choose an exotic wood because you love its inherent characteristics. Don't alter those characteristics with a stain that, more often than not, looks completely wrong for that type of wood. Keep it simple and finish it with your preferred finishing oil (BLO, tung, Danish, etc.) and then slap on lacquer, varnish, shellac, urethane, or whatever your preferred sealant is. Less is definitely more here.

100% this. I just didn't want to go super in-depth on what I was planning on doing with the finish. I haven't seen any posts about woodworking and didn't want to get too complicated. Around 80% of my wood furniture was created by someone in my family and I can't stress enough that using the proper oils is the way to go for finishing and maintaining wood. Staining a really exotic wood is like using turpentine wax on your shell shoes. You can get the desired reds and browns in wood just by using the right wood and oils. The natural color and grain of the wood is what makes each type of wood special. The only thing I have stained inside or out of my house is my fence, which was pine. Pine was far from my first choice but this happened when lumber prices went insane during the pandemic. After sanding and staining the whole fence, which took around 40 hours, I actually treated myself to buying some AEs. As far as the rack, my plan was to stain the dowels and not the bookend sides. This is mostly because I can get some cheap dowels from Home Depot or Lowes and they would likely be pine or if I'm lucky oak. You're also right about saving money for more AE shoes. I still would love some waterfall bubinga over anything else. It just depends on what the place has. If all else fails my friend has some nice quarter sawn sapele and Spanish cedar (not really cedar) that looks nice from the pictures he sent me.

I kind of had a side plan to make a watch box or sunglasses box out of the bubinga, so it would serve two purposes. No stain ... just oils, don't worry. I would love to go locally sourced, but everything around here is usually pine. That or some crazy expensive swamp log. I look at finishing wood like shining shoes, sometimes you need to know when to use Bick-4, VSC, or Renovator.

If you ever do finish those Morris chairs, I'd love to see them. The one thing I've never tackled with furniture is anything to do with cushions. I tried doing a Boston rocker before, it turned out … well you could sit on it for short periods.

I told myself not to post on here without an appropriate picture, so here is some Loden Higgens. I wore these tonight because they are the closest thing I have to green and I really needed the Celtics to win tonight for the #2 seed in the East. My dog wouldn't let me take a picture without him in it. Each time I take a picture of my shoes I feel like I take one step forward and two steps back.

Loden Higgens with an 18 year old Dutch Bulldog which is just a more manly way of saying an old Pug.

 

[Vincent George]

Question for my friends with oxblood, chili, dark chili, burgundy or mahogany shoes.

I had a pair of burgundy shell Mac Neils sent for recrafting, but foolishly neglected to keep the laces, which I swear were a beautiful burgundy-like colour. When they came back, they had new black laces.

Looking at my chili Mac Neils and dark chili Mac Neils, I swear the laces are a dark reddish colour. I contacted AE and they told me they either use brown laces for their chili, dark chili or oxblood shoes and black for the burgundy shell shoes.

If you happen to be wearing oxblood, chili, dark chili or mahogany shoes, would you kindly look at the laces and let me know the colour?

I have black laces in my Oxblood Fifth Aves and Oxblood McAllisters (both on black Dainite—might be different for leather soles).