familyman

Is that spot of blond down below a critter or kin?

Kin. It's my one year old wondering what in the hell Daddy is doing. The 3 and 5 year olds are just out of frame climbing a tree. It's sunny and 75, outside is good.

LeicaLad has truly inspired me to take a picture of my boots in their natural environment. Alden shell wingtips hanging out of my minivan. Enjoy.

I think LL has a slight scenery advantage.

I take back a lot of the bad things that I said about the Conniston. I now think that the shape of the boot is pretty darn good. It looks a world better than in the stock pictures a few pages back. Looking at it, I like it more and more, the toe has a really nice profile for a country boot.

I think I'm in love with the leather. Great texture to it. That's a nice looking pair of boots Greg.

So many comments to make.

LL - great pictures. Great stories. Keep ducking.

Bill - really nice collection, I'm amazed at how well those Justins polished up.

Greg and skal - thanks for the updates and such. More pictures are always appreciated.

I'm personally out of the boot buying game for a bit. Cordovan Indy's will hopefully be coming in the fall. I won't be in my boots much in a short time. Texas summer means no socks and slip on shoes for me. Boat shoes are another one that can really develop great looking patina in the time before they fall apart. I'm in need of a new pair. I think I'll place an order with Quoddy.

Waiting for the Skye to come in..... I was thinking I'd like a brogue in a wholecut. Here's a nice one from Allen Edmonds - this year's smooth one. They had a brogue version of this last year, but it's discontinued and hard to find. Whaddya all think?

I well and truly love punched whole cuts, especially the english ones.

I've seen the AE's on ebay in my size but I honestly can't figure out what to wear them with. I'm not a huge stickler for the rules but I really can't figure out what I'd do with a pair other than look at them. They wouldn't work very well with my otherwise trad wardrobe.

Tarmac - beautiful boots. Just beautiful

Greg - Amazing collection. You need more brogues though.

I agree here - or else I would have snapped them up. What's in their favor is that they are wet-dream comfortable, and they polish up with cool patina.

That they may be but at that price boots need to elicit an emotional response from me. I personally couldn't justify them on a purely rational basis (comfortable, well constructed etc.) I have to have a deep emotional longing to spend what I spend on boots.

Love the color. Not particularily thrilled with the boot itself. Nothing interesting about it. Maybe the shape looks better in person but in pictures it doesn't distinguish itself.

jesus christ... whats wrong with the members these days?? ^^^^

When I was a kid we raised cows and pigs and chickens and ate them.

Friends had sheep and sheared them once a year.

We grew a lot of our own food.

I'm pretty connected to most of the organic things in my life and understand them from personal experience.

Cotton was something that I used evey single day since the day I was born. It has a very significant history in the US being one of the main financial reasons for slavery and the Civil war and one of the reasons that the US was even economically able to break free from England. Becasue of where I grew up I had never seen a cotton plant. It may not mean shit to you but that cotton field was probably the last significant personal connection I had between the agricultural world and my life.

You may think it idiotic but it was damn cool to me and it didn't happen until my mid 20's.

Go ahead and continue laughing at me, I don't give a shit.

I have nothing to add about the jeans but the first time I saw a field of cotton all ready to be picked was in north/central Texas. I stopped just to look at it. The first cotton I'd ever seen on the plant, it was really neat. I stole a branch with the bolls on it and took it home to show my wife. Then I mailed it to my father in law so he could show his pre-school class cotton on the plant. I still think about it when thinking about my clothes. It's sort of like knowing the cow that your burger came from. Cotton is a very cool plant/fabric.

Greg - beautiful shoes. It would be so hard to take those out on cement for the first time. I know they're shoes and that's what they're meant for but they're just so pretty. I can't wait to see pictures of the coming boots.

Bill - your Indys look awesome. Such a great boot.

http://www.pointerbrand.com/

I like the company. The denin is light and cheap but it's insanely inexpensive and USA made.

We need more burgundy shoe pics!

The only shoes I have in burgundy are my old USA made Weejuns,

and my AE tassels.

Not very super-futery but I do love them and they age well. The #8 Indy's will be my next pair of burgundy shoes but there are a bunch of them around here it seems.

That's a really nice boot skalogre. I too prefer brown (or burgundy) for footwear but I keep thinking that I really do need at least one pair of black.

I'm pretty sure that's a discontinued style. Real bummer as it's a beautiful boot.

I can’t decide between these two.

I'd have to see them in person to see if my opinion holds but I think the stow has a much more attractive toe box. That alone would sell me on the Trickers. At this price point I think it's worth it to spend a bit more to get a boot that you truly love over one that's just pretty nice. These boots will last a LONG time so get exactly what you want.

Greg, thanks for posting those indy pictures a while back. They did an excellent job showing the true shape of the toe and I'm even more in love. I'll be excited to have a pair of Indy's on the shoe rack.

I've heard that AE uses a thinner shell than Alden, some say it's not as good.

I've also heard that Alden gets the pick of Horween's shells and everybody else gets the rest.

I'm not sure how much truth there is to that though.

I do love your medallion boots. I've got to put a pause on my shell purchases but my next pair really needs to be a a pair like that.

man, how do these watches go with denim? They don't seem to go with denim at all (if there even is such a watch). This is just a plain old watch thread.

As stated in the very first post, this is to keep the shoes (or boots as it's turned out to be) thread clean. It's sort of a watches that go with the boots that age well that go with denim thread. Sort of.

I'm a bit suprised there hasn't been more love for divers here. I'm not a big fan of them as I'm wristly challenged but there are some really cool looking divers out there that can really take a beating.

i like that watch a lot, familyman--really nice looking. i'm not a diver but i love dive watches. does that make me a poser?

I don't dive either but when I surf I spend a LOT more time under the water than on top of it. I think that works out somehow.

I just bought this one moments ago. Not my pic. I've been needing a sportier summer watch. My other watch is a very simple Seiko 5 that I wear on either leather or grosgrain and it just looks too formal for jeans and a polo. The one I'm getting is the smaller of the Seiko divers though it's not really a dive watch as it's not undergone all the testing and such. Referred to as the baby diver by some. I have pretty small wrists so it should work well.

There's another aspect I forgot - bicycles! I like track bikes, no brakes. Here's my website, lots of pictures. It will get lots of new stuff this spring:

http://oldskooltrack.com

Oh you've GOT to be kidding me. I've spent a lot of time clicking around that site. Although I don't ride very much right now I did quite a lot a few years ago and even did a MS150 on my fixed kogswell. My FAVORITE bike is an old Pinarello time trial frame that I ride fixed. This is an early setup though that's always changing.

I spent some time watching some friends who rode on the velodrome here in Houston but never tried it myself. We somehow all need to sit down and have a drink sometime.

I am a kept man.

In exchange for that I'm a stay at home dad for my three kids ages 5, 3.5 and 1.

I love my job.

Or lack of a job depending on how you look at it.

That is a one way plastic zipper? Yes?

Not so exciting if it is.

Speaking for me, I don't have any kind of footwear that would be 'authentic' to my life. I've done a bit of work in a log yard though I'm not a lumberjack. We had half a dozen cows and 2 or 3 horses when I was a kid and I've strung some barbed wire but I'm not a cowboy. I've needed steel toes for several jobs but I'm not a laborer. I've been hunting since I could walk but day to day I'm not a woodsman. I've sailed boats in a few races but I'm not a sailor. I was a rock climbing instructor and have spent time on glaciers and mountains but I'm not an outdoor adventurer. I've worked a regular 9-5 suit level job but I'm not that guy any more either.

I think that most people today have a larger range of experiences than people of even 50 years ago. It wasn't too long ago that you wore what you wore for your job and/or your particular place in life and that was it. I've done more, been more places and have seen more than anyone in my family from a prior generation. My influences in fashion come from a much wider background that enables me to take what I like from different parts of my life and incorporate it to the plain suburban life that I now inhabit.

Copied with permission from the owner from another forum. Now that's patina.

Alden chukka boots #8 shell cordovan (15 years old). Most of those years as a hiking/camping boot.