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Shoes that look better with age...

mizanation

By mizanation
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Ichiran

Ichiran

Posted
Posted
What do the indies offer over the iron rangers?

Indies, Iron Ranger, GTs, Semi-Dress... in the end, the most important thing is your own sense of style. They're all good boots, but which one looks the best to you and on you? Even if everyone here agreed that one type was the best (which is obviously not the case), it wouldn't help you if that style didn't work for you.

I think the Indies and the Iron Rangers have a pretty dramatically different look, and which one you choose is mostly a matter of your own taste. Everything else is kind of secondary. You won't really go wrong either way.

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Chicken
Chicken

been going cheep: 1/4/10 1/4/10 purchased these clarks desert boots a while back. after moving to sunny california, i kind of got tired of hauling around in heavy duty boots, so i thought these

coleslawyum
coleslawyum

Minor update on my Toys McCoy Railman boots. 4 years. Vegetable tanned cowhide. Built like tanks.

riff
riff

I posted these on my tumblr a while back & realized I forgot to post here - my current workboot rotation:

Akilae

Akilae

Posted
Posted
Indies, Iron Ranger, GTs, Semi-Dress... in the end, the most important thing is your own sense of style. They're all good boots, but which one looks the best to you and on you? Even if everyone here agreed that one type was the best (which is obviously not the case), it wouldn't help you if that style didn't work for you.

I think the Indies and the Iron Rangers have a pretty dramatically different look, and which one you choose is mostly a matter of your own taste. Everything else is kind of secondary. You won't really go wrong either way.

Well now you guys have gone and done it... I swung by the Alden shop in New York to try on the Indies. It's interesting seeing the Indiana Jones plaque next to it (wasn't there when I went six years ago to first look at the Indies). Long story short, I walked out of the store with a pair of 7.5Es.

I'm not quite convinced I was fitted properly though. The boots are snug, but the widest part of the boots sort of clamps down firmly on the front part of my feet, and the widest part of my right foot is sorta scrunched up, but not uncomfortably. I know leather stretches with wear, and the store clerk said it was a pretty good fit (he's a professional, right?!), but I wanted to make sure before I hit the pavement in these.

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coleslawyum

coleslawyum

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I'm not quite convinced I was fitted properly though. The boots are snug, but the widest part of the boots sort of clamps down firmly on the front part of my feet, and the widest part of my right foot is sorta scrunched up, but not uncomfortably.

Shouldn't have any scrunching or pressing down of any sort. You should go back and try a size bigger before you scratch them up.

^^^ddml, those boots are fire.

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Akilae

Akilae

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Shouldn't have any scrunching or pressing down of any sort. You should go back and try a size bigger before you scratch them up.

^^^ddml, those boots are fire.

A size bigger and the toe box was too long... guess I'll have to go back and see if they have 7.5EE...

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Bill2

Bill2

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^^ Hey Bill! Did you take pictures of those when you got them back from White??

These were resoled by Eddies Shoe repair with Cats Paws, not rebuild by Whites.....Yet..... The owner has since just about worn through those.... They'll be going back to White's for a rebuild soon

Its slow around the shop today, so I figured I'd take on a project......

We've had a 1940's shine kit in the back room of the store for a while, fully stocked with all the essentials.... I decided to take my MTM Julian Boots and give the toes their first layers of polish.

Here're the tools: 1940's Kiwi Polish, whatever old rag was in the kit, and a still bristle brush:

photo-78.jpg

A good shot of the back of the Kiwi Tin:

photo-79.jpg

The boots are a waxed roughout kip butt leather.... Essentially a roughout boot that is waxed pretty heavily after tanning. The leather is a light brown/dark tan, with black wax all over. As the wax breaks down, the brown shows through more and more, almost like old school horsehide will do...

photo-80.jpg

photo-81.jpg

I applied polish by hand, with the old rag....pretty thick at first to get the nap of the leather waxed over. About every two layers I held the toe upside down over the flame of a lighter to get the wax melted in.

photo-83.jpg

As the leather started to smooth over, I gave them a good brushing to start bringing out the shine:

photo-84.jpg

Then more layers of polish.... more fire....more brushing.... then some light bulling with a damp clean cloth to get a shine.... These are far from perfect, but the nature of the leather will require many layers of wax, and frankly, I got tired of it..... As I wear them I will continue to polish them, and as the layers build up, the shine will get glassier and glassier...

photo-86.jpg

photo-87.jpg

I have since gone back over the welt and sole to remove excess wax/staining.... I think these will look interesting once done... Cool contrast between high polish toe caps and distressed/roughout leather elsewhere on the boot.

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Akilae

Akilae

Posted
Posted
^Mine too, now that Ralph at Alden explained a few things about fit to me. I had been wearing one complete size too small, purchased from their other staff who don't know how to fit shoes. They were "OK," but when I got into the Brannock with a few tips from Ralph, I learned that I should size up one whole size! So it went from "OK" to "Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!"

I know now 3 or 4 shoe folks in NY who know how to fit shoes, I'm sure there are more, but: Ralph at Alden, William at Allen Edmunds, Cindy at Crockett and Jones, and I-forget-her-name at Lobb....

So I've been going through all 400+ pages of this thread to figure out the "Indy" fit and found this.

Which one is Ralph? Is it the guy that could pass as a skinny version of Simon Pegg, or the dude with a very close-cropped dark hair and comes in on Saturday mornings with the old man? I didn't want to make it look like I was shunning other store staff at Alden... but I got two different responses to my fitting questions at Alden's at NY ("Yeah, they're alright" and "Yeah, those are too tight"), and I want to make sure if the 7.5EEs come in there's somebody good around. This whole shoe fit thing is getting confusing...

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tmadd

tmadd

Posted
Posted

What a difference natural light and a good cleaning and polishing can do. From this:

DSCN0926.jpg

To these:

DSCN1009.jpg

DSCN1014.jpg

DSCN1012.jpg

DSCN1015.jpg

These are up for sale in the supermarket now.

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tmadd

tmadd

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The boots are great, I am basically just selling them to finance a pair of Semi-Dress. I think the Lace-to-Toe look is just a little too over the top for me. The Semi-Dress will integrate into my wardrobe much better.

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Curious_George

Curious_George

Posted
Posted
Bill, the difference is amazing! Can all rough outs be treated in this manner? I am also curious about oil tanned leather. Is it possible to ever get them to shine?

Anyway, saw this in the mag earlier but forgot to post. No. 45611H

alden.jpg

Those are nice. I found link to a store in Japan carrying them but I don't think I've ever seen them anywhere else before. Anyone know if this is a jp only model?

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tmadd

tmadd

Posted
Posted

If we could get a special makeup of a boot like that in Cigar, but with eyelets all the way up, and maybe on Trubalance or Barrie, I have a feeling people would be all over it. 3 years from now when enough Cigar was alotted for the order that is.

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tmadd

tmadd

Posted
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I have nothing to do with this ebay posting except for desperately wishing they were my size...someone buy these immediately:

$250 Buy It Now for #8 Cordovan Chukkas

http://cgi.ebay.com/ALDEN-Cordovan-Chukka-7-5-D-US-RARE-Ex-Condition_W0QQitemZ130262228287QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item130262228287&_trkparms=39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A10|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

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amlai

amlai

Posted
Posted
If we could get a special makeup of a boot like that in Cigar, but with eyelets all the way up, and maybe on Trubalance or Barrie, I have a feeling people would be all over it. 3 years from now when enough Cigar was alotted for the order that is.

I agree everyone would be all over it... question is whether or not anyone would have the patience to wait 3 years...

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grouse_allergy

grouse_allergy

Posted
Posted

I got these the other day at goodwill for $5. They're Cole Haan, 'bench made in England'. I think of Cole Haan as being pretty low-end for the most part, but for five bucks I had to get them. They're certainly a step up from my other non-sneaker shoes... Dockers. haha. At least these have a leather outsole. What I dislike about them, though, is a line of stitching on the quarter next to the eyelets that I think looks cheap. Also, the leather is very soft. Not sure if that's bad or good.

Anyway, I just figured someone who has knowledge of shoes might be able to tell me if these are decent or just junk, which I'm totally fine with.

colehaan3.jpg

colehaan5.jpg

colehaan.jpg

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