Shoes that look better with age...

[fattybfat]

yeah to tse sai!

wow lay sek kong tong hwa?

you chinese?

rodeo bill is not chinese, he is a BN working in HK

for a few second, i thought demonito and mugiboy are the same person....then i erase my thought

[bove]

yes sir lonewolf's high quality dry tanned leather

Love those Lone wolf's. Was thinking about getting some from a rakuten site; any sizing thoughts? Have been led to believe it's safe to go with one's Indy size...

[coleslawyum]

I think LW's are a half size too big. Might be 1 size up for some models. I got a size 8 for my Lone Wolf's and I wear a 8.5 for Indy's.

[cabl3]

#8 cordovan plaza boots are on their way to me.

cant wait.

[daveo]

So what do I do about stinky boots? I have a pair of 875s that have been in HEAVY rotation for ~10 months or so and they really smell. Not just the inside, I can sometimes smell them when I'm sitting down. Any thoughts? I've tried powder on the inside but it's going to take more than that.

As far as care, they get a cleaning with Redwing leather cleaner and then LP once a month, month and a half. They still look pretty beat though.

[edmond]

i suggest to use new socks everytime you wear your boots.. andair them out every after using them or put some of those silica gel mini packs inside and some news papers for work boots but for dress shoes use those cedar shoe trees they really work!

[daveo]

Well I wear clean socks everyday and I have been putting them on the porch outside overnight. I am back to wearing other shoes at work most of the time but they have really not lost much odor on the porch. I might have to try the newspaper trick...

Thanks Ed.

[M4TM]

sounds nasty - i'd get a new pair.

luckily RW's aren't that expensive...

(relatively speaking)

oh, and these can go here too :

trickers.

[daveo]

sounds nasty - i'd get a new pair.

luckily RW's aren't that expensive...

(relatively speaking)

well, I don't consider $190 a pair cheap and they have a lot of life left, they just smell. I really should have rotated another pair with them.

[edmond]

just get some cedar wood shavings in mini packs and leave them inside for a week or so with some newspaper and silica gel packs youll be fine after a week

[fattybfat]

So what do I do about stinky boots? I have a pair of 875s that have been in HEAVY rotation for ~10 months or so and they really smell. Not just the inside, I can sometimes smell them when I'm sitting down. Any thoughts? I've tried powder on the inside but it's going to take more than that.

As far as care, they get a cleaning with Redwing leather cleaner and then LP once a month, month and a half. They still look pretty beat though.

well, guess you have to know what causes the odor. Is it because you sweat too much. Do you have an insole inside that absorb your sweat. It could be the cause if you put insole in your boot. Anyway odor develope mainly when there is bacteria or so inside .there are different method you can try

1) put dried tea bag in the shoe to absorb the odor, which doesnt work well ( i have try before)

2) heard that people use baking soda to deep clean the insole and it works pretty well (more scientific, baking soda does kill bacteria)

3) buy a insole if you dont have one

4) use cedar/aromatic shoe trees, but it works slowly to absorb the stinks

5) take it to cobbler, they should have ways to clean it up the stinks

I think what i would do is to use saddle soap to clean the leather first, and then use baking soda to clean the interior and let it air dry and use shoe tree from now on. Most important is to clean your shoe more often that would prevents any bacteria build up.

[fattybfat]

find this article...

Shoe Odor Removal: Home Remedies

If ‘kicking off your shoes’ at the end of a long day magically clears the room (and that’s a bad thing), we’ve got some easy, home remedies to get rid of your home-made shoe cheese. It’s important to remember that you’re not just combating a smell, you’re also combating living bacteria that produce the smell – if you just attack the odor and leave the bacteria then you’ve only fought half the battle. Kill the bacteria and then remove the odor. Here are some easy ways to do just that:

• When you remove your shoes for the evening, coat the insides thoroughly with baking soda, seal them in a plastic bag, and put them in the freezer until morning. The cold will kill the bacteria, and the baking soda will absorb the odor. When you pull them out, set them in a well ventilated area for a while to dissipate any excess moisture that remains.
  
• If you don’t have room in your freezer, pour or spray just enough rubbing alcohol into your shoes to coat the insides and then place them on their sides in a well ventilated (but unpopulated) area. The rubbing alcohol will kill the bacteria and evaporates quickly. Afterwards, coat the insides with a little baking soda to soak up any remaining odor or moisture.
  
• If these methods leave you in the lurch, experiment with different products (usually powders and sprays) that are designed to eliminate foot and shoe odor.

Remember, it’s all about the bacteria! Keeping your feet and shoes dry will prevent it from growing, and cold or alcohol will kill it off quickly. Please leave any tips you may have using the form at the bottom of this page.

[dibadiba]

I'd imagine what ed said would be correct. many small animals should have pine or cedar bedding, it absorbs moisture and odor. I assume the same would hold for putting them in your shoes. worth a shot, not very expensive either.

[daveo]

Thanks a lot for the tips guys, I will try some things and report back. Perhaps there will be some funny boot pics too...

[rodeo bill]

Because Calden was asking about the change of #8 shell over time, I decided to try an experiment with my #8 shell Indy boots. The hypothesis was that exposing #8 shell to sunlight would cause it to lose vibrancy and change towards brown / light brown color. So for the last month or so, I've been leaving my boots in a window that gets good sun exposure in the mornings. Before I started this process, the boots had lost their purple-ish cast and was more of a deep burgundy. This is what the shoes look like now (with a pair of FlatHead F310s):

I rather like the new color. They don't quite look this light brown when not under direct light, but actually have more of a mahogany shade to them.

going back to amlai/s bleached out cordovans. I found this on Bown's Bespoke (http://www.bownsbespoke.com/henrymaxwellshoes.htm):

I know of no other company which does this ‘fading’, so I asked about it. It began, apparently, after some shoes were left in the sunny shop window for too long. They faded. Customers began to ask for shoes ‘like those in the window’. So a technique was devised, using solvents, to imitate the effect of prolonged exposure to the sunlight. The ‘fading’ of my shoes would be extended along the sides, as if it had occurred naturally. We call making such happy discoveries by accident ‘serendipity’. Here serendipity had served the cause of beautiful shoes.

Actually I like Amlai's better- more natural, but at least this shows that other people like this look too:)

[rodski]

they have the low cut 875s at thethreethreads.com, they dont have an online store but will do mailorder if you email or phone them

[Supawiwi]

Thanks a lot for the tips guys, I will try some things and report back. Perhaps there will be some funny boot pics too...

Avoid leaving them outside at night. Keep them in a dry place.

[rodeo bill]

Just got these on Saturday- they're made in Japan repro US Army roughout boots, I think WWII era? I got them in a little shop in Hong Kong (Mong Kok, not the ones in the arcade) that sells army surplus. the quality is pretty good, although the suede isn;t the best ever, but it suits the type of shoe I think , and they weren't expensive (HK$1000, which is about 70pounds or US$140). They were very roomy inside even though I sized down, so I put insoles in and now they fit pretty well, even a bit tight but I think it;ll stretch out, or I can put thinner insoles in. They're not riveted at the corner of the quarters, as others are that I've seen, but they have very nice quadruple stitching around the sides, and triple-stitch at the heel piece:)

marked US ARMY on the sole:

with Evisu Deluxe silk denim:

[Supawiwi]

Hey guys!

They're my size but no money and abroad. Might interest you

http://cgi.ebay.com/Alden-Plaza-Split-Toe-Shell-Cordovan-10-5D_W0QQitemZ120308631791QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120308631791&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Alden-Plaza-Norwegian-Square-Toe-Shell-Cordovan-10-5D_W0QQitemZ120308632585QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120308632585&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

[coleslawyum]

with Evisu Deluxe silk denim:

RB… nice jeans you got there. How long have you had them?

[rodeo bill]

^^thanks a lot Coleslaw- they've come out really nicely huh? I've been wearing them pretty much every day since i think November, so nearly a year. lots of washes on this pair (up to once a week), so the fading's less contrasty, but the whole thing's lighter. They're beginning to fall apart at the seams, and I've already patched up the crotch twice, so it;s almost time to retire them and move on I think...

[edmond]

pictures pls to tse sai!

[rodeo bill]

haha- I can take some pictures of my denim/jeans collection when I get back home in a few weeks if people are interested:rolleyes:- but this is supposed to be a shoes thread!

[amlai]

Here are pictures of my #8 shell Indy boots next to my cigar shell Indy boots:

Cigar on left, #8 on right. Actual color is closer in the bottom picture. They really are starting to get much closer in color than I even realized. In less direct light, there is still a more noticeable difference in color though.

[tmadd]

Wow! Thanks amlai! That is a gorgeous couple of shoes you have there. I really like how the #8s look with the dark edgetrim fading away.

[rodeo bill]

these are brilliant! thanks again Amlai- I actually like the faded #8s even better than the cigars I think. like tmadd says, the contrast with the less faded areas is great

[?uestionmark]

wow. wonderful. thank you.

how much sunlight contact did it have in a day and how many days approximately?

[amlai]

I haven't been keeping track that much, but a few hours a day for what I'm guessing to be 10-15 days?

[?uestionmark]

pretty fast..

thank you for costing me another $600. thank you.

I haven't been keeping track that much, but a few hours a day for what I'm guessing to be 10-15 days?

[Tarmac]

I don't see the difference. What effect did the sunlight have? Looks like standard whiskey shell to me.