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Shoes that look better with age...


kiya

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Boot questions:   I'm on the hunt for a great pair of English country boots and I've narrowed it down to the Trickers Stow as they're the only ones I've seen in a medium footbed.  Plus they look great.

 

I'm seeing a lot of the Stow with Commando soles for sale and they're lined in black leather.  But I don't see this style on the Trickers site.  Is this a discontinued style and that's why they're on sale?

 

Also how do you guys with them feel about sizing?  Since I'll need to ship them to the US from the UK I want to be sure that they're going to fit.

 

Is there a brand you guys like better that comes in a medium width size?  

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Hey happy hoologan, I've had several pairs of Trickers over the years, stow included. They are generously sized. I wear a 9.5 in whites, alden and Russell moccasin and a 10 in wesco. My Trickers were 8 1/2 uk size. I have a high instep and stows were a complete bitch that caused me great pain. The bellows tongue models worked much better for me.

Personally I think Crockett and jones are much better than Trickers.

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I really want a pair of shit-kicker Chelseas like the R.M. Williams gardener boot. Anybody have alternatives, or like them? thanks.

 

I was in an RM William store today. The gardeners are hideous in my opinion, i had them on and they look like blobs of leather on your feet. The only pair that i like in store was a pair of craftsmen in their Bordeaux leather. Their jodhpurs are really nice, I am also in a minority of people who don't find their yearling leather to be all that great looking 

 

I'd much prefer a pair MTO in their suede or bordeaux, I am also bias due to living in sydney and seeing nearly everyone wearing them. It seems to be the preference by anyone over 18 in australia

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Anyone with a pair of White's with leather sole? Wondering how durable they can be and if you ever felt they wore down fast or would have to be sent in (city walking)?

I have a pair and haven't noticed any extra wear on them.   I don't do a ton of city walking though.  Just day to day stuff and they're going on 2 -3 years now.   You could put a light rubber sole over them if you're worried about that.

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Holy shit. I really couldn't express greater disappointment for Quoddy's repairs. I sent back 2 pairs early January and just got them back today, 2 months later. I needed a fair amount of work this time, so I wasn't going to complain that it took longer than 2 weeks (how long it took the last time I needed work a year and a half ago). However, I was disappointed to see that they upped their resole prices from $35 to $79 in the span of a year and a half. Oh well. In any case, I was shocked as soon as I saw the box. They shoved both pairs into one shoe box.

25340004520_fafaa6d8ca.jpg

(One of the pairs in the box, for reference)

Not surprisingly, one of the shoes was completely crushed in the back. Hopefully I can sort it out with shoe trees, but as of now, the heel won't stay up when I wear it.

 

Unfortunately, this was far from the worst of my problems. As you can see here, they simply failed to fix a gigantic hole in the seam. I specifically photographed this and inquired about it, and they said they could take care of it? 

 

25542991001_abed04c1f9_c.jpg

 

You may have seen some excess glue on the eyelet on that last photo... I requested that they replace a cracked eyelet. They did, but they glued it down over a piece of the old one. On top of that, they didn't even bother to wait to thread the lace through until the glue was dry, and they accidentally glued the lace to the hardware. Seriously?

 

25635804275_f175531dfe_h.jpg

 

I am flabbergasted that they managed to do this so poorly. On top of that, the lace that they glued to the shoe isn't even the color I requested. Instead of a dark brown, they gave me a chestnut color, and now it's glued to the shoe. Ugh...

 

Just emailed them back to see what they can do about fixing these up. Honestly, I'm almost scared to send them back at this point though... Edit: not almost. I AM scared to send them back.

 

For what it's worth, Rancourt recently made me a pair of shoes, and the work was outstanding (admittedly, they were a couple weeks slower than quoted), so they get my vote for hand-made mocs righ tnow. Quoddy did great work in the past, but based on this, I have very little confidence now.

 

Edit 2: they used to not use glue in any capacity. Wonder what happened with that? I could actually smell the glue from outside the box before I even started unpacking it.

 

Edited by cander49
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Having sold my #8 Captoe Alden's a few years back (poor sizing choice ten years ago), I've been fiending a pair of Cordo's for quite some time. Along the way, I came into workboot territory (White's, Wesco, Nick's etc.) but glad to say I'm finally re-enlisting in the cordovan Alden Army! 

 

No pictures yet, but I have a pair of black wingtip boots on the way. Needless to say, I'm excited and this has been a long time coming. Funny how sometimes you start with your grail, get into different things, and again circle back to what you started with!

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FWIW, Quoddy got back to me and will happily fix up that shoe. Still really confused as to what happened. The other shoe needed more challenging work, and they did that much better. Maybe they had a new guy on this one?

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Boomtime...These came way earlier than I was expecting, but of course I'm not complaining!

25618722672_2b3b023dc7_z.jpg

 

Officially reenlisted in the Cordovan Alden Army...Wanting a pair of cap toe's next (the original pair I got rid due to sizing a few years ago)

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Sick boots, Aho. I've only ever had Aldens with speed hooks. Is putting on / taking off a boot that tall annoying with eyelets instead of the speedhooks?

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^Definitely a hassle, but worth the time in my opinion. All of mine with speed hooks rip up my suit pants and khaki's although my jeans are usually cuffed so that it doesn't matter. It does wear down the wax laces though much faster

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Nice boots Aho - quite a shift from the White's!

 

 

Coming full circle lol...I'm eyeing a pair of #8 Indy's as soon as I can find my size, which was the boot that originally got me into footwear over a decade ago aside from the Alden 4060 :/

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^How is Alden's turn around time and repair jobs these days? Been seeing so many examples of horror stories at least in the past 4 years, but wasn't sure if things are different now? Seems it's better to send it to someone local if they do a good job, not to discourage anyone!

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My Trickers don't have speed hooks and my Indy's do.  Honestly, I prefer no speed hooks.  The speed hooks on the indy's are awkward and too close together.  They are much easier to use on my White's.  The difference between putting on the boots without hooks is negligible.  

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Interesting. I've never had any issues with pants ripping from my speed hooks, but my laces tend to tear kind of quickly. Speaking of shoes with speed hooks, I put down a deposit on a pair similar to these, from Brick and Mortar, a month or two ago:

 

x440_01.jpg.pagespeed.ic.51RdptH9L4.jpg

 

I think they're supposed to be done around August or September. Long wait, but should be worth it. Apparently, this pair in the picture was hand-modified by the owner to have an antique-style edge, so they're slightly imperfect, but they don't have any of the special order finished yet, so they're still using it for the picture.

Edited by cander49
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i'd like a pair of those, do they come with a darker edge than the antique edge?

 

There's always makeups with the darker edge being made by leffot, leather soul, and others. Its pretty easy to just use an edge dressing and darken it. It's more difficult to sand it down and create an antiqued welt. 

 

Personally I prefer #8 with antique edging as it adds some nice contrast to the eggplant #8 that alden seems to churn out lately 

Edited by karanimal
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  • sufu1 changed the title to Shoes that look better with age...

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