Dress Boots - who knew?

Marko,
Those AE's are nice looking boots. But seeing them relegated to the basement damn near brought a tear to my eye.
I know you said you don't wear them much anymore but the basement??

I selected the Nunn Bush Odells for the rubber sole and also the sole pattern. As you know leather soles are slippery in the northern climes.

The northern climes also have the ubiquitous sand/gravel mix spread on the roads, parking lots and driveways for traction.
My dress shoes, my work boots and my around the house sneakers all collect this gravel and bring it into the house where it scratches and abraids the wooden floors.
The Odells do not have any crevices to capture the gravel yet are not slippery.

I really like the looks and feel of this boot. So much so I purchased a second pair in a lighter color.

Aurelian28 - those are sharp boots as well.

The basement.. I know, I will be fixing that.  My retirement and a renovation of the bedroom/bathroom more or less coincided and we packed a bunch of stuff into the basement.  Only that stuff that was regularly used found its way back.  I was down in the basement moving stuff to make room for my home gym because of the sickness related closures and have been discovering all sorts of treasures.   Maybe I need to put on the suits and look for random business meetings, weddings or funerals to crash? A well dressed man can go anywhere.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - I quite like the Allen Edmonds boots and shoes that I have - I considered them to be good value for the quality and they're made in the USA.  I spent 30 years as an oil and gas corporate lawyer and had to suit up everyday and I liked wearing good footwear. I definitely had lighter footwear for warmer seasons but Up here its cold a lot so the boots work well. If someone thinks the value equation makes sense on those viberg boots then that's their call.

I though Allen Edmonds boots were good quality, too. After all, they are made in the USA, right? That is until I got a pair of their Long Branch boots. Heavy, durable, very high quality leather, really sharp looking, but the seams came apart after only one year. I got them repaired by a local cobbler, an old Greek fellow who does outstanding work. About six months later, more seams came apart, and these boots were not being abused or used hard at all. After a couple more trips to Ye Olde Cobbler, most of the seams had been resewn and glued. That cost dinero. To my mind, Allen Edmonds boots look great, and use quality materials. Their quality control is poor, however. When I left a very measured, politely worded review for the product on their website, they deleted it. No wonder they had all stellar reviews. Now I see a number of negative reviews have been allowed to stand.

When I need new boots, I will buy Red Wing or anything other than Allen Edmonds. I really wanted to like them and buy American, but they let me down. On the upside, now that the boots have been thoroughly repaired, they will probably last forever. Very comfortable, too.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - I quite like the Allen Edmonds boots and shoes that I have - I considered them to be good value for the quality and they're made in the USA.  I spent 30 years as an oil and gas corporate lawyer and had to suit up everyday and I liked wearing good footwear. I definitely had lighter footwear for warmer seasons but Up here its cold a lot so the boots work well.  If someone thinks the value equation makes sense on those viberg boots then that's their call.

I though Allen Edmonds boots were good quality, too.  After all, they are made in the USA, right?  That is until I got a pair of their Long Branch boots.  Heavy, durable, very high quality leather, really sharp looking, but the seams came apart after only one year.  I got them repaired by a local cobbler, an old Greek fellow who does outstanding work.  About six months later, more seams came apart, and these boots were not being abused or used hard at all.  After a couple more trips to Ye Olde Cobbler, most of the seams had been resewn and glued.  That cost dinero.  To my mind, Allen Edmonds boots look great, and use quality materials.  Their quality control is poor, however.  When I left a very measured,  politely worded review for the product on their website, they deleted it.  No wonder they had all stellar reviews.  Now I see a number of negative reviews have been allowed to stand. 

When I need new boots, I will buy Red Wing or anything other than Allen Edmonds.  I really wanted to like them and buy American, but they let me down.  On the upside, now that the boots have been thoroughly repaired, they will probably last forever.  Very comfortable, too.

Fair comment and I totally agree that  buying local shouldn't trump quality and value.  You should get it all.  Value is tough to measure and it isn't just the price - obviously you think a higher price should get you higher quality and longer life etc and that's true.  I'm not going to get into the whole issue of domestic vs foreign manufacture but if price is your only consideration then you get the situation we're in right now.  

I'm really sorry to hear about your quality issues, that's a bummer when you spend and buy what you think should be good and its not.  That hasn't been my experience with AE but I wear mine purely as dress footwear for office work, never wore them in snow, salt or wet - its tough to avoid the occasional rain but I always made sure they were dried properly.  I put shoe trees/stretchers in them at the end of every day and kept them polished and the sole edges dressed.  Heels and soles replaced as necessary.  I'll admit that I'm probably a little more fastidious about the care and maintenance of my footwear than the average person but that's just me.  People are judging you all the time and in my profession as a corporate lawyer that much more so - your clothes don't have to be expensive and brand new but they should be clean and in good repair.  It also helps if you're good at your job   I had a boss once who tried to get me fired because I dressed better than he did.  What a bozo - I wasn't dropping a fortune on expensive designer suits but I bought good quality domestic, well tailored and on sale.  How hard is that?  The crap you have to put up with when you work for other people

I wear White’s Boots. Handmade in Spokane. They last forever. Which is a good thing, given how expensive they are.

Fair comment and I totally agree that  buying local shouldn't trump quality and value.  You should get it all.  Value is tough to measure and it isn't just the price - obviously you think a higher price should get you higher quality and longer life etc and that's true.  I'm not going to get into the whole issue of domestic vs foreign manufacture but if price is your only consideration then you get the situation we're in right now.

Many retailers buy Far Eastern products to lower their purchase costs, yet do not lower their retail prices. They sell lower quality goods - low quality because that is all they are willing to pay for - and keep the change. Consumers understandably view this with dismay. Florsheim is a good example. When I asked one of their store managers what happened to the quality, he said that it went down after they outsourced their manufacturing to China. When people buy for US made goods, they expect a higher price tag and higher quality to match.

I'm really sorry to hear about your quality issues, that's a bummer when you spend and buy what you think should be good and its not.  That hasn't been my experience with AE but I wear mine purely as dress footwear for office work, never wore them in snow, salt or wet - its tough to avoid the occasional rain but I always made sure they were dried properly.  I put shoe trees/stretchers in them at the end of every day and kept them polished and the sole edges dressed.  Heels and soles replaced as necessary.  I'll admit that I'm probably a little more fastidious about the care and maintenance of my footwear than the average person but that's just me.

That's just the thing, I also did not wear my boots in snow or salt, and they also did not get soaked. They were well cared for, yet the stitching came undone.

People are judging you all the time and in my profession as a corporate lawyer that much more so - your clothes don't have to be expensive and brand new but they should be clean and in good repair.  It also helps if you're good at your job   I had a boss once who tried to get me fired because I dressed better than he did.  What a bozo - I wasn't dropping a fortune on expensive designer suits but I bought good quality domestic, well tailored and on sale.  How hard is that?  The crap you have to put up with when you work for other people

I work in high tech. Worker bees who dress too well in that industry are seen as dressing up to compensate for a lack of technical skills. Except for senior management and marketing, it is usually seen as out of place.

One very old-school company I worked at did implement a dress code - slacks and dress shirts for the men and skirts or dresses for the women. Most of the workforce saw it as out of step and fairly ridiculous. We responded by dressing in very fancy, formal business attire. Three piece suits for the men, and expensive designer dresses for the women. Poor college students and peons though we were, everyone in our group was dressed to the nines. Being even better dressed than senior management made the policy look quite silly. They couldn't tell us to dress casually because they had just told us to dress well. The company was split up and we moved to new sites a year later, but we looked uber upscale while it lasted. I still have the fancy Italian shoes I bought, which have lasted 30 years so far. Now that was money well spent!

I have been wearing these two pairs of dress boots to the exclusion of my other dress shoes. I love the looks and the support.

Today I did a favored "chore" - I polished one pair.

I love the smell of the polish. The tactile process of applying the polish and then buffing the shoe. The instant gratification of the before and after appearance.

My polishing kit is 35 years old. As is the tin of Kiwi Paste polish in Oxblood. The application and buffing rags are that old as well. You can tell from the polish on the application rag that Oxblood is my preferred shoe color. Though everyone needs a classic black shoe as well.

The second pair of boots are tan colored. I had to order a paste polish online. I am looking forward to polishing those. I do find this to be an enjoyable activity.

I work in high tech. Worker bees who dress too well in that industry are seen as dressing up to compensate for a lack of technical skills. Except for senior management and marketing, it is usually seen as out of place.

and thank goodness for that.

fwiw I'll state that my personal experience is I've never seen a good engineer dress in normal business attire. I've seen insane outfits (like full 18th century English gentleman, visual kei, **** that borders on performance art) but if I saw someone actually show up to work in Tom Ford I'd be extremely suspicious.

In the oil patch lawyers wear suits, EGGS (engineers, geophysicists, geologists) wear jeans, IT people wear sandals, bean counters...hard to describe and field people wear Nomex. Whenever I went to the field I wore Nomex too.

I have been wearing these two pairs of dress boots to the exclusion of my other dress shoes. I love the looks and the support.

Today I did a favored "chore" - I polished one pair.

I love the smell of the polish. The tactile process of applying the polish and then buffing the shoe. The instant gratification of the before and after appearance.

My polishing kit is 35 years old. As is the tin of Kiwi Paste polish in Oxblood. The application and buffing rags are that old as well. You can tell from the polish on the application rag that Oxblood is my preferred shoe color. Though everyone needs a classic black shoe as well.

The second pair of boots are tan colored. I had to order a paste polish online. I am looking forward to polishing those. I do find this to be an enjoyable activity.

Good job keeping the polish off the stitching in the welts

These boots look a bit old-fashioned, but now many people like the vintage style. They look like Victorian men's shoes, to be honest. But I can assure you - I like them too. If they have a metal plate inserted inside the heel, it can pressure your Achilles, so pay attention to that. If there is no metal insert, you can wear these shoes safely and be the most fashionable man in your office. They'll look great with a shirt. I bought similar shoes for my son under his school uniform at miniolie.com. He goes to a private school, and they appreciate these shoes.