Allen Edmonds (really... are they good shoes?)

[Lgrant]

Why didn't you just look to other brands by then? I can imagine getting the same or better quality for less than you paid for the shoes and the resole.

Because I haven’t found another pair of spectator shoes that look as good. Each manufacturer has slightly different styles of brogue-ing, and very subtle changes can make a shoe look ugly (at least in my eyes). I couldn’t find other shoes in the AE price range that looked as good to me.

 

[Fifty150]

I just placed the order. It was priced right. So I took a chance.

 

[Fifty150]

I can't find anything wrong. They looked fine. Not even the "F2" stamp on the shoe to indicate a factory second. It wasn't tried on as a display model or a retail return, as the original factory lace pattern is still on the shoe. I put them on my feet, and they felt fine. I got my $100 worth.


My personal suspicion is that this shoe was not a factory second. Probably old. Dead stock. They had to get rid of it. That's how business works. Anything that doesn't move, you are losing money on it. You already lost money by shipping it out to a store, where it sat in a stock room for who knows how long. Then it costs money for the store to send it back to the factory warehouse. Not just their own network of Allen Edmonds boutique stores. Resellers like Nordstroms will also send back stuff that didn't sell. You're losing money from it sitting on the shelf. It costs money to rent the warehouse, and pay the warehouse workers, where "dead stock" inventory is sitting around. So they probably just "labeled" a bunch of unsold shoes as "factory seconds", to get rid of it.

 

[Fifty150]

I took them out for a test drive to The Bar. They feel good. Every step is soft and bouncy. I could break into a sprint, and run, if needed. Perfect traction.


This is not the shoe that you want, if you are looking for the old style of Allen Edmonds from decades ago. The inside of the shoe is leather lined. There's a full length leather sock liner. I can feel the soft poron under it. They don't do that when there's a leather insole. From the weight, you can tell that it doesn't have a leather insole. You can see that it's a thin rubber midsole. This boot is built like a sneaker. A good cobbler could deconstruct the boot, install a leather insole and a leather midsole. But that will make the boot heavier.


It's good enough for $100. It's comfortable. It will last long enough for me to get my money's worth. This is what you get with modern shoe making technology. Yes, it's not as "nice". The parts that they use save on manufacturing costs. Outside of a few "boot nerds", what do most buyers care about? They get a comfortable shoe that they don't have to break in. There are worst shoes, that cost more money. I will have a very hard time spending $200 to rebuild the shoe in ten years time.