Proper leather shoes

Looks like 10 in the last pic

Sorry, I guess if I post stuff for sale I should check back to see if there’s any response!

Adroit first on dibs pending payment.

They’re size 10, I should also point out that the tongue is stamped with my business logo. Posh shoes on the marketing budget see.

Damn

One size too small

And given my life is fuelled by Yellow Bourbon beans the logo would not have been inappropriate

Can anyone recommend me a pair of boots please, requirements are:

Black or dark brown
Reasonably chunky but a) not walking boots and b) able to polish up to look smartish
Regular laces (no zip nonsense or Chelsea boot please)
Not crazy expensive (£100 max? or am I living in a dream world)
Not DMs

My feet are size EU45, regular width if that is if any relevance

Thanks

https://www.jcrew.com/uk/p/mens_category/brandswelove/shoes/kenton-leather-pacer-boots/C8867?sale=true&isFromSale=true&color_name=black

Thanks - sorry to be so picky but I really don't like the brown bit between the sole and the boot :(

Fair, you could black it out with polish?

Clark’s desert boots in leather?

Handed my ebay grensons in with the local cobbler along with some other stuff like worn through leather bag etc. The mnemonically gifted forum member may remember that they had iron heel bits which I didn't get on with. Cobbler was genuinely upset about the poor job someone had done fitting rubber heel/sole to them, apparently cheapest possible brand and shoddy workmanship "and on a pair of £400 shoes! What an idiot!" etc. The plastic heel + quarter iron was fitted on top of another heel piece which perhaps explains why they felt a bit funny to walk in. We agreed he'd better remove everything and start over. Feels good.

Dunno, they are kinda fun I think.

Loake Hyde come up on eBay at good prices but they might not be chunk enough.

Went over my ebay Church's with Saphir renovateur followed by de luxe paste 1925.

Lovely stuff; quite therapeutic.

Thanks @Bainbridge for the tip.

Yeah. Reno is amazing stuff. Used it in some Calf Russell and Bromley’s belonging to my fiancé that have never been polished/had anything done to them at all and other than the creases, the leather looks brand new.

what is the consensus about sticking a rubber half sole onto a leather soled shoe?

shoemakers are very clear that you should not do this, but I have been doing so with a pair of Barkers for quite a few years and they are still going well.

For work shoes, it's impractical for me to wear leather soles all day due to the amount of walking in my commute. I'd go through leather soles in less than a year, and that's wearing them every other day. So either I have to take my work shoes in a bag and change, which is a bit of a pain to either carry around another pair of shoes or leave them at work, or do the stick on thing.

What shoemaker was against this? Probably one with a view to keep a shoe pure, or with too much experience seeing bad stick-a-sole jobs. Else, someone hoping you keep paying them for a leather through-sole.

Putting a rubber half-sole on top of leather soles is tried and tested, and in Paris if you find a good shoemaker they’d lay a particular type of toe-blakey flush with it. That’s the ‘proper’ way to protect the shoe for the longest time.

So long as the cobbler/shoemaker is skilled, a rubber half sole will not damage the shoe, won’t cut away at the welt, and will really increase the longevity.

Try to match the heel and half-sole material to avoid mismatched levels of grip. So if you get a Vibram half sole, get a Vibram heel block too.

Thanks - interesting.

I think it was a pair of Barkers I bought which came with a note which said among other things, that applying a stick on sole would in their view ruin and in some way misshape the shoes and was not recommended. So I did it anyway.

The cobbler local to me in Walthamstow is good. He uses Italian rubber half soles and heels.

Can’t quite see in your photo but I assume it’s Svig? Generally pretty good and cheap.

Manufacturers will claim that, previous remarks I made were they won’t touch a shoe after a cobbler has (in their view) butchered it.

The particular type of toe-blakey is called a ‘toe tap’ by the way.

https://www.theshoesnobblog.com/2017/04/additions-to-your-sole.html

Good evening. Someone here gave me info regarding making a belt for me but I cannot remember who. Could whoever it is please pm me. Apologies for my goldfish memory.

what's occurring here?

Not sure they really go with jeans, but IMO that's a rare pair of horsebit loafers that actually look OK...

Yeah, quite like the shoes but was a bit taken aback by the jeans / socks combo. On a $300 pair of shoes.

I think you'll find it here

Quite interested in some Lundhags boots, having seen someone else's recently (bought in colder climes and completely wrong size, unfortunately). Is there a London's-famous-London stockist, so I can try them somewhere? My G**gle-fu is weak.