Good shoes?

ajf

ajf

ajf

Soldato
Joined
30 Oct 2006
Posts
3,053
Location
Worcestershire, UK
Want to get a pair, or two, of nice quality shoes/boots.
I know Loake seem to be well respected, but what other similar brands are worth looking at?
I’ve also seen Lanx.
What’s the general thought on the Made in England Dr Marten boots as well?
 
What type of shoe would you like? An English handmade leather shoe like a higher end Loake, then Barkers are another one but they aren’t cheap and they aren’t DM like
 
Take a look on Herring Shoes. They sell a lot of good brands and also their own label (which are rebranded Loakes, Barker, etc).
 
If you like Dr Martens then take a look at Solovair. They used to make DM's in the UK under licence until DM offshored a lot of their manufacturing.
 
What style are you looking for? Personally I'm not keen on high end mens shoes because the soles are leather and offer no grip. They can also be very tough to break in. I usually opt for Clarks for smart shoes. Base London are ok for smart casual. There's a list of more mens shoe brands here.
 
you can have rubber soles glued on to leather soles. has the benefit of extra grip plus they can simply be replaced once worn rather than needing a resole.
 
Redwing iron ranger and Wolverine 1000 mile boots are hand made Americana that are very well regarded.
just be aware that they are a lot harder to walk on than trainers.
 
Goral make more casual style boots, though it's their trainers that I like.
Re-solable as well which I've not seen before on trainers.

Super quality of construction & really nice leathers from the ones I've seen.

They have a series of shorts on YouTube where they make pairs out of random materials which is worth a watch

For formal shoes, the above mentioned are nice and you can pick up the odd pair from TK Maxx. Agree that the non UK made Loakes are a bit disappointing, especially the quality of the leather sole.
Also look at Grenson, Cheney etc.
 
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As has been said, look at Herring’s website, shop the sales/seconds. There’s also AFinePairOfShoes as well.

There’s a big shoe thread on here somewhere.
 
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