Allen Edmonds' Broadstreet's return!

[LoveMyHats2]

My question is: how do you polish spectator shoes without ruining them? My guess is you put masking tape or something over the light color and then put the polish on. Gotta be careful when you brush though even between polishings as the brush will carry the dark color over onto the light color.

To polish any spectator that I own, I start off with a few applications of leather conditioner, as it helps very much in the end results of a high gloss shine. When the conditioner has soaked in, wipe the shoes then apply the polish. Use any old T shirt or even a old white sock, for any dark colors, do them first. Be careful about not getting any polish on white. You can use a cream polish for the first coat or two of it, but then you will want to go to a wax polish. If what you are going to shine is a color that you cannot get a wax polish for, the start using a neutral for the next steps...but I would avoid using a shine brush on spectators...use a T shirt to shine them until you want to make them have a high gloss. You can use white polish (cream) or liquid, (Hoffco as only this brand liquid has contents that will not dry out and crack leather) or if you have a white that is suede then you would use a "bunny bag" on that part of the shoe. High gloss, on a part that is colored, is simple. After several coats of color polish you have used a T shirt to shine, them with a wax polish, apply a thick coat and let it dry for about an hour. Then grab a cotton ball, water it down real well, squeeze it to get all the excess water out of it, dip the cotton ball with a small amount of wax polish on it, use it in a tight small circular motion on the leather shoe, keep going and start to go all over the color part of the shoe, you will see the polish swirl, and keep it doing that, you may need to dip more small amount of wax on the cotton ball, but just keep doing it, you may see very small beads of water on the surface of the shoe, keep going in a circle until you no longer see that and eventually you will see that mirror shine.

Almost all colors of the AE shoes are available in a cream shoe polish, not by a AE source but check out shoe polish made by Meltonian, the cream paste polish. That is used and if you cannot find an normal wax polish for a color, then after using the cream paste polish and you want that high gloss, you use a neutral wax polish, Kiwi brand works well.

You only have to be a bit careful on spectators but I get mine shined up fairly easily and rarely do I have a mistake and get darker polish on anything white...use the T shirt it works, on your finger pulled tight, to apply the wax/polish and to shine.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Plus when it comes to webgems they are only making what is ordered so they won't have extra stock laying around.

I have a feeling after this "run" they will not offer them again....

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Regarding goofy colors, AE has been offering shoes in the "webgems" department in all sorts of goofy styles and colors, and that's a good thing:

- Some of the shoes are in seasonal colors, like orange and black for Halloween, or red and green for Christmas. Now, I don't have the free disposable income to buy a $300+ shoe that I am going to wear one day a year, but some folks do, and more power to them. It *would* be kind of cool to have a really good shoe you could wear with your holiday season. And I'm sure the rabid sports fans would love having a good shoe in their team colors. HANNSpree makes an LCD TV that looks like a basketball: http://www.amazon.com/Hannspree-ST2...&qid=1360780701&sr=8-1&keywords=basketball+tv . So why not a shoe in team colors?

- It may not look goofy on everyone. Several years ago, my girlfriend used to sell costuming for bellydancers at various bellydance events. She would import hip scarves, and fringe skirts, and harem pants, and that sort of thing from India, Egypt, and Turkey. In spite of the colors she ordered, what arrived in the mail was always sort of a grab bag, with whatever colors the vendor chose to include. Some of the colors were hideous, like toxic-waste green, and I was sure that nobody would buy them. Then we would go to an event, and some dancer would not only buy the thing, but would look gorgeous wearing it. So now I am not so quick to put down styles that don't make any sense to me.

- It helps keep Allen Edmonds, which not only makes nice shoes but is also located in the US, in business, an important consideration in today's economy, when even some of the formerly best shoe makers are reducing quality and manufacturing overseas. If people buy the shoes I think are goofy, and that keeps AE in business so that I can buy the shoes I think are nice, that is a wonderful thing for all.

BTW, I think the idea of making the shoes to order is a masterful idea, because they can come up with an edgy shoe, and if nobody likes it, all it has cost them is the design and making of one pair; they don't end up with a huge inventory to liquidate.

Geez, nice information...and now for my sick humor to be tossed into all this...when I get the pair of shoes I order from AE, I can bet you won't want me to belly dance for ya wearing them! lol... Weeeeee Haaaw! lol!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

If I am reading the information from AE about these webgem custom order spectator shoes, this run of them is all they are going to be doing for the custom like from what I can tell. So for the $199.00 a pair, it is a fairly decent deal. I am picking out a few color combinations, but as of yet I still am debating what colors to actually buy? There is no medium color brown, only the dark "football" brown, not a bad color but too dark a brown for me...the red is too flashy for my taste, and orange and the bright blue and cardinal is too far out there...green....not a color for me other than I like the color on "money"....the gold is fairly neutral a color but I cannot tell how "gold" it really looks, may be the color "brown sugar" more than a gold....and the navy blue is a color you are limited to wear with clothing wise as is the yellow and gray.....black and white combo is not anything I would want, I have already 5 shoes that are a black and white.....so....I may go with the Gold and white...gold on the toe of the wingtip and on the "foxing" heel area, and with the lighter natural looking welt sole.....I have a small 10k gold charm that is shaped like a lightning bolt, I can put it on the shoe at the bottom of the lace....now all I would need is a new suit to go with the colors, I have a few really nice Zegna silk ties with gold, yellow, blue in the pattern....sort of "art deco"....

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Allen Edmonds posted this pic on their Facebook page a while ago.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

The colors are in the same order as the selector starting with cardinal & ending with maize.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I NEVER mocked ANYONE's choices. I DID mock AE for offering an array of choices that had some TERRIBLE options in there.

The orange and black ones??? They don't deserve to be made fun of?

silver and "cardinal" (I learned something about dark red!)? Seriously?

Some of the others are fine, and a few even actually give off a "Vintage-Style flair" (which I thought was the theme with this site).

I DID question the construction of the shoes. For $199 for a MTO shoe, one SHOULD have questions. BW was kind enough to answer the construction question, and for $199 I called them a Good Deal.

Maybe you are a bit sensitive?

Something a little different for those inclined to not take things so serious......

And they make them in more than color offering......They have a blue and red

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Here they are in the blue and red (superman model).......


And these are in direct competition (in some Fashion circles) with the A.E. line of casual dress shoes, made by Prada....


Not too sure if they offer these in any other color, from what I hear they are "rare".....(lol)!

 

[BR Gordon]

Here they are in the blue and red (superman model).......


And these are in direct competition (in some Fashion circles) with the A.E. line of casual dress shoes, made by Prada....


Not too sure if they offer these in any other color, from what I hear they are "rare".....(lol)!

I would love to get either of those, but I'm concerned that my current wardrobe wouldn't work.

 

[feltfan]

I DID question the construction of the shoes. For $199 for a MTO shoe, one SHOULD have questions. BW was kind enough to answer the construction question, and for $199 I called them a Good Deal.

I see the Broadstreets on the AE site for $345. Where are you finding them for $199? Or do I misunderstand?

That shot of the shoe colors looks really cool... till you try to figure out what you'd have to wear with them!

Oh and the silver and cardinal is for Tony Stark... I think the color schemes come from 4 color comics.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I see the Broadstreets on the AE site for $345. Where are you finding them for $199? Or do I misunderstand?

That shot of the shoe colors looks really cool... till you try to figure out what you'd have to wear with them!

Oh and the silver and cardinal is for Tony Stark... I think the color schemes come from 4 color comics.

THe $200 price tag refers to the Neumok Webgems.

 

[feltfan]

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[bl@ster]

Just got my custom Broadstreet's in the mail from Allen Edmonds. Please note that I had to size UP from my usual AE size by .5 as the toebox is VERY narrow.

Here they are:

 

[Johnny J]

Allen Edmonds posted this pic on their Facebook page a while ago.

Do they offer white suede, just like the vintage specs?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Do they offer white suede, just like the vintage specs?

I'll bet a dollar that if you call your order in they will be able to make them in suede. I've seen some of Matt Deckards custom AE's made in black calf & black suede.

 

[Johnny J]

That would be cool if they could make the holes on the design larger, like on these vtg Freeman:

 

[cookie]

Do they offer white suede, just like the vintage specs?

The bone looks better IMO. Broadstreets are all leather BTW - no suede or buckskin as it was in vintage times.

 

[Lgrant]

The bone looks better IMO. Broadstreets are all leather BTW - no suede or buckskin as it was in vintage times.

I finally made up my mind to get some calf and bone Broadstreets...just as AE was phasing them out again, and no longer had my size. So I got some AE Heritage golf shoes, which were on clearance, and as soon as they arrived, I sent them back to AE for recrafting with a regular sole.

The styling is slightly different (not quite as good, IMO), but they *do* look nice, and I regularly get compliments on them.

They are quite a bit narrower than the McNeals that I usually wear. I have been fighting with them to see if my foot is going to get narrower or they are going to get wider. So far, I'm winning.

Be well,

Lynn

 

[cookie]

I finally made up my mind to get some calf and bone Broadstreets...just as AE was phasing them out again, and no longer had my size. So I got some AE Heritage golf shoes, which were on clearance, and as soon as they arrived, I sent them back to AE for recrafting with a regular sole.

The styling is slightly different (not quite as good, IMO), but they *do* look nice, and I regularly get compliments on them.

They are quite a bit narrower than the McNeals that I usually wear. I have been fighting with them to see if my foot is going to get narrower or they are going to get wider. So far, I'm winning.

Be well,

Lynn

Get them professionally stretched.