Footwear to go with our jackets

[red devil]

I have trouble understanding how some people might invest lots of time effort and money into finding one particular piece of clothing (eg a fancy leather jacket) yet for the rest of their outfit they settle for mediocre quality items.

Personally I have a very strong interest footwear, denim, chinos, dress shirts, t-shirts, sweaters, suits, bags, belts, card holders, braces, pocket squares, sportscoats, waistcoats, formal coats, hats, spectacles, helmets etc etc. Pretty much every clothing / accessory item one can think of that can be made to some high standard.

I really can not understand how someone can wear a fancy $2k jacket while wearing $200 dollar shoes or mall grade jeans.

Maybe it has something to do with my background in luxury fashion retail

There are several factors and circumstances here. When a man starts getting interested in clothes - let's say from his own volition to keep it simple - he will geenrally either start with the jacket or the footwear. And then he might start expanding into the other items. It takes time to go through the whole lot, I am not there yet myself lol


I don't think you need to have everything expensive, if you already have one or two nice items, then the rest can be very basic. I personally consider t-shirts to be consumables, so don't tend to buy expensive ones. I also recently started wearing M&S chinos, they are cheap and do not bring the outfit down.

Something like this:

Of course you can push the outfit further and experiment, like what I tried here

Higher end trousers, highen end top

Makes me wonder where the eye will go first in the first pic... boots or jacket?

 

[Blackadder]

Wearing my RW x Eat Dust Pecos

 

[Canuck Panda]

I have trouble understanding how some people might invest lots of time effort and money into finding one particular piece of clothing (eg a fancy leather jacket) yet for the rest of their outfit they settle for mediocre quality items.

Personally I have a very strong interest footwear, denim, chinos, dress shirts, t-shirts, sweaters, suits, bags, belts, card holders, braces, pocket squares, sportscoats, waistcoats, formal coats, hats, spectacles, helmets etc etc. Pretty much every clothing / accessory item one can think of that can be made to some high standard.

I really can not understand how someone can wear a fancy $2k jacket while wearing $200 dollar shoes or mall grade jeans.

Maybe it has something to do with my background in luxury fashion retail

That's like totally me, right now! The only thing I spend money on is leather jackets. Not wool jackets not cotton jacket but leather jackets. I've also stopped spending on leather shoes. I still buy them but not like I used to.
Very long time ago I spent a lot of money on cotton or regular clothes. Now I only wear Gap when they go on sale. Because cotton breaks down. They shrink and holes. Yes the 400 dollars t shirt is awesome and will withstand 400 washes. But it still taps out at 400 washes. The Gap ones isn't far behind but cost under 20 dollars when they go on sale.
I also wear suits from my early 20s. Quality wool, expensive. But the real cost is getting them tailored / altered every 5 to 10 years to fit my aging body shape.
I also stock up on Vans slip ons when they are under 30 dollars at the outlet. They're really only good for one year before the tape comes undone. But the expensive Italian sneakers are more or less the same in wear and tear but they cost north of 400 dollars.

Clean fitting clothes beats expensive clothes every time.

And yes if money grew on trees I would wear cashmere T shirts that cost 1000 dollars and just throw them away when they shrink or gets moth holes.

 

[Canuck Panda]

Tricker's Bourtons with Vibram soles. I promise I will start wearing proper socks when it gets cooler or if the shoes soles are leather or dainite.

 

[Marc mndt]

Makes me wonder where the eye will go first in the first pic... boots or jacket?

Jacket!

 

[Marc mndt]

Yes the 400 dollars t shirt is awesome and will withstand 400 washes. But it still taps out at 400 washes. The Gap ones isn't far behind but cost under 20 dollars when they go on sale.

This is of course just one way of looking at the 'quality' of an item. When looking at other quality factors like environmental friendliness or fair labor standards one might consider brands like Merz b Schwanen or Colorful Standard who manufacture their t-shirts locally (Germany, Portugal) using organic cotton while paying fair wages to their workers.

 

[Canuck Panda]

This is of course just one way of looking at the 'quality' of an item. When looking at other quality factors like environmental friendliness or fair labor standards one might consider brands like Merz b Schwanen or Colorful Standard who manufacture their t-shirts locally (Germany, Portugal) using organic cotton while paying fair wages to their workers.

That is true. There used to be a decent garment industry here in Vancouver. That is no longer the case. There are still local brands but they are using imported material from Japan just to get the customers buy into the quality aspect of their products. In many ways they are still helping by employing locally but it's very difficult to live on the min wage age even its 15 an hour now. Shipping raw materials over the pacific isn't the most eco friendly either even if the material was made with eco conscious. So in many ways the Burnaby made Reigning Champ isn't that much more social concious than the Gap made in Vietnam. For Vancouver residents that is.
I think this is less of a problem in Europe as there are still lots of mills producing raw material. And access by rail is very decent. And pay in (Northern) Europe seems to be a lot better than most other places on earth. It would seem that countries with less density have it a lot better than those who have higher density.
There is no one magic solution really. We just do the best we can. Life is hard.

 

[Pandemic]

Everyone touts Made In America out of economic nationalism, but the sweatshops of LA where a lot of mid-tier Americana workwear is made these days by un documented workers is diabolical.

 

[Blackadder]

A

That's like totally me, right now! The only thing I spend money on is leather jackets. Not wool jackets not cotton jacket but leather jackets. I've also stopped spending on leather shoes. I still buy them but not like I used to.
Very long time ago I spent a lot of money on cotton or regular clothes. Now I only wear Gap when they go on sale. Because cotton breaks down. They shrink and holes. Yes the 400 dollars t shirt is awesome and will withstand 400 washes. But it still taps out at 400 washes. The Gap ones isn't far behind but cost under 20 dollars when they go on sale.
I also wear suits from my early 20s. Quality wool, expensive. But the real cost is getting them tailored / altered every 5 to 10 years to fit my aging body shape.
I also stock up on Vans slip ons when they are under 30 dollars at the outlet. They're really only good for one year before the tape comes undone. But the expensive Italian sneakers are more or less the same in wear and tear but they cost north of 400 dollars.

Clean fitting clothes beats expensive clothes every time.

And yes if money grew on trees I would wear cashmere T shirts that cost 1000 dollars and just throw them away when they shrink or gets moth holes.

Agree to the point that I often wear uniqlo and gap chambray shirts under my FW and RM jackets. My regular t shirts whether worn with outerwear or not are by united athle.
Having said that, I do own shirts and tees by FW and RM etc.

 

[Canuck Panda]

A

Agree to the point that I often wear uniqlo and gap chambray shirts under my FW and RM jackets. My regular t shirts whether worn with outerwear or not are by united athle.
Having said that, I do own shirts and tees by FW and RM etc.

HAha Me too. I wear GAp and Uniqlo shirts 99% of the time now. But I still do have shirts that cost more than my leather jackets. I save those for very special occasions. So they never get worn out.
Leather jackets, however expensive, is more of an everyday thing for me. Same with leather shoes and boots. There is no way I can wear them out in my life time, even if I wore the same one everyday as hard as I can.

 

[NZJono]

Dr Martens ‘Anthony’ , Made in England, black calf with blue and white silk tongue. Goes well with my Golden Bear navy and wool jacket.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Rios of Mercedes Stingrays with anything black.
B

 

[AlexB]

The Flathead Engineers (Lofgren Last) fit my CXL Boardracer perfectly

 

[Psant25]

Picked up a pair of nicks ranger and franks front range boot. Plan on keeping one pair return the other. Cartersboots had some decent stock of PNW boots in my size. So much for selling off my whites and wearing red wings for a while… will report back with pics. I gotta pay shipping back so if someone wants the other pair 9.5D let me know. Otherwise, 5-6 plus month wait. I can also take plenty of pics so you know exactly stitching quality and heel symmetry etc

 

[lina]

My Chippewas, with about six years of pretty regular wear.

 

[NZJono]

Nice pair of 3-4 year old Trickers ‘Woodstock’ in kudu suede, and Matchless Bomber.

 

[Observe]

The Flathead Engineers (Lofgren Last) fit my CXL Boardracer perfectly
View attachment 453872

I always thought the Flat Head engineers looked strikingly similar to the Lofgren engineers. Is it actually the same last? Are they made in the same factory or something?

 

[Jiaward]

The Shop Vancouver x Wesco Morrison

 

[Bfd70]

^super nice

 

[Monitor]

My current collection (almost, as I've got four more pairs)...