These days, office wear seems to involve loafers. I prefer to wear oxfords, bluchers and ankle boots, but for the sake of team spirit, I go with what the team is wearing, and that's loafers. Ballys and Allen Edmunds for me. They're both great brands, they look pretty good for loafers, and my shoes will last forever.
But the damn soles and heels won't. I'm not asking a lot here, I just want the soles and heels to last longer than a month or two without getting taps nailed on. Loafer sole material seems to be made thin in general (presumably for comfort), and to be made out of particularly non-sturdy materials. I guess people aren't supposed to walk long distances on concrete and asphalt in loafers, but the nature of my lifestyle is: considering I have to wear these things in the office, I do. What confuses me, is the uppers seem to be made out of very strong material (the AE Randolphs in particular), but the lowers are some kind of leather cork or something.
Now, all my shoes and boots suffer from my apparently shuffley gate; not much I can do about learning to walk properly at my age. I had goodyear rubber bottoms put over a pair of my Ballys, and that seems to solve the problem. But then I have a rubber soled loafer.
Seems like a loafer could be made with stronger sole materials, or at least thicker sole materials. I have Allen Edmunds and old Florsheim gunboats with very thick soles. The Florsheims are from the 50s and only recently needed work on the toes of the sole.
Any thoughts on this? The solution might be to fork over serious dough to have custom shoes made, but you'd think the popularity of loafers and "business casual" would have come up with a mass produced sturdy loafer.
But the damn soles and heels won't. I'm not asking a lot here, I just want the soles and heels to last longer than a month or two without getting taps nailed on. Loafer sole material seems to be made thin in general (presumably for comfort), and to be made out of particularly non-sturdy materials. I guess people aren't supposed to walk long distances on concrete and asphalt in loafers, but the nature of my lifestyle is: considering I have to wear these things in the office, I do. What confuses me, is the uppers seem to be made out of very strong material (the AE Randolphs in particular), but the lowers are some kind of leather cork or something.
Now, all my shoes and boots suffer from my apparently shuffley gate; not much I can do about learning to walk properly at my age. I had goodyear rubber bottoms put over a pair of my Ballys, and that seems to solve the problem. But then I have a rubber soled loafer.
Seems like a loafer could be made with stronger sole materials, or at least thicker sole materials. I have Allen Edmunds and old Florsheim gunboats with very thick soles. The Florsheims are from the 50s and only recently needed work on the toes of the sole.
Any thoughts on this? The solution might be to fork over serious dough to have custom shoes made, but you'd think the popularity of loafers and "business casual" would have come up with a mass produced sturdy loafer.
