Show us your SHOES !!!

[simonc]

William Lennon spec'd boots

 

[cookie]

Between the 2 of us, we go Late 40's then.

Yeah those spadish soles are def not 50s. Plus the 50s would have a captoe then suede on the vamp. A little bit before Elvis but a cutting edge late 40s iteration of where shoes were going in the next decade. But I might be entirely wrong!

 

[Isshinryu101]

But I might be entirely wrong!

unlikely

 

[LoveMyHats2]

After these arrived, I decided to not give them the "ultra shine" I normally do with my shoes, the color and grain of the leather is real clean and in very nice condition, so, I just put some cadillac conditioner, a bit of mink oil and buffed that off with a clean rag. The white leather is fairy smooth, and the shoes are fully leather lined.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Yeah those spadish soles are def not 50s. Plus the 50s would have a captoe then suede on the vamp. A little bit before Elvis but a cutting edge late 40s iteration of where shoes were going in the next decade. But I might be entirely wrong!

According to the sale receipt, the shoes were purchased by the owner in 1961, new, and only worn for a few hours. Now that does not make them made in 1961, but I would tend to think they did not sit on a shelf in a shoe store for that many years? When they arrived, I can see what else may give me (or anyone) an indication of helping to point to a date/era. However, really for me, the shoes, the look, how well made they will be, and will I like them after I have them is the important factors for me. I think I will like them very much. I am even purchasing some socks that will match them when worn. I tend to do that, find some "different" color socks to be worn with a particular shoe, or suit/sportcoat.

 

[cookie]

No way you should be using mink oil... sorry. Turns rancid as well.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

No way you should be using mink oil... sorry. Turns rancid as well.

On these shoes, after giving them a few heavy applications of leather conditioner, I did use a small amount of mink oil, (one dab on the very end of my finger tip) and rubbed it well into the leather. I have done shoes like that for a long time while living in "snow country" here in Michigan. So far, it has not presented any negative results for me. On work boots, the amount of mink oil after leather conditioner is more heavy in application. Of course, now that I am not working any longer, on most boots I have now, will not get much mink oil on them. The ones that will are the ones I would wear out in the snow, walking to my automobile, or short term exposure to the winter.

Not sure if you have used the cadillac conditioner before, but it leaves a semi gloss finish when you clean the excess off after it soaks in and sort of dries. The mink oil more or less "sits" on top of that finish, gives the leather some extra protection from snow and the salt used on the roads that gets everywhere here in my State.

If you look close at the one picture of the toe of these shoes, you will notice there is not any "residue" from either the conditioner or mink oil. Buffing the shoes well before application of the small amount of mink oil makes a big difference, helps make that amount of mink oil used to be able to spread it thin.

Of course, I do have some tingley's to put on my shoes to give them further protection and these spectators will more than not see the winter weather as it is. I would not desire to torture the shoes by wearing them at this time of year. I perhaps put the mink oil on them as to just have them with extra protection just in case! lol!

I have not had any issues ever with mink oil, but I have with neatsfoot oil. Ruined a few pairs of shoes as the oil promoted the leather to rot.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Not a new shoe, but in nice shape and new for me! This is an addition for summer/hot weather use. Italian made, leather is "glove" leather, really flexible and soft. Brand name says Jonathan B. Richards, never heard of them before! But they fit nice, and is something to go with summer wear. I teased my Wife, told her I could wear these with some skin tight Speedo skimpy swim suit, and one of my red polka dot Nat Nast shirts....one look from her, and I knew that will never happen....she is my fashion police as it is! But with seersucker and other hot weather clothing they will be used well!

 

[Isshinryu101]

According to the sale receipt, the shoes were purchased by the owner in 1961, new, and only worn for a few hours. Now that does not make them made in 1961, but I would tend to think they did not sit on a shelf in a shoe store for that many years? When they arrived, I can see what else may give me (or anyone) an indication of helping to point to a date/era.

Keep in mind that we STILL have old defunct shoe stores that have old stock still on the shelves. Today a store can do a "sell-back" to the mfr, or holds inventory on a "consignment-like" basis, so last year's styles are long gone. Many years ago, unsold shoes could stay on shoestore storage shelves for a very long time.

Although the 2 eyelet style indicates 50's, the sole shape leans more late 40's. Somewhere in this range. Unlikely very late 50's or newer.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Keep in mind that we STILL have old defunct shoe stores that have old stock still on the shelves. Today a store can do a "sell-back" to the mfr, or holds inventory on a "consignment-like" basis, so last year's styles are long gone. Many years ago, unsold shoes could stay on shoestore storage shelves for a very long time.

Although the 2 eyelet style indicates 50's, the sole shape leans more late 40's. Somewhere in this range. Unlikely very late 50's or newer.

Well now, as you have said before, here in my home we have a strange way of finding some rather "odd" shoes of interest. It is hard for me to guess about the shoes in question, as I would like to see what the insides are like, inspect close the soles, see what they are up close. The white stitching does normally point to a 1940's type shoe, but, I have had a few fairly new made shoes from the 1980's that had some white stitching on the welt area, I think if not mistake a pair of shoes that were "modern wingtips" from a store in California that was called, "The Wild Pair". What made those shoes different, they were more pointed than a normal wingtip, had a fairly thick sole, and had a heel that was shaped more like a cuban heel than a normal "squared off" heel as most wingtips have. The shoes were a very light brown (actually a caramel tan )with lace up of 5 eyelets, and all leather. I wore them so often, and back then was not smart enough to keep a shoe and have them resoled, they got pitched after 8 or 9 years worth or wearing them. I do have a few pairs of shoes that are going on 20 years or more in my closet, that I have owned since brand new. Shoe trees and care is what has helped me keep them around!

Geez, we went through some of the boots and shoes I have never worn and did a "head count" late last night. 177 pairs of shoes and boots! 49 pairs in my bedroom closet and the rest in the spare room closet. Then today, I was out in the breezeway and found 2 pairs of work boots and was looking for my window snow brush, found it in the trunk of my black hot rod car, and found another pair of boots and a pair of old black leather and grey suede two tone pointed shoes that have only been worn one time! 181 total.....and maybe 40 or 50 of them not ever worn yet......I may have to thin them out a bit and sell some off.....liquidation time! Weeeeeeee Hawwwwwww! lol!

 

[Tomasso]

181 total.....and maybe 40 or 50 of them not ever worn yet.....

You need a new avatar......

 

[cookie]

Geez, we went through some of the boots and shoes I have never worn and did a "head count" late last night. 177 pairs of shoes and boots! 49 pairs in my bedroom closet and the rest in the spare room closet. Then today, I was out in the breezeway and found 2 pairs of work boots and was looking for my window snow brush, found it in the trunk of my black hot rod car, and found another pair of boots and a pair of old black leather and grey suede two tone pointed shoes that have only been worn one time! 181 total.....and maybe 40 or 50 of them not ever worn yet......I may have to thin them out a bit and sell some off.....liquidation time! Weeeeeeee Hawwwwwww! lol!

A true tragic who lets other tragics feel momentarily good about themselves in that childish "but he's got more than me!" sort of way.

Mrs Keep it all in Perspective

 

[LoveMyHats2]

You need a new avatar......

OH....but the truth of the matter about this woman from the Philippines, not many knew this but she "obtained" the majority of her shoes from a dreadful source, she was good friends with a few of the local funeral home directors....

Another factor (not confirmed by anyone as from what I could give testimony to), she was rumored to not even be "female", as a few people claimed she was a he, and the "he" was none other than the famous Ernst Borgnine, in drag! lol! If I am not mistaken of the few people that were making this leak out was an Insurance salesmen/agent that was extremely angered at Mr. Rock Hudson, for getting "rear ended" so many times, and let things slip out, so to speak, in the heat of the moment.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

You need a new avatar......

It took about 14 cups of some very thick hot cups of coffee and a handful of planter's roasted peanuts to figure out why I do own so many shoes.....and it hit me more or less like a bolt of lightning! You see, one can only have so much personal space in a home. As we have recently moved into the place we now live it gave a tremendous amount of new and more space for personal space and storage here. Now originally it was a Fedora issue, when it came to space. However, the overall amount of Fedoras was already milled down a moderate number. With the first few new "recruitment" of shoes, subconsciously, I had to have noted the space that was "free", nothing sitting in that spot "here or there". The overwhelming part of that on my mental frailty suggested that I can actual acquire two or three pairs of shoes to occupy that free space, as compared to one Fedora that would include it's hat box....the trade off was not only acceptable, but in some frozen way like a new found spot to put just one more yogurt in the Frigidaire, "doable".

Now when all this hit me, (home run in the thought department), it made me realize the social history I have suffered from an early age of childhood.....special made shoes my Father would make sure I had for correcting my flat feet. I had been raised wearing expensive shoes since the young age of three, most of those were wingtips. My wonderful and loving Father always had top notch clothing on, and as a small child I probably thought he even wore a suit or sport coat to sleep in, and naturally under no uncertain terms was my Father ever without one of his Fedora hats. I recall also having suits made for me at the same time period, which was standard procedure until I bravely requested (coming about the age of seven or eight years old),to be allowed to be more "simply" dressed so that I could enjoy romping outdoors, tossing aside suit coats, trousers, for the more versatile pants and pull over shirts. My feet became less of an issue, so the custom made shoes made a slow exit, stage left, sans one or two pair.....and replacement of those were filled by the likes of Red Ball, P.F. Flyers, and eventually trips to the "Mother Goose" shoe stores, and of course Kenny's and Thom McCann's as I aged a bit more. I guess what I am getting at, the times back in my youth, were of both good style and a happy time period as a young person. Now as I am getting up into my final laps around the pool, I have fallen victim in having a second wind of desires to link my "todays" with a lot of yesterdays! Those fond memories of a Packard in the garage and the age of which I was raised were some very happy times of life.

I had to pick my particular avatar with little amount of caution, as I have been so very blessed with my loving Wife, it made so much sense to place a picture of her sitting next to me. We share more than just some space together, our minds and hearts are merged, forged by the goodness and love we hold so dearly in life with each other. My health has been more dreadful than the ordeals that come along sort of in a standard way of life, it has made the both of us realize and conclude we do all only live but once, and by damned, we are living it to it's fullest!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Keep in mind that we STILL have old defunct shoe stores that have old stock still on the shelves. Today a store can do a "sell-back" to the mfr, or holds inventory on a "consignment-like" basis, so last year's styles are long gone. Many years ago, unsold shoes could stay on shoestore storage shelves for a very long time.

Although the 2 eyelet style indicates 50's, the sole shape leans more late 40's. Somewhere in this range. Unlikely very late 50's or newer.

What you say about shoes being around in a store for a many years and not sold, actually, is fairly true. In thinking about that, some of the recent shoes I have come to own would very easily fall into that bracket of events, shoes never worn and actually sold by a seller that openly stated the shoes had come from a store that had to close it's doors, went out of business. I have to add however, it is a real intense thought process to think about how a pair of shoes, that even if made in the 1970's, would not be sold along their own span of time, to such a date of which we now live in. It is amazing but I know it does happen, we can find shoes dating way..back....that have never been laced nor worn....(a personal preference for me when it comes to vintage shoes and even Fedoras). ONLY in connective sort of way, do I add to that personal preferences as a almost foot note (pun actually intended this time around), never worn or laced is very much linked to other vintage items I own and desire to own, such as socks, under shirts, etc., as I am sort of, well, I cannot say the word, sounds like Canal without the "C", when it comes to things being clean and neat. Each time I obtain a used pair of shoes, I tend to spend a fairly long time period cleaning the inside of the shoes, a small amount of rubbing alcohol on a cloth and then some saddle soap and hot water, a rinse or two and then conditioner. You could find some very attractive and desirable highly rare and collectable shoes...and if I could not know they could be somewhat clean inside and fairly free of what I call, "foot funk", I can not own or wear them... I sort of draw a line I just cannot step over when it comes to such things, (pun intended again).

A wanted "dream to come true" that will more than not happen in my life time, would be for all the shoe factories that once existed in Brockton, Mass., to be in full operational mode if even for just a few years. I would even be willing to cash in my Life Insurance so that I could make a run to the shops, beg the management to have a fun "runs" of some of the shoes I would love to own, and fill a UHaul trailer with them!

Of course, then the curse would be, Fedora hats and some additional new clothing/attire to match up everything....all this is making me want to order a new suit this very moment, something nice like a new Oxxford brand suit.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Marc Chevalier pointed out these Stetson shoes to me:

 

[Rudie]

I saw Marc's post on Facebook. Those shoes are really insane!

 

[herringbonekid]

good lord, those are operatic in excess. any date mentioned ?

i could see them appealing to those modern hispters who have an Artful Dodger/Victorian gothic look.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Those shoes sort of "point" themselves out! Geez! I can think of a name for who probably owned them, I think could have been "Oz", (the wizard)......as to dating those shoes, well, I can very confidently say those shoes were made a looooong....time ago.

 

[Two Types]

I wouldn't be able to walk in a straight line if i was wearing those!