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Vintage Spade Sole Shoes

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I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,927
Location
Sydney Australia
Those are Clapps not Alden. ;)

You've blown it again!;)

Here is the black Edwin Clapp New Englander that I just got, together with the brown one ...I love the profile of these shoes.
2ij2hqg.jpg

These should go in the spade sole thread BTW as well IMO.
 
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flyfishark

Practically Family
Messages
565
Location
main line, pa
All that advice is sound. Especially with the nylon meshing that has not got the support of the missing leather quarters to allow for any robust stretching. The stretcher simply won't have enough leather to grip on where the nylon cuts into the instep. The heels have deteriorated as rubber does over time and lack of use. It loses its elasticity and just hardens and chips. Pity as Clapps usually hard their own name imprinted on the heels.

Cookie...these do have the Clapp name on them. I've had a recommendation (from a cobbler's supplier) for a great cobbler...I'm going to see if he can do a repair job on the original heels. Isshinryu101, if these pinch more than I can stand--and I can stand a lot for great shoes--I might be looking to make a trade with you!
 

Isshinryu101

One Too Many
Messages
1,328
Location
New Jersey
I hope they can make them work out for you... although I certainly wouldn't mind working out a trade if things don't work out.

Keep an eye out, though. Last night, just as I was crying over a glass of Wild Turkey 101 (over my vintage Aldens that turned out NOT to be Alden's and over those Clapps, in fact), I found an INSANE rarity that I snatched up. I'm gonna get pics up ASAP. I can GUARANTEE that no one will see another pair like these again any time soon.

Be Well!
 

Guttersnipe

One Too Many
Messages
1,942
Location
San Francisco, CA
Where in the world do people find all these wonderful spade soled shoes?!?!? It seems like folk post pictures of new acquisitions weekly. . . I'm super plugged-in, vintage wise, and I never run into them *Super jealous here*
 

Mario

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,664
Location
Little Istanbul, Berlin, Germany
Where in the world do people find all these wonderful spade soled shoes?!?!?

Do you know, I've asked myself that very same question for oh so many times before and have finally come to the conclusion that spade soled shoes - along with pre-40's suits in my illicit size - are among the most timid animals that populate this planet. And now wonder: I bet you'd grow pretty wary and shy yorself once you've realized that you're pretty damn close to utter extinction. Everytime I get even just remotely close -so to speak - to one of those critters they always back away into the thick of the jungle and out of reach. I honestly think they're closely related to the dodo.

Um, yes... :D
 

boushi_mania

One of the Regulars
Messages
220
Location
Osaka, Japan
So, what do you do when you wear out the sole? Send it to the cobbler with instructions to use a time machine and go back to the '40s to get it redone? Or do you have so many by now that you'll never possibly wear them down enough?
 

cookie

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,927
Location
Sydney Australia
So, what do you do when you wear out the sole? Send it to the cobbler with instructions to use a time machine and go back to the '40s to get it redone? Or do you have so many by now that you'll never possibly wear them down enough?

Have them topyied and remove the suicide top part of the heel and topy that. You have to use a full Topy sheet though to do it properly.

Alternative is yoiu have a big lot of shoes so you only wear them occasionally. Even without Topy they would last 5 years of constant wear. Such is the quality of the sole leather used.
 
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