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| 01-16-2016, 12:26 PM | #1 |
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Dress Shoes
Anyone have experience with Allen Edmonds dress shoes? Thinking about the Park Avenues of another similar style. They are for work. Long break in period?
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| 01-16-2016, 12:54 PM | #2 |
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Second Lieutenant
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Own several pairs of AEs. Great shoes. Break in takes a bit, but once broken in you'll never to do it again. The redrafting service is excellent and they look like new shoes each time.
Own a pair of black park aves - my go to dress shoe. |
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| 01-16-2016, 01:00 PM | #3 |
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Love my park aves. Their service is great too, if you buy them in-store they will sit down with you and really take care of you. It's worth noting that their shoes run a little long so they take a bit of getting used to but it's nothing serious at all.
Last edited by PINeely; 01-16-2016 at 01:06 PM.. |
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| 01-16-2016, 01:23 PM | #4 | |
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Unfortunately for us men, $150 pair of dress shoes look like a $50 pair from Payless... It sucks... Then we have a bunch of mid to low tier shoes (Cole Haan comes to mind) where it's more about comfort vs style... Are you wearing "loud suits"? Then I suggest Fratelli Rossetti... They make some more bold but supreme quality dress shoes... Not for everyone though... Baker Black - quality is superb and tendency to use exotic leathers like ostrich... Stefano Beyer / Berluti - fantastic dress shoes / boots but now we're $2000 and up... All the above will be difficult outside of Paris, London, NYC and LA to locate... Ferragamo and Bruno - while the quality isn't as high as the above, they still make great long lasting and fashionable shoes (and boots) for us... Bruno Magli in particular has come down a bit in quality but their higher price point stuff still gets the job done... More readily available than the above brands no matter where you live... Just be careful - again they make lower end cheaper stuff that isn't that great but they do have higher end stuff that is excellent... You get what you pay for and that's that... Oh, best piece of advice I have ever received on dress shoes? Moisture sucking wood shoe trees like say cedar I believe... Nordstroms has some excellent ones for $10-$15 range... |
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| 01-16-2016, 01:40 PM | #5 |
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Looks like they have a newer version of the Park Aves on their website. Reviews looks pretty good. Hopkins Cap Toe Oxfords. May give them a try.
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| 01-16-2016, 01:52 PM | #6 |
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If you're Ok with buying online, Zappos.com has the PAs in stock. Free shipping and returns, too. I've only used them once, but they delivered fast. I didn't need to return them, so I can't say how easy that is or isn't.
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| 01-16-2016, 02:25 PM | #7 |
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I also have a pair of Park Avenues and think they, along with other Allen Edmonds shoes, are great. As noted above, recrafting service is fantastic. These shoes will last forever with some care. They are not disposable like so many of today's shoes.
The real key to any shoe purchase is making sure your feet are measured properly, typically in a nice shoe store that sells shoes like Allen Edmonds. Buying even a nice pair of shoes in the wrong size won't work out well.
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| 01-16-2016, 02:39 PM | #10 |
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The shoes should be comfortable as soon as you try then on, even if the leather is stiff.
But you really should alternate shoes, I mean if you wear the same shoe day after day winter or summer even with socks not only bacteria but the shoes ability to absorb shock gets reduced. |
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| 01-16-2016, 04:15 PM | #11 |
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I wear van Bommel as dress shoes besides jimmy choo's as my daily rockers.
I found that van bommel are oncredible comfortable and mostly complement my suit because of it's "cut". Iam to lazy to google or do a picture of mine ( bare with me Iam VERY exhausted ), you get the point  |
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| 01-16-2016, 04:31 PM | #12 | |
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| 01-16-2016, 04:50 PM | #13 |
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Love my allen edmonds, I have a few pairs. Great shoes, wear them almost everyday. Super comfortable, perfectly sized, etc. Reasonably priced compared to other high-end shoe brands.
Once you wear them out, you can send them back to be recrafted! |
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| 01-16-2016, 05:40 PM | #14 |
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Big Beaver Smile
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Allen Edmonds are always very comfortable right out of the box and for me. And a weird thing I noticed about AE is that when you take them out of box, they have the equivalent of "new car smell" but for shoes. I don't usually notice that in other brands.
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| 01-16-2016, 05:59 PM | #15 |
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Go with Allen Edmonds, got my first pair, Black Park Ave's and never looked back... Used to buy cheap throwaways like Aldo etc... Never again. Here's 3 in my lineup...
Quality, Excellent Customer Service, and AWESOME Recrafting service, they will literally last forever. 3 things to not cheap on for me are things that get high mileage... Your Car, Your Mattress, Your Shoes.  |
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| 01-16-2016, 07:01 PM | #16 | |
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| 01-16-2016, 08:18 PM | #17 |
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Still sticking to Florsheims. Good quality, good design, nice colors and good price. Why all fir more? I do norpt so end mire than $200 or DD. I have one pair of Ferras which I would not buy ever again. Good design and really comfortable, but way too expensive
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| 01-16-2016, 08:27 PM | #18 |
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I have 4 pairs of Allen Edmonds. Great shoes, great quality. I don't know that I would buy anything else at this point. I tried two pairs by Bruno Magli and they both fell apart and were of inferior quality.
Their sizing is a bit strange. I wear a 10.5E in AE and 11.5E in a standard Nike. Had one pair recrafted but they botched it and made them way too tight. Not to worry, they sent me a brand new pair no questions asked. |
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| 01-16-2016, 08:44 PM | #19 | |
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| 01-16-2016, 09:55 PM | #20 |
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Another AE fan here. They fit exceptionally well out of the box and only get better over time. I currently own 5 pair and in addition to being comfortable, I get positive comments all the time. You will not be disappointed.
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| 01-16-2016, 10:40 PM | #21 |
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My GF just got me my first pair of Allen Edmonds this past Christmas. I've been eyeing the First Avenue boots for a few months now as the store is literally right around the corner form my office. I absolutely love wearing them.. I'm probably going to pick up a pair of AE dress shoes next.
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| 01-17-2016, 08:43 AM | #22 |
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Allen Edmonds makes a great shoe, I have several pairs, also own the Park Avenues referenced by you. Now for the rest of the story, I keep all of my shoes in their original boxes. I was looking through my closet recently and spotted an Allen Edmonds box I had not opened in some time. I opened it to find a pair I purchased while living in Bellevue, WA around 1996, so 20+ years old. They looked a little worn, so I sent the shoes back to Allen Edmonds for their "Recrafting" service ($130), shoes arrived back to me in about two weeks with new shoe trees and Allen Edmonds shoe bags, and the shoes looked like new. More importantly, visit an Allen Edmonds store and get fitted correctly, they have a surprising number of widths available, once your size is established correctly, go to their website and shop the sale currently ongoing, there are some screaming deals there (if you consider $300 shoes a deal).
My only concern moving forward is that the company was purchased, however, they have maintained that the product will still be made in the USA and have kept the current leadership team in place: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/...ty-hands/?_r=0 |
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