Let's talk boots and shoes.

[Superman]

Originally Posted by Zeke

... they simply hurt my feet...

How do they hurt? Presumably not because of skin chafing. The hurting is deeper? In the ankles? Again, probably not. The side of you foot, on the inside part, just below the ankles? Possibly. In the core of your foot, around the arch area? This is possible too. In the metatarsal area (behind the pad of your foot, but forward of the arch/instep. Does the instep hurt? This is the top of your foot, in front of the ankle. I'm just guessing, Zeke, and I'm not a doctor.

You have expensive arch supports. This is good. Do you have 'flat feet?' That is....when you step out of the pool and walk on the concrete, do you leave footprint like a bear? If so, then soft flexible shoes are likely to make your feet hurt.

I will say this: Zeke, I think you work in the trades. I may be mistaken, but I think you are a carpenter. I have never worked in the trades but I do regulate that industry and I have great respect for trade guys. Industrial Athletes. Seriously. And the body is basically done in twenty years. The man soldier's on anyway.

[Danimal16]

Originally Posted by tabs

Starting in the late 90's American shoe mfg started outsourcing production, by 2005 most of the venerable American shoe mfgs went BK.. The brands were bought up by Holding co's where the mfg was contracted out to factories overseas. At first the quality was almost comparable to what was being made in America. As time when ton to maintain price point quality went down, down and down.

Today Alden is the only American shoe mfg left. Allen Edmonds cuts the material in the Dominican Rep and does the assembly in the USA. For Edmonds 400 to 450 is the starting point, Alden about $600. THAT IS WHAT IT COSTS FOR A GOOD BUT NOT GREAT PAIR OF DRESS SHOES. You want a cut above it's a G. Fact of life..

There is almost a cult about the old Florsheim 5 nail Imperials...guys will spend $650 t get them restored... they won't even wear em, but put them on display. The Japaneses in particular treasure them. Some guys think they are the best shoes ever made..on a production basis anyway. It is not a bad idea to restore them considering the quality of the shoe you will wind up with.

There are still good American made boots to be had...Red Wing, Danner, Chipewa among
others...

BUT THEN WE STEP INTO A WHOLE NEW REALM of the semi custom or custom boot mfg...Whites, Nicks, Wesco, Viberg, among others..

Then what I can see is the penultimate: https://www.kreosote.com/

Especially the Rail Road Nail boot..

You forgot E. T. Wright.

[VINMAN]

Im worse than a woman when it comes,to footwear... I probably have around 12 pairs of boots alone.
My daily work footwear consists of either work boots or tactical boots. Work boots are three different Red Wing lace ups and a pair of Ariat. All are super high quality. The Ariats are,also my usual cycle boots. My tactical boots are either 511s or Under Armor. Have four pairs,of those... The Under Armors, are like wearing sneakers they are so comfortable. My casual/ hiking boots have been Merrel Moabs or Solomans. The Merrells have really been made like crap the last bunch of years. The quality has degraded for sure.

[Racerbvd]

Mainly Sperry, Van and stupid expensive dress shoes.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by LWJ

I wear dress shoes in normal times. Allen Edmonds have been a favorite. My best pair was purchased in 1996!!!

Bought me some AA wingtips in 89 at Nordstrom in Anchorage. Leather was a tiny bit too soft but very comfortable. Only got 20 years use out of them after one or two resoles.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by Danimal16

You forgot E. T. Wright.

there is a long list of great American shoe mfg's that are GONE FOREVER....

I have NWB Wrights...

Beside Florsheim & Alden ..Cole Haan, French Shriner, Hanover, Nettleton, Footjoy Classics, Johnson & Murphy, Dexter, Executive Imperial, Bostonian (Windsors), Jarman (General Shoe co) among others.

I even have a pair of vtg Giannini Versach 8 inch brown WW2 US military style boots. I was lookin at a rack of shoes and on top I spotted these brown boots..when I pulled them the first thing I noticed was the Versach Medusa head shoe lace hooks... I thought omg.. $15.00

I have seen em for $1200 used

They are Norwegian welted boots...super quality..

[URY914]

Tabs knows shoes.

[Tobra]

What are you planning to do, with these comfy shoes? When you say, expensive supports, what does that mean?

For walking, I would suggest a decent running shoe. You can get elastic shoe laces that will do a decent job of keeping them secure and still be able to slide them on with a long shoe horn.
To get a leather boot to conform to your foot more quickly, run hot tap water, fill the boot with hot water, dump it out, then put the boots on with a good thick set of socks, walk around until they are dry. I have seen devices that you twist to pull the laces tight, but with a boot, I don't think it would work that well, you sort of want to pull them tight as you are lacing them up.

Shoes should not hurt your feet.

[rusnak]

Originally Posted by Danimal16

You forgot E. T. Wright.

Also "New Balance 990" I have a pair and they're awesome.

[Instrument 41]

A good boot is made by Lucchese. Expensive but so worth it. I also have a pair of Nocona Roper smooth ostrich that have been resoled 3 times and they are like slippers and still look great.

[Bill Douglas]

I wear these Salomon hiking boots as my "work boots". They are very light and supportive. When I run out of steam it's usually my feet that say they have done enough for the day. With the light weight boots I'm OK for another hour or so.

[URY914]

Originally Posted by Tobra

For walking, I would suggest a decent running shoe.

And for running do you suggest a decent walking shoe?

[ckcarr]

You want to save more in the short run, but end up spending more in the long run get on a company mailing list.

Never pay full retail at the Clarks on-line store. They're always running promotions up to 50% off already discounted shoes.

Allen Edmonds has different sales depending on how picky you are.
They have their "factory seconds" sales, which are blow outs of imperfect shoes. Many people love this. Then they rotate sales, like their boots, then dress shoes, or maybe annual cordovan sale...

Irony is there are some really good YouTube channels devoted specifically to men's shoes, with huge followings. They can get really addicting too..

This guy at Rose Anvil tears shoes apart. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCId9g4zlQ9BOn6fLKIt1Y0A

These brothers at Trenton & Heath put shoes back together: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVYlC0HmT9eZI3ZrFy_xthQ

The Boot Guy (might have quit) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ERIHMtYnY-QwgYnbDFjXw

And on and on. Once you watch one, then suddenly another pops up...

I know everything about shoes now after last summer's lockdowns..
I wanted to become a cobbler like Daniel Day Lewis did...

[flatbutt]

I'm amazed at how pairs of shoes I have. Of course I'm including the specialty shoes/boots that I have such as MC boots and cycling shoes. For everyday I wear sneakers, any old brand will do. If I'm walking/hiking a short distance I wear low Merrills, long distance HiTec over the ankle. When I'm out **** kickin' it's my Frey boots.

[flipper35]

New Balance for tennis shoes but for dress shoes I like Rockports. Might be just my feet, but they are as good as any tennis shoe for walking all day.

[911 Rod]

I wear orthotics as well.
Problem I find is the first thing you do is pull out the insoles of your new shoes to put the orthotics in. Be nice if you could buy them without the insoles.
I never knew I had sore feet until I did a 3 day bass tournament.
Now my feet hurt all the time.

[cassisrot]

Clarks for casual, LL Beans for ‘dress’ and Ariats for ‘work’.

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by flipper35

New Balance for tennis shoes but for dress shoes I like Rockports. Might be just my feet, but they are as good as any tennis shoe for walking all day.

SAS makes a dress shoe you could probably wear to play basketball, but they would get all scuffed up.


Oh yeah, wear support stockings. Start with low compression ones, less than 15 mm Hg, measure circumference of calf to determine size.

[masraum]

Of course, like the rest of our bodies, there are actually big variations in how our feet work from person to person, wide feet, narrow feet, long feet, short feet, high arches, flat feet, etc.... What that means is that a shoe that's great for Bob may suck for Tom and then the shoe that Tom loves may be torture for Nick.

You can look at various manufacturers that are known to make quality shoes, then you really have to try a bunch. You even have to try different shoes within the same manufacturer.

If you look at the Allen Edmonds website, they make their shoes based on 20 different lasts. Some are due to boot vs shoe, but others are just slightly different shape. Some shapes work better with some feet. So if you get an Allen Edmonds shoe that's based on the #65 last, you may love it, but if you get a shoe based on the 108 last, you might hate the fit.

https://www.allenedmonds.com/discover/shoes-101/lasts.html

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Tobra

What are you planning to do, with these comfy shoes? When you say, expensive supports, what does that mean?

For walking, I would suggest a decent running shoe. You can get elastic shoe laces that will do a decent job of keeping them secure and still be able to slide them on with a long shoe horn.
To get a leather boot to conform to your foot more quickly, run hot tap water, fill the boot with hot water, dump it out, then put the boots on with a good thick set of socks, walk around until they are dry. I have seen devices that you twist to pull the laces tight, but with a boot, I don't think it would work that well, you sort of want to pull them tight as you are lacing them up.

Shoes should not hurt your feet.

I think that's silly question. Insoles to me are mostly a ripoff. For instance, is there a Dr. Scholes that is not a piece of junk? Not where I shop. The insole that Thorogood puts in their boots is available separately and cost around $20. It's good. I've seen much more expensive. Generally, I stack them. First is a thin non memory foam just for a little (and I mean a little) lift. Then goes in some kind of arch support insert.

As I said, I over pronate a little but I have healthy arches so I have to up the game a little to compensate for the pronation. Of course a 6 or 8" boot does a lot for that laced up properly.

The previous post about western boots was a good one. They do have great arch support as well as ankle stabilization. However, I always thought c'boy boots cause big toe deformity due to the pointed toe box. I've certainly seen some ugly feet on western boot wearers.

I got rid of mine but I didn't have 300 dollar boots. One pair had a modified toe box that was more rounded. Didn't look quite right but I didn't care. I bought them in too much of a hurry while passing through Texas at a mega boot store. They were always too tight but the salesman was pushing hard on the fact that they would grow to shape and expand with wear. Never did and hard to return.

I've neve heard of pouring water in a boot. Do manufacturers really condone that?