Today's Shoes

Day

Alden wing-tip high-lace boots in cigar shell cordovan on Plaza last. Alden is one of the two remaining American manufacturers of decent shoes (Allen-Edmonds is the other), and it is known far and wide as a shell cordovan specialist. In fact, shell cordovan is probably the reason that Alden is still in business. While almost all of the other American shoe manufacturers were either going bankrupt or moving their manufacturing offshore, Alden was busy turning its shell cordovan shoes into objects of adoration in Germany and Japan, where they can command prices almost twice as high as they can in the United States. This last little tidbit of information explains the business plan of Tom Park, proprietor of LeatherSoul in Hawaii. Hawaii gets oodles of Japanese tourists. Tom figured that if he sold shoes that the Japanese fetishized, like Alden and Edward Green, at full retail US prices, these Japanese tourists would think that they were getting fantastic bargains and would stock up. So far, it has worked very well for him. It doesn't hurt that he's a great guy who loves shoes and comes up with fantastic ideas like these Alden boots.

Evening

Santoni Goodyear-welted chukka boots in dark brown suede with a thick latex outsole (Neville model). Nice boots, and it was wet outside this evening.