But when I went to this shoe shop a few days ago, ALL the shoes had leather soles. And in my experience, that vast majority of dress shoes have leather soles. So people must be buying this shit. Although, I looked at people on the street and notice that virtually all people in suits have shoes with rubber soles.
These are £200 shoes, though. So maybe they're better than those cheap shoes I got in the past.
The recommendation is not to get the shoes wet for the first few days. It rained on the first and second day that I wore them. But...leather isn't peeling so far.
So I found out that cobblers still exist. Shoes with leather soles are supposed to wear out (though probably not within a month) and then you go and get the sole replaced for a nominal fee (say, £40). There are also thin rubber soles that they can put on top the leather sole to help reduce wear and increase traction. So when these shoes start to go, I'm going to get the soles replaced and have these rubber soles put on top of the leather sole.
Comfort-wise, I think they're pretty good. I'm thinking of every other pair of dress shoes I've ever owned where I had to stuff toilet paper into my socks because the shoes would dig into my ankles so badly that I'd come home with my feet covered in blood. Small toe discomfort is another common problem. These things go away as the shoe is broken in but it's a slow and painful process.
These shoes, no serious pain issues. There are two small blisters on the side my right foot and that's it. No blood, ankles are good, soles are good, toes are good. So maybe better shoes do make a difference.
These shoes also came with swanky accessories: a branded shoehorn and two branded slip covers for when you want to travel with your shoes. It actually makes sense. You don't want to put your disgusting shoes in your luggage in direct contact to your clothes. So the bags are a classier option than a plastic bag, which was my previous method.
Also, thinking about it, I probably paid £100 for the last pair of shoes I got, they were rubber soled, and I ran them into the ground. They aren't the sort of shoes that you would have re-soled. I don't even know if they can do that for rubber sole shoes. It got to the point where the soles were so thin that I was getting continuous blisters on the sole of my foot, it was painful to walk, and the last straw was when a crack developed on the sole of the shoe which allowed for water ingress and I had to walk around with soggy socks from diseased street water all day.
I thought that I had those shoes for a long time. They certainly looked like I had them for a long time. But as I looked back, I bought them in Glasgow. So I had them for probably a year and a half at best.
So at least with these new shoes, if they last a year before needing to be re-soled, that would be awesome. But I somehow doubt they'll last that long. But even if we're talking six months and I have them re-soled with the rubber put on, I'd be happy with that. Re-soling every six months? I can handle that.
Also, I should probably buy more shoes to get a rotation going and make the shoes last longer. I'll see how long these last first. I'd like some Church's shoes. And with my big steno money, I can afford it.
Let me see what they have on offer. All the shoes I've ever worn are in the style of the shoes I bought. These are just a bit fancier with the brown part. Maybe I should go for something bolder without being gay.
No slip ons...nothing with rivets...has to be black...yeah, this is what I mean. You can search by sole. There's 15 types with rubber soles and probably 100 with leather soles.
Man, this is a really bad site. Tough to navigate on this shit. First of all, these shoes are all pictured in profile so they all look pretty much identical. Secondly, there aren't many options to separate the wheat from the chaff. It's just by collection (I don't know what "collection" I'm interested in), material (who's buying shoes based on material...and "calf" is different from "leather", I guess), colour, and sole (of which there are loads of choices but I have no idea what they mean..."commando sole"?)
So it's ridiculous. How about a sort by price?
Slim pickings, frankly. I might wear these but not for 750 euros.
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