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Monday, December 14. 2009Shoes for Industry!A practical Christmas. Around here, the son and heir needs a new business suit or two from J. Press, and some new dress work shoes like these from Nordstroms. He is supposed to look professional at work. Suits only, it seems. J. Press or Brooks are always ok unless you work at Goldman. Those oxford shoes from Nordstrom's are great, very comfortable shoes for the price. I have a pair of em in brown which had been hiding in the back of the closet, but there are plenty of custom hand-made Italian- or Brit-shoe snobs around here who would only wear such things on rainy days. Not me. They are plenty good enough for me. Decent shoes, if you have a few of them, last at least half a lifetime (or until gravity broadens your footsies and the old shoes don't fit). The lad could also use a pair of classic Brooks' tassel loafers too, but Santa is on a budget. Santa will try to help a little bit, but a fellow's permanent professional wardrobe is built over time. Fortunately for most guys, fashion doesn't play a role in it. What was appropriate from Brooks Brothers in 1960 is about right today in most work settings. Me? I should dress well for work, but I can't be bothered anymore. A character flaw maybe, but I just got tired of it. Who among our readers knows what "Shoes for Industry" refers to? Or, I should say, "to what 'Shoes for Industry' refers." And, in passing, where the heck do those " s belong? Inside or outside the . s?
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Would it perchance be...this: http://www.firesigntheatre.com/albums/album.php?album=sfi
? My dear spousal unit is a general counsel for a multibillion $ business and wears Rockport's "Margin" model for his business/casual office environment. If they're new, he'll even wear them with a suit.
What is with the shopping lists and brand name dropping? It is cringe inducing.
Sheesh again.
It's Christmastime. Time to indulge in a bit of harmless materialism. I've known that ever since I was gradated from Commie Martyr High School.
I'm gonna cut the soles off my shoes and learn to play the bongos!
Just after college I went shopping in a boutique suit store. I was convinced to try a suit on, and when the tailor held it "just so" it made me look as good as I've ever looked. After the tailoring it still looked that way, at least until I began to leave my scrawny youthful frame behind and fill out a bit.
I took the suit back several years later, and said "hey this doesn't fit me anymore, is there anything you can do?" and much to my surprise there was. I have no idea where they found the cloth within the garments, but they managed to increase the size of both the trousers and jacket by a couple sizes, and it still looked good. I now know that that suit was their very low end, equivalent in quality to a mass market department store suit. The tailoring is what made it great, and the service. And although I paid more than twice as much as I had ever paid for a suit before, I managed to wear it for twice as long, while looking good. On the other end of the shopping spectrum, on a few occasions lately I've spotted higher-end shoes on the rack at Goodwill. On closer inspection, they turned out to have no crease in the toe and no wear on the heel&sole. I've managed to shush the sensible part of me that tells me not to buy secondhand shoes, as they were obviously purchased for an event, worn once, and then closeted until death or divorce. I figure that someone paid over $200 for the shoes the first time and never got their money's worth, so I might as well enjoy them. I've never managed to get significant life out of shoes, even with rotation, shoe-trees, and frequent trips to the cobbler. I think I walk too much, and kneel too much, so I scuff the toe and make permanent unsightly creases on the toes. The shoes to get, IMHO, are Allen Edmonds. The pair on my feet look almost exactly the same.
I get mine at Nordstrom Rack, usually for about $100. With resoles and new heals, they will last 20 years of regular office wear. Since you only parenthesized (if that wasn't a word before, it is now!) a phrase, your " should be inside the '.'. "Now if your entire sentence was encapsulated, then the punctuation mark would be as well."
Bass outlet store. I've got a pair of hoity-toit shoes that feel like bedroom slippers. Forty-five bucks. You just wait, you young whippersnappers. As you get older, your feet begin to do strange things. Years of wearing pumps every day on the job did my feet in, causing strange bumps to appear. Now I'm an Easy Spirit girl, and glad to be so. And my husband is a Rockport and ECCO boy. Let me assure you. Those three shoemakers are miles ahead of the shoes old folks wore in my grandmother's day. Ground grippers they were, and kind of frightening looking.
Now, if I could just get rid of the cane I'm using more and more often. Oh, well... Marianne Johnston and Murphy provide lifetime shoes. Avoid the frou-frou trendy ones and stick to the wingtips, oxfords, or cap toes that have the little hammer symbol in the catalog or online - means they can be rebuilt. I have a few pairs that are over 10 years old and on the second soles, the uppers are just now nicely broken in. And yes, when the feet get older and splay, J&M's come in two different wide sizes, and have a lot of support. Downside? Buy-in is around $175 for the lower end stuff, around $275 to $350 for the higher end stuff. The key diff is that the pricier stuff breaks in faster - in about three years. Bonus: they usually have great sales and sell their basic shoes for around $50 or $100 off. Perhaps because I wear dress shoes every day and destroy all the cheaper softer ones (Bostonian, Allen Edmond, Rockports), I don't find $175 an outrageous fee for a good pair of shoes that will last for a career.
In this house it is "MEPHISTO". The standard brown tie up type; they can be rebuilt for about $80.00 and are good for another 2 years. The original purchase price ($395) is a little up there, but for the support and comfort they are the only ones. DH and I have the same model and are both on our 3rd pairs. We discovered MEPHISTO years ago-it may be the best thing France turns out! Recently, (since feet have been doing that spreading thing MM talks about) I have also been wearing their leather "tennis" shoes. Very wide toe box and very comfortable
Re:Shoes For Industry.
Either the title of or a phrase used in a Firesign Theater piece from way back in the extralegal pharmaceutical smoke filled '70's. http://www.amazon.com/Shoes-Industry-Best-Firesign-Theatre/dp/B0000028OU Over & Out, P Crox + push mower + steep slope = "black toenail" += most mind-numbingly painful month of throbbing can't-touch-it-with-a-feather big toenail imaginable this side of the inner circle of Don't Tease Inferno
buddy my friend ... My deepest sympathies! Somehow, some people don't realize how horribly, naggingly painful foot injuries can be. I broke a toe on my left foot back in January, broke it in two places, and it has taken the devil of a long time to heal. I don't mention it often, because people, even my Spousal Unit, look at you politely and say, "Well ...?" Only those others who have had a similar injury can understand. It will heal. But it takes too dam* long to do it, in my opinion.
Marianne So right you are --luckily, i can still walk --but only in circles. very frustrating!
I'm not sure where that quote came from.. I'm still waiting for the electrician or someone like him.
Allen Edmonds--good brand, I own a couple of pairs, bought from Nordstrom's. Stylish and comfortable. Mephisto--also good brand, bought two pairs in France for half the US price and walked all over Provence in them. Had them resoled here in the US via mail service, which was very speedy. Bally--the Swiss made ones, not the Italian ones--are my favorites. I prefer the narrow continental style they stopped making many years ago. I have a dozen pairs of them in different shades of leather, some of them now 20+ years old, also bought from Nordstrom's. I'll be meeting my Maker before they do.
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