Hi I'm Kirby Allison founder
of The Hanger Project.
In today's video I'm going to be talking
about one of the most popular American
shoe brands; Allen Edmonds.
Customers call us often saying
I'm looking to buy my first pair of
really nice dress shoes what should
I invest in?
And what I tell customers is that you really should
be at the Allen Edmonds level
or better. At 395,
these aren't cheap shoes;
they are certainly an investment.
But with Allen Edmonds you can know that you're buying
a shoe that is really substantiated
with quality that's well made
from quality components
and that if taken care of properly
can easily last you a decade
or more. And in this video I'm going to show
you some of the most popular dress shoe models
and talk about the construction techniques
that really make this a shoe that
is worthy of your investment
and that can last decades if
taken care of properly.
If you have any questions during this video
please ask them in the comments
section below.
I make a point to get back to all
of those questions personally
and I always love to hear what viewers
think of our videos.
Let us know, do you own Allen Edmonds?
Do you enjoy wearing these?
What's your favorite shoe?
Do you think that there's a different shoe that someone
should be investing in to start out with?
Let us know.
Allen Edmonds is one of the few remaining
Great American dress shoe companies.
Manufactured in Wisconsin,
they're still made today less than 10
miles away from the original factory.
They use a 360 degree
goodyear welt,
which means that it goes all the way around.
And the reason that that's important is it allows
the sole to be easily replaced
without having to deconstruct the
entire shoe.
So it's certainly one of the most important
hallmarks of quality
and certainly any shoe that is
going to last more than a decade
needs to be goodyear welted so that the sole
can be replaced easily.
One of the other hallmarks of quality you find
with an Allen Edmond shoes is that the
uppers are made from high
quality open grain leather.
What that means is that the leather hasn't
been excessively treated in
order to correct for any blemishes
or unsightly characteristics.
And so what you have
with an open grain leather,
is a leather that one looks better
and then is going to last longer
and look better as the shoe
ages.
It's a hallmark of durability
and quality.
Allen Edmonds also applies all
of their finishes by hand which creates
a beautiful natural variation
from pair to pair;
so you could rest assured that your Allen
Edmonds are completely unique.
And one of the best things about owning
a pair of Allen Edmonds
and something that will keep your shoes
looking fantastic for a
very long time is that they
have a comprehensive re-crafting program.
Where for $125
you can send your shoes back to Allen Edmonds,
they'll replace the sole,
replace the corking which goes
underneath the sole to create
kind of a soft cushion
and then they re-last
the shoe where they stretch the leather back
over the original last,
re-welt it
and then strip,
refinish the shoe,
replace the shoe laces
and replace the heels.
One of the other things that's really cool about AE's
crafting program is that you
can replace the soles
with a completely different kind.
So let's say that your shoes originally
had an all leather dress sole,
but you wanted something that you could wear in
the rain
or in the snow.
You could have that replaced during re-crafting
with a day night for as little as
a $30 up-charge.
Shoe cobblers can do great work,
but no shoe cobblers ever going to be
able to do the restoration work that
the factory can.
So if you have the time to send your
AE's back to the factory for re-crafting,
I absolutely recommend that.
Allen Edmonds has an extensive collection
of models. But the four that you see
here today are the most classic
traditional dress shoes offered by
Allen Edmonds. The Park Avenue,
the Fifth Avenue,
the Strand
and the McAllister Wingtip.
If there's four shoes that every man
needs in their wardrobe these
are probably the ones to look at.
The Park Avenue is easily Allen
Edmond's most iconic traditional
dress shoe.
Shown here in black,
It's the first dress shoe any
man should invest in.
The reason is because it's easily the
most versatile. It's that lowest common
denominator that you can wear in
almost any occasion.
You can wear it: during the day to work,
for an interview, you can wear it in
formal occasions after 6 o'clock.
If you have a proper high shine on the toe,
you can even wear it
with a tuxedo
or a morning suit.
This shoe is a shoe that is never
out of place.
And so although it's available
in many finishes,
if you were to have just one dress shoe
the black cap-toe Oxford Park Avenue
would be the one I would invest in.
One of the other design elements
that's quite unique to Allen Edmonds is that
they use six eyelets in
all their dress shoes
and it's really kind of the American way.
A lot of the European companies you see
with five eyelets.
And so the six eyelets of Allen Edmonds,
they're one of a few companies still
committed to doing six eyelets,
is a small subtle detail
that you're wearing Allen Edmonds.
If you're looking for a slightly
less formal shoe maybe something
that's got a little bit more character.
The Allen Edmond's Fifth Avenue is
a great choice.
This is almost exactly the
same as the Park Avenue,
except there's a little bit of broging across
the toe-cap.
Now any time you add broging to
a shoe the less formal
it becomes. So the more holes
you put in a pair of shoes the less formal
it is. So this is a great shoe.
Equally as appropriate during the day
but isn't something that you'd necessarily
want to wear after six o'clock to a formal
dinner and you really couldn't get
away with that properly
with a tuxedo.
But if you're looking for a little bit more
visual interest you want something that
isn't just plain then
this is a fantastic shoe.
Even slightly more casual,
is the Allen Edmonds Strand.
So this is still a cap-toe Oxford,
but as you can see it's added a medallion
and even more broging detail
to just create an even more formal
shoe.
This is a great shoe to have
in an light brown like this Walnut
pictured here,
because you can easily
wear it on the weekends
with jeans
or with a more casual suit.
And finally we have the McAllister Wingtip.
Now there is very few more quintessentially
American dress shoes than a wingtip.
Most of the sales people for IBM in the
1960s all wore
black wingtips.
Now as you can see here it's got
a tremendous amount of broging.
And so it is the least formal
of all these shoes even
though it's the most closely associated
with formal business dress.
This shoe in black is a perfect
day time formal dress shoe.
But in a dark brown like
this chili,
or even a walnut It's
a beautiful dress shoe that is certainly
not out of place in any well-appointed
wardrobe. Now Allen Edmonds has way
more shoes than the four models
that we have pictured here
but these represent the core
of any business dress shoe
wardrobe.
You've got your plain cap-toe Oxford,
you've got a cap-toe
with a little bit a toe-cap broging,
you've got your less formal
cap-toe Oxford
with a medallion
and full broging,
and then you have your Wingtip.
These are fantastic shoes that
will be as timeless
and as classic today
as they will be 20
or 30 years from now.
So if you're really looking to invest
in something of quality I
always recommend going
with those timeless classic styles that
you can be confident you'll enjoy
wearing just as much in 20 years
as you do the day you buy them.
The five standard finishes that you
can find at Allen Edmonds Black,
Oxblood,
Brown,
Walnut
and Dark Chili.
Each of these four models that I just showed
you are available in any of these
five finishes.
Another great benefit of buying Allen
Edmonds shoes is that they have one
of the widest selection of sizes
and widths of any stocked
dress shoe program that I think exists.
So you can find everything from a
B to a triple D width,
from a six
and a half to a size 15.
So you can walk into an Allen Edmonds store
and trust that you can find a pair of dress shoes
that is going to fit you well.
The other thing that I really like about Allen Edmonds
is that they manufacture all
of their shoes in a variety of different dress
sole options.
You can get a full leather sole.
Right, which is the most traditional
dress shoe sole.
You can get a B tread,
which is what they call it where the front half
is rubber.
So if you're someone that walking a lot
or often times is walking in rain
or snow,
the rubber soul is just going to provide
that additional protection to the shoe.
And if you really need durability you
can go with the day night.
Now this is a great sole for
people that either live in big cities
where you're oftentimes walking
in the rain
or if you live anywhere
with snow.
Because it's a fully rubber sole,
you don't have to worry about any salt
or water getting into the shoe
and delegating the construction.
A question we receive often here The Hanger
Project, is that I just bought a new
pair of dress shoes,
do I need to polish them?
The short answer is that absolutely.
If you just bought a new pair of shoes,
polishing them
with some Saphir Medaille d'Or cream
polish and a little bit of Pate De Luxe wax
polish is really going to make
those shoes look great.
The reason is is any factory made
shoe does not receive
any type of actual polishing at
the factory itself.
So there's no protective waxes,
there's no nourishment that
a cream polish is going to provide that leather
and they just don't look as polished
as a properly polished pair of
shoes. If you want to learn how to shine a
new pair of shoes,
take a look at How To Shine New
Shoes video on our YouTube channel.
The other thing I recommend for any
new pair of shoes is to buy a pair of
shoe trees
and to always use a shoe horn.
That when combined
with regular polishing would ensure
that your shoes continue to look great
for years.
Another question we receive often is
how do I know if my shoes need
to be resoled?
One, you want to see whether
or not holes are beginning to develop
in the dress sole itself.
If you see any type
of round holes developing that
definitely means it's time to send them
in the be resoled.
The other thing is if you're pushing down
on the sole
and it seems soft,
then that means that the cork filling
on the inside of the shoe has been
worn down.
Another tall tale sign that
it's time to send your shoes in for resoling.
This pair of Allen Edmonds,
which was part of our $50 eBay
challenge,
you can see has a worn sole
but doesn't have any holes
and still is quite firm to the touch.
This shoe easily has several
years ahead of it before the soles need
to be replaced.
And of course there's always the question
of how often should I polish
my shoes?
The short answer is that you should polish
them as often as they look like
they need to be polished.
One of the first things people will
notice when they meet you for the first time is
your watch and your shoes.
And for that reason,
it's very important to not only
invest in a high quality pair of
dress shoes,
but to take care of them
with regular
and proper polishing.
So a great story a friend of mine recently shared
with me was how his mentor
took him into his closet to
show him an area on his floor
that was worn down
and black.
And he asked his mentee,
you know do you know why
my carpet looks like this?
Of course he said no
and he said this is where I
have polished my shoes every
morning for the last 40 years.
I thought it was an incredible story because
oftentimes in this day of age
you know we forget how professionals
always polished their shoes
as a sign of integrity.
Showing up to work having polished
your shoes and having shoes that are
well-made and well looked after
is a sign that you take care of
the details that are often overlooked
by other people
and therefore you can be trusted.
So anyone that's serious about their career,
their identity
or their profession,
looking after your shoes is
as critical to that as showing up
to work wearing appropriate clothing.
So I challenge you to shine your shoes
regularly.
Either on Sunday while you're watching football
or even during conference calls at the
office, polishing your shoes regularly
will ensure that they continue to look great
and last a long time.
And if you're shining your shoes. tag
The Hanger Project
or hashtag #ShoeShineSunday
and we'd love to feature you on our Instagram
page. I'm Kirby Allison founder
of The Hanger Project
and here we love helping
the well-dressed take care of their wardrobes.
If you had any questions about
anything we discussed in this video,
feel free to ask them in the comments section
below.
I love getting back to those questions personally.
If you like this video give us the thumbs
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whenever we release our next video.
I'm Kirby Allison thanks for joining