Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette! In today's video, we'll discuss whether
an iconic American dress shoe, the Park Avenue from Allen Edmonds, is worth your
money or not. Today's video is another installment in our ongoing series, is it
worth it? where we take an in-depth look at the
history and quality of various menswear and luxury brands, you can find the full
playlist here. This video will focus on what is perhaps the standard to which
all other American dress shoes are compared, the Park Avenue from Allen
Edmonds. Before we go over the shoe itself though, let's start with a brief
history of the company. In 1922, Elbert W. Allen Sr. founded a shoe company in
Belgium, Wisconsin. Ralph Spiegel was an initial investor and partner to Allen
but he was later bought out by William Edmonds. Therefore, the company was
christened Allen Edmonds. The company quickly gained notoriety for their
innovative manufacturing processes such as removing nails and metal shanks from
their construction to create a more flexible and lightweight shoe, referred
to as Osteopathic in its early years of production. The shank of an Allen Edmonds
shoe would often be made of wood to maintain durability while increasing
comfort. After providing shoes to the US Army and Navy during World War II, Allen
Edmonds gained a major following as many of the soldiers from these branches of
the military became lifelong customers of the brand. Thereafter, founder Elbert
Allen died in 1946 at which time, his son Elbert Jr. took over control of the
company. He was followed in turn by his brother Boyd in 1968 and then by John
Stollenwerk in 1980. The original factory in Belgium, Wisconsin burned to the
ground in January of 1984. Following both a literal and metaphorical rebuild, Allen
Edmonds opened a factory in nearby Port Washington,
Wisconsin where they still operate today. We're showing some photos here from
Raphael's trip to the factory but if you'd like to see some video footage, you
can check out these offerings from the Kavalier and the Elegant Oxford, here. In
1987, the subsidiary company Woodlore was launched, manufacturing shoe trees
and other accessories. The 1990s were a period of great growth and expansion for
Allen Edmonds during which time, they purchased the main shoe company of
Lewiston, Maine and began to diversify their product range incorporating other
products such as umbrellas. In 2003, the company invested 1 million dollars to
refit their factory in order to cut down on production costs. This may have been
assigned that the boom of the 90s was coming to an end. By 2006, they were again
concerned with rising manufacturing costs and wanted to enter other shoe
markets. As such, they closed their Factory in Lewiston, Maine and opened a
factory in the Dominican Republic. While the factory in Port Washington still
produces the classic lines of dress shoes in house, some of the other lines
such as boat shoes are now produced in the Dominican Republic.
Additionally, some leathers for other models are cut in the Dominican Republic
and then assembled in the United States. Also in 2006, 90% of the
company's shares were purchased by Minneapolis based investment firm,
Goldner Hawn Johnson and Morrison for 100 million dollars. In 2013, the company
was acquired by private equity firm, Brentwood Associates and in 2016,
Brentwood sold it to shoe conglomerate, Caleres for 255 million dollars. The
current president today is Malcolm Robinson who has previously worked for a
variety of other menswear brands including Phillips-Van Heusen. Today,
Allen Edmonds pride themselves on their history and status as an iconic American
shoe company. Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush
are just some of the many American presidents who have worn Allen Edmonds
shoes and Park Avenues, in particular. Allen Edmonds also differentiates itself
from many other shoe companies by offering a recrafting service whereby
customers can send in old or worn pairs of Allen Edmonds shoes to be largely
rebuilt for a fee. As part of this recrafting, the welt will be replaced and a
new cork lining inserted, the soles, heels, and laces will also be replaced and the
uppers will be polished. So long as there are no deep cracks or tears in the
leather of the uppers and linings, Allen Edmonds will generally be able to
recraft a shoe two or three times. While you could, of course, take a pair of Allen
Edmonds shoes to your local cobbler to be repaired, sending it to Allen Edmonds
means that the shoe will be stretched over the original last shape again
ensuring that it maintains its original dimensions.
Despite Allen Edmond's heritage and reputation for quality, however, they do
find themselves today at a bit of a crossroads. Their attempts in recent
years to reach a younger, less formal clientele with more avant-garde designs
haven't necessarily fared well. This approach also alienated some longtime
customers meaning that Allen Edmonds was somewhat stuck in the middle. Also, other
longtime buyers and fans within the menswear community both on online forums
and YouTube, among other places, have begun to notice increasing issues with
quality control. So with all that said then, let's take a look at their
signature model, the Park Avenue, this is a lace-up
cap toe Oxford dress shoe. Allen Edmonds refers to it on their website as a cap
toe balmoral. While Balmoral is a term often used, especially in America, to
refer to Oxfords, it most technically refers only to a kind of boot. You can
find our article on that subject, here. And what's an Oxford? The shortest answer
is this, Oxford shoes have a closed lacing system where the vamp is sewn on
to the quarter whereas derby shoes have an open lacing
system where the quarters are sewn onto the vamp. If you would like to learn more
about any of this terminology, you can find our video on the differences in
shoe styles here and our article on the anatomy of a dress shoe here. Like many
models of Allen Edmonds shoes, the Park Avenues are Goodyear welted meaning that
the uppers are stitched to a cork filled welt and then to the sole. The Park
Avenue receives an assembly method that Allen Edmonds refers to as their
360-degree bench welt construction. A 360 degree welt holds no real advantage over
the more conventional 270 degree welt, in terms of quality, but it does allow Allen
Edmonds to more easily replace the welt and the sole when shoes are being recrafted.
The shoes feature a single oak sole with rubber top lifts on
the heel, lined calfskin leather uppers made from premium horween leather, and six
pairs of eyelets for the laces. They are welted on the 65 last which is Allen
Edmonds' most popular shape and also used for many other models including the
closely-related fifth avenue. This particular last is
known for being slightly longer than the typical American dress shoe last adding
some sleekness to the overall shape. With that said though, the overall styling of
the shoe is very traditionally American. While it's not exactly chunky or
unattractive, the shape isn't nearly as refined as what you might see from many
other British or Italian shoemakers today. In addition to this, the toe cap is
a good deal shorter than many other brands. For today's video, we purchased a
new pair of shoes online directly from Allen Edmonds for a retail price of $395.
We decided to go with black which is perhaps the most signature and
conservative shade. In addition to this new pair, we're also featuring a pair in
brown that I've personally owned for about a year now. My pair are factory
seconds meaning that I purchased them at a discount with the understanding that
they didn't necessarily meet the quality control standards to be sold at full
price, I got my pair for 250 dollars. Furthermore, as I have poor balance due
to a disability, I had rubber half soles added to my shoes by a local cobbler.
Allen Edmonds does offer a variety of other sole styles in addition to
standard leather including dainite rubber. Overall, we found the workmanship
on this new pair of shoes to be of high quality. Stitching on the uppers was
uniform with a pleasing stitch density and very few loose thread ends and the
welt stitching was largely uniform with a few minor imperfections.
There was a slight notch where the welt meets the heel on the left shoe but this
wasn't major. The leather did have creases or imperfections in some areas
but these were all quite minor and could likely be covered or even removed with
proper care and polishing over time. One somewhat unattractive feature is the
slight hump where the vamp meets the toe cap, this could be mitigated during
production by skiving or trimming away at the underside of the leather at the
seam to a greater degree. The sides of the soles received a uniform black
painting that didn't greatly spill over onto the undersides of the soles. My
factory second pair did have more imperfections in the leather of the
uppers and the soles and some uneven stitching on the welt. Still, this was to
be expected given that they were factory seconds and they've been holding up well
over a year's worth of occasional wear. Also, here's a brief word on the overall
quality control issues we alluded to earlier, while we didn't experience any
major defects with the pair we purchased for today's video and I also didn't
experience anything major with my factory second pair, it's becoming an
increasingly shared opinion in online menswear spaces that Allen Edmonds has
begun to cut back on quality control to some degree.
This should be taken with a grain of salt, however, as demand for premium
quality calfskin continues to increase worldwide and even reputable brands like
horween can sometimes struggle to find enough perfect leather pieces for every
single pair of shoes they produce. Other brands, for example, fellow American
company, Alden, have managed to keep up their extremely exacting quality
standards. With this though, their prices are substantially higher, as much as $600
per pair and discounts on their shoes are rare. So you may have to be a bit
more cautious when buying from Allen Edmonds today but we're not going to go
so far as to suggest that the overall quality of their product has
dramatically decreased. With that said though, the Kavalier has also done a
video on the current state of Allen Edmonds as a company today and you can
find it here. Regarding fit and comfort of the Park Avenues, we'll start with my
own personal pair since I've obviously worn them quite a bit more. I will say
that they did have a bit of a break-in period, perhaps two or three wears,
where I did find them to be slightly uncomfortable, particularly in the heels
where I experienced some irritation and mild blistering. After this initial
break-in period though, I've had no further issues and I now find my shoes
to be quite comfortable. I wear a size 8 and a half D in most dress shoes and
that's the size of both my personal pair of Park Avenues and the ones we
purchased for the video. I find that both pairs fit relatively well though the
quarters do gap somewhat and there is a bit of space in the heel. I could
certainly try a different fit, in fact, one point of pride for Allen Edmonds is
the wide variety of different fit options they offer. Many models will
range all the way from size 5 Triple A at the smallest and narrowest to 15
Triple E at the largest and widest. I was fitted to a size 8 and 1/2 D, however,
when I visited an Allen Edmonds store locally so it may just
be that the 65 last on which the Park Avenue is built isn't the ideal last
shape for my foot. As a side note here, I'll also mention that I do own a
handful of other pairs of Allen Edmonds shoes in different styles and made on
different lasts and I've found that the initial break-in period and overall fit
of the shoe has varied somewhat from pair to pair. After these varying
break-in periods though, I have again found that the shoes fit well overall
and are generally quite comfortable. Raphael also owns a handful of Allen
Edmonds shoes, as well as boots, and his experience has varied from pair to pair.
Some pairs he likes more than others. Now, for our main question of the video then,
is a pair of Park Avenues from Allen Edmonds worth your money or not?
Ultimately, it's likely going to depend on your budget as well as your taste. As
we said before, Allen Edmonds currently sells Park Avenues on their website for
a retail price of $395 though they do often run sales so you should be able to
find them for less. The shoes are well made with no major flaws and a durable
construction. If you properly care for them and wear them in rotation with
other shoes, they should last you for a good many years. Remember also that you
can send them back to the factory in Port Washington for around a hundred to
a hundred and fifty dollars per pair to have them re-- crafted extending their
life even further. Even so, their overall look is definitely conservative and not
quite as elegant as some other British or Italian models that you might find
today. If you're looking for a more flattering silhouette at a similar price
point, you might want to consider spending your money elsewhere. Speaking
personally, I don't mind the slightly stodgy or old-fashioned silhouette of
the shoes, in fact, I find some more modern European models to be too bold so
this isn't a downside for me. If you haven't purchased from Allen Edmonds
before and you'd like to try out some of their styles including the Park Avenue,
you might want to do as I did and try factory seconds first. Currently,
seconds aren't available on the Allen Edmonds website all the time but you
will find them occasionally. If you do decide to sign up for their email list,
they'll notify you when seconds go on sale. So while they may not be the most
elegant dress shoes on the market today and quality control is perhaps a bit
more of a gamble than it was in past years, the models from Allen Edmonds and
the Park Avenue in particular stand as quality American dress shoes. They're
durable, comfortable, recraftable, and made in the USA with a few exceptions on
each of these points. Are they the best shoe on the market today? Not necessarily
but they are a dependable shoe that should serve you well as a sort of base
model and for that reason, we think they are worth it. in today's video I am of
course wearing a pair of Allen Edmonds Park Avenue cap toe Oxfords. these are
the brown models that I've had for about a year now. to go for a more conservative
and traditional look I've chosen to pair them with a charcoal Brown suit that
features a fine pinstripe in tan and light blue the jacket is ventless and
the trousers have pleats as well as suspender buttons as such I'm wearing
suspenders today which happen to also be blue harmonizing with the overall yellow
and blue color palette which I've got going I'm also wearing a pastel yellow
dress shirt with French cuffs in which I'm wearing the gold-plated sterling
silver Eagle Claw cufflinks from Fort Belvedere featuring lapis lazuli as the
stone the cufflinks harmonized well with my other accessories which are also from
Fort Belvedere these include my boutonniere which is an Edelweiss model
my socks which are Shadow striped models in navy and yellow my madder silk tie
also in navy with a repeating diamond motif in red buff and orange and my silk
wool blend pocket square in a color we're calling antique gold ochre
featuring a pattern of printed geometric medallion
in beige red and blue with a cream contrast edge you can find all of the
accessories I'm wearing in today's outfit including the cufflinks tie
pocket square boutonniere and socks in the Fort Belvedere shop