Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette!
Today's video is all about dress shoes and how you can find the right fit, what constitutes
a good fit, and how you determine your proper size.
In recent years, buying shoes online has become very popular.
Originally, people thought "How can I buy a shoe that I've never tried on that actually
fits properly?".
Now, even if you're at a store in your try on shoes,
you might not find some that fit because at the end of the day, all that
matters is the last, its shape, and the size, and whether it works for your foot or not.
Humans are an asymmetrical bunch.
For example, look at me, my right shoulder is a lot lower than my left one and because
of that, the arm is a different length and it's the same for your hands, for
your face, and for your feet.
The left side is never like the right one.
The solution to that problem would be that every man out there gets a pair of bespoke
shoes.
The problem with that is it costs about $2,000 for one pair and
it's simply not something the majority of men out there can afford.
That's where off the rack shoes come into play; they're nicely finished on an elegant
last with high-quality leather, hand polished and burnished, at just a fraction of what
a bespoke shoe would cost you.
For example, look at these shoes by Ace Marks, they cost $300,
they're made in Italy from high-quality leather, they use a rather flexible Blake rapid stitch
sole and the inside is cushioned with some foam between the leather,
that way, you just have a very comfortable feel.
On top of that, their last is well thought through and it fits my foot really really
well.
It's a medium D width and it's slim in the heel, it hugs my foot in the middle, and overall,
the fit for me is very close to a custom shoe even though it just costs a fraction.
So today's video is brought to you by Ace Marks and all the shoes you can see here are
from them.
So how do you find a pair of shoes that fits you really really well?
First of all, let's talk about what a good fit constitutes and
then let's talk about sizing.
In my opinion, the most important part for fit of a shoe is the middle part.
You want it to really fit snugly around your foot so it holds it in place even without
you having to tie your shoelaces.
At the same time, you want the front part of your foot to have enough room in the front
and be neither too wide or too slim at the side.
When you walk, your foot gets longer and shorter and because of that, you want about half an
inch to an inch or one to three centimeters in front of your longest toe inside the shoe
so you compensate for the movement and you're always comfortable.
So what's right?
The perfect width of the last is the one that just hugs you without being too tight or too
loose.
Another important aspect of the fit of the shoe is the vamp.
If there's too much space between the vamp and your foot, you'll easily see wrinkles
in the leather and it's also more uncomfortable to walk in them.
Ideally, you want the leather to be very close to your foot without it being too
tight and uncomfortable for you.
Finally, my pet peeve with most ready to wear shoes is the heel.
Most shoe company is designed so it's very roomy and wide so it fits every kind of shoe,
however, I find it's very important that it's very close to your heel because that way,
it hugs it, you're not gonna slide out when you walk, and it's a lot more comfortable
to wear a shoe that way.
Because of that, all bespoke shoes are always very tight and so whenever I slip into a shoe
that has a tight heel, I immediately feel like oh wow this is more like a custom shoe.
Also to keep the shoe in shape, you have caps in the front and in the back.
Most of the time, heel caps are stiffer than the front caps and some are really stiff and
uncomfortable.
So if your heel doesn't fit a hundred percent in there, it's gonna hurt and you may end
up with blisters.
These shoes here are quite nice in the sense that the heel is not too wide, the cap gives
stability but it's not too hard, and the leather is really soft so there's some room for different
heels and different sizes.
Now with the lace-up shoe, you always have the benefit of having laces that keep things
in place but you don't want things to be too tight.
When a shoe is new and the leather is unstretched, you will likely see a slight v-shape in between
the laces in an Oxford that should close overtime.
Too much of V shape means that you need to last that's slightly bigger or maybe you just
have a bigger foot.
Now, if you have laces you can get away with a fit that is maybe just 90 or 95 percent
versus if you go with a slip on or a loafer shoe such as this penny loafer from Ace Marks,
you have to get a fit that is much better because you don't have laces that help you.
Again, it's super important on a loafer that hugs you tightly around here and that the
heel isn't too wide otherwise, your feet will slide out all the time.
With new shoes, when in doubt always go slightly in a smaller side with a slip-on shoe because
you don't want them to come loose and otherwise, you won't be able to wear them at all later
on.
So one of little secret that you don't hear about very often is that when you remove the
shoe and you get that sound like the release of a vacuum, that's a good indicator that
you have a tight fit.
On a bespoke shoe that's usually what you get and it's also a little more difficult
to take them off so if you experience that, chances are this shoe fits your foot quite
well.
So now that you know how a shoe should fit properly, how do you find the proper size?
Of course, it sounds very simple and you just have to measure your feet before you buy.
The problem is your left foot is not just different than your right foot but the size
of your foot also varies throughout the day with a swelling and depending on how much
you walk.
For most people, the feet are biggest in the evening so that's a good time when you should
measure your shoes or go and buy shoes.
Goes without saying that you should always measure both feet because sometimes people
have more than a size difference between left and right.
In the US, the most common sizing system is the Brannock system.
You can find these metal sizers in shoe stores all across the US or you can buy them on Amazon
for about 60 to 65 bucks.
That device is very simple you just step in take the reading of the width as well as your
length based on your big toe.
Now, most people don't have a device at home and because of that Ace Marks provides you
with a letter-sized and a din a4 format shoe sizer that you can just print out at home.
We will provide you with the different links in the print out below and once you have that,
you simply take it, you tape in the middle, you check the size either with a dollar bill
or with a credit card because sometimes printers are calibrated in a weird way that makes things
print bigger or smaller and that would of course throw off the sizing.
Once you have it though your heel must be on the line.
I always suggest to take a big book put it down.
That way you can't slide back then you stand there and then you take a pen and mark it
slightly facing inward where your big toe is and that way you determine your size, do
it on both feet and you know exactly what size you should get.
What I've found over time is that a lot of shoe companies have different sizes within
their own brand, meaning, different lasts have different sizes and I had ten, ten and
a half, and eleven in one brand; now that's not helpful at all and it always meant I had
to buy shoes, return them, try them on again, and it's just a big hassle.
What I like about Ace Marks is that their sizing conforms to the US Brannock system
so it's all in line and if you know what your Brannock size is, you know Ace Marks is going
to fit.
While it's possible to determine the right size of your foot with a print out at home,
I suggest to have someone help you just to make sure it's 100% accurate.
Now if you don't have a printer, what you can do is to trace the outline of your foot
with socks and make sure to hold the pen slightly inward so you get a neat tight outline of
your foot.
Once you have that, you measure it from the longest point of your heel to your big toe.
With that measurement, you can check out the size chart in centimeters or inches on the
ACE Marks website and you can exactly determine what US Brannock size you are.
When you do this, make sure you stand because the size can be different than when you sit.
Personally, I wear a size 11 and a half US on the US Brannock system and it works quite
well for me.
The Ace Marks come in a medium D width and overall, they hug the middle part of my toe,
they leave enough room for my toes, and they really are good around the heel.
Lets you measure and you come up in between sizes, I suggest you simply get both
sizes have them shipped to you at home, then you can try them on on a carpet or a rug so
they don't scratch the bottom and you can send the pair back that doesn't fit you and
that way, you make sure that you get the best size
for your foot.
When it comes to the width of the shoe, most manufacturers have numbers so A means it's
a slimmer width, D usually is a medium width, and E or EE or F are larger widths.
The problem is this is not a uniform standard and so you have to look at each individual
brand and determine what is wide and what is slim and how wide or how slim they are.
So with the US Brannock system device or the printout, you can also determine your width
in medium, wide or extra wide.
All you have to do is align the outside of your foot or the inside at that line and then
you just take the measurement on the other side.
in today's video I'm wearing a tweed sport coat in brown it's a Donegal tweed and it's
perfect for fall/winter I'm combining it with a light blue and blue striped twill shirt
with button barrel cuffs and a medium spread collar the tie
you see is a olive green cris de la soi knit tie from Fort Belvedere which you can find
in our shop here just like the pocket square which is a printed silk Paisley
pocket square in light blue blue with black from Fort Belvedere and it's
printed in England it's nice because it picks up the colors of my shirt but it pops on my
jacket the skacks I'm wearing are part of a navy suit they have turnups
they were custom made for me and they have a rougher heavier fabric and
because of that they drape nicely my shoes are a pair of medium brown Oxfords with half
broguing which means it's a cap toe with broguing it's a very versatile
shoe that I like a lot for travel and of course it's from Ace marks it's quite comfortable
it's a Blake construction which means it's a thinner sole a much more flexible sole so
if you have issues with Goodyear welted shoes because they're too hard definitely check
out Blake rapid or Blake stitch the last is quite elegant classic
and round and I think for $300 they're really great buy as you
can see the shoes are hand polished and hand burnished which takes much longer is more
expensive but it results into a much nicer look because you have different rates of brown
on top of the leather and it helps to create really
nice and rich patina the socks I'm wearing here from Fort Belvedere they are shadows
striped in navy and yellow so they work with the pants but contrast the
shoes and overall create a nice look that's interesting and different from the standard
plain sock last but not least I have a pinky ring in silver with a malachite stone which
is green which picks up the green in my tie if you
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