A few months ago, I made a conscious effort to find a pair of legit wingtip brogues. Despite sifting through product day-in, day-out, I had few pairs that really piqued my interest. Going in between oxfords and boots, I finally decided on going the boot route. I figure your pants will cover up the majority of the upper anyways if you so choose and while conservatives may frown, there’s something about the organized confusion of un-laced boots with pants resting sloppily over the top that I’ve always liked. It sort of puts the boot in a new context I guess away from the traditions and aesthetics of men’s footwear that is often associated with quality, made in the UK shoes.
After looking through a handful of brands, something about Tricker’s pulled me in. The quality was unquestionable and trumped cheaper offerings such as Grenson. I figured shit like this with welted footwear has the ability to be worn a LONG time so why not go with a respected name.
The process was still not all that simple, I really had no clue where to begin in terms of sizing. Nobody seemed to have a good answer on the various forums I hit up and things even going as far as having differential sizing based on regions for the Tricker’s brand. Somewhere along the way I reached out to Richard Smith at Shoe Healer. Don’t let the relative archaic site fool you, Richard runs a tight, professional ship as we exchanged emails over the next 2 weeks. At every question resided a precise and confident answer, in a timely manner as well.
My initial inclinations were towards the Malton model which incidentally looks exactly like the joints I ended up getting except for a few descripencies. The Malton is based on a wider number 6 last as well as only being available in a Tan “C’ shade which is apparently a tad on the orange side. Not convinced on the color, Richard recommended the Stow. Exactly the same in brogue punching and detailings, the boot is relatively more narrow on a number 5 last but comes in more colors. However this “normal” width posed some potential problems along the way for fits and what not in addition to potential outsole combinations which range from double leather to Dainite (hard wearing) and Commando. I personally wasn’t feeling anything but the double leather joints.
After putting my payment through, two days and an additional thin rubber sole added to the forefoot, the boots were at my door. When footwear quality comes into question, I have just seen the measuring stick set that much higher. Through a few days of solid wear with minimal to zero creasing.
The color wasn’t exactly to my liking but I’ll just have to wait for them to darken up a bit with time and wear.
Everybody talks about how customer service is so important (which seemingly took a drop in the past but has now risen substantially), I can say first hand how important a factor it is. If the person’s doing their job right, I think you’ll be hard-pressed to move on to another retailer for a better price. And of course the downfalls of the Internet… if I could try these shits on, it would have been solved early days haha.
The necessary accessories, shoe-trees, polish and brushes.
They were a bit tight on the width so I got them stretched out… not perfect but slowly getting there.