Aha. Perhaps they got the dye job because of the scarcity of brown Florsheims?

If done properly I'd still wear them.

A brown longwing would look great in your planned line up, Weejun.

You know what? The lack of bad feedback the seller has made me more curious as to why these shoes should smell so bad. I took them out of the sealed carrier bag where I'd left them overnight with Bicarb and then it hit me. The terrible smell was not nicotine but actually the shoe dye used.

I'm guessing the seller dyed the shoes right before sale and then in the box for 2 weeks the fumes just dug themselves in. I can live with it now that I've figured this out.

A few more coats of creme and polish may well do the trick.

I have a feeling I could have got away with a half size down too. Oh well.

Gordon Brown has caught my J&M Ski Mocs coming in, too.

Postie dropped off a card saying that Gordon wants another £12 before he'll let the postie give them to me.

Expensive habit this, isn't it?

Good when it works though...