How good are those shell cordovan Florsheims fellas, pretty darn awesome hey? l'm totally stunned and have knocked for six, l can't stop shaking my head in shear disbelief. Brilliant shoos!!!

lf they tried selling the v cleats now l suppose they would be going for over $500 U.S these days. Times have changed and most people aren't going to fork out large dollars for a shoo that was once common place. Florsheim can never go back because the education about quality products has been lost to time.

Shooey there is a thread on here about the Florsheim Kenmoor being resurrected in Shell Cordovan and made in the USA by Florsheim in conjunction with the fashion brand Duckie Brown. Haven't seen them in the flesh but they retail for broadly the same price as the Alden equivalent: i.e. about $560. I suspect they don't have either the v-cleat heel or quite the same heft of sole that the older model possessed. The v-cleat is a nice touch visually but walking on them can be a matter of taking one's life in one's hands in inclement weather. The footbed of the Alden is far softer than a vintage Kenmoor (Alden's roots are in orthopedic footwear) so you don't get the same feeling (or sound) of clumping about in gunboats. Whether this is a good thing or not is entirely personal. For looks the Florsheim model definitely edges it, but for comfort there is no comparison really.

NOS Kenmoors are about but the price seems to have risen sharply in recent times.

Last edited by Natural Sole Brother (2009-10-30 07:15:43)

We will always agree in the final analysis Uncle. You are one of life's Gentlemen.

Yours in sole,
nsb

- The smell of Cordovan (Shell or not) is well worth a mention when compared to Cow hide...

Anybody care to sum it up?

Darker?
Richer?
Meatier?

It's always the same....

BTW, I would be just as happy with Florsheim Imperial Longwings in Scotchgrain... US 10 D...

I don't know exactly when they would have stopped making the leather heeled variety but Nettleton (like Florsheim) had several grades of quality from cheap but acceptable to quite nice. I'd have to say the Nettletons pictured above would not have been as high quality in build terms as Florsheim's Imperial line. I agree the styling is very nice indeed though.