All l can say is WOW!!! Gotta tell you Albert, l am soooo proud of you mate. You are truely a proper shooman because you started quite young and before any forums ever existed, so that speaks volumes to me. l am completely lost for words and blown away with your collection because it's so good. You are so lucky being able to get shoes like that and especially on discount.

In Australia we have nothing like that around; limited brands, rarely any sales and double the prices of U.S and England nearly always...so basically aussies don't have many good shoes unless they are the most dedicated shoomen. l started my collecting as soon as my feet stopped growing at age 15 where l bought about 2 or 3 Florsheim seconds from the factory each year, and ALWAYS with stitched leather soles. l kept on buying those for some years until l could finally afford something better at age 25, but even basic stitched blake constructed footwear was $500 in the mid 1990's and Church's were about $650. Going from $150 shoes up to $500 shoes was a huge step up in those days, but l was determined to have the nicer shoos so l did it. There were the Santoni norvegese shoes available but those were far too expensive at a starting price of $1,200 retail and never going on sale, and that was almost 17 years ago.

l had very big shoo ambitions as a kid...HUGE ambitions and wearing good footwear was always a goal of mine. l saw my dads footwear and my grandfathers and the footwear addiction really started before 1 year of age because my parents always reported me being addicted to checking out leather soled stitched dress shoes and being facinated by them for hours. When l was about 4 years old l clearly remember going into my dads room and pulling out all his good pairs and looking at them for hours and yearning to be a grown up so l could own such pairs, l did that for years and always checked what people were wearing on their feet when l would go to the shops with my mum....l always looked for combination heels and stitching on soles etc...all from the young age of about 4 or 5.

Then when l turned about 6 l saw a pair on my uncle which well and that truely locked in the deal, l KNEW in my heart of hearts l was gonna be a shooman for life when l saw them. l was so blown away that l was completely hooked and spent the next 19 years dreaming of owning such a pair. All throughout my childhood l wanted to be a grown up so l could start buying adults stitched leather sole shoos, l wanted it soooo badly that l could hardly stand it. When l turned 14 my grandfather passed away and l had a bunch of his shoos (used and NOS) that l started wearing that fit perfectly, l was the only kid in school who wore such great footwear. Then the next year my feet stopped growing and l started spending all my pocket money on twice yearly adventures to the Florsheim factory outlet where l would spend an entire 8 hour day studying every single pair in the shops...that was such a highlight for me. But even when l was an 8 year old kid l would always venture into the top shoe shops in town looking at all the top shoes dreaming of the possibilities. lt must have been a funny sight seeing this little kid checking out all the shoes with wide eyes and asking the salesmen what the best shoes in the world were and hearing about the legend of John Lobb, Edward Green and Trickers.

l might post a few later. l won't be able to post them all (would take an entire day to organise), but l might post about 20 pair.

Thanks again Albert. Seeing your shoo collection and story has made my day and gave me faith that there are still up and coming shoomen. l don't consider most people on the forums to be proper shoomen because it's not in their blood, l only consider proper shoomen to be the people who had the `shoo-bite' before the days of internet `shoo porn'...those guys are the real deal.

l still remember the old days when the only shoo porn l could get was by video taping old movies with the hope that `shoo scenes' would come up. l always loved the old cowboy movies because the rough old blokes would always be brawling on the ground so many shoe scenes would come up where l could clearly see the soles of the shoes and the stitching. With the old non-western movies the `shoo-scenes' were much rarer, but l always video taped them and would fast forward through the film until l saw a shoo scene and would then pause the video on the scene showing the shoos so l could check them out. Sometimes l would have the video paused for 30 minutes and l would just sit there and look and dream of the possibilities. Those were exciting times and the only shoo porn l had access too besides from the catelogues that l would look at over and over.

Even to this day l look at everyone's shoos and have it down to a fine art. l only need to glimpse for a split second and l can see if the shoes are leather soled, blake constructed, blake-rapid/goodyear, the type of last and whether the shoes have combination heels or not. People with leather on their feet get good approval...people with blake-rapid/goodyear get higher approval, and people with combination heels get full approval. But l have always checked for combination heels and leather soles since l was about 4 years old.

Even up until a few years ago l read every single shoe post ever made on the forums, didn't miss a single thread. And last year l had a good friend called Mr X who was an old legend from the shoemaking trade. l would go to straight Mr X's house about 5:50pm or alittle after and would talk 7 or 8 hours solid about footwear all night long until after midnight, but even then l never wanted to leave and could have stayed all night, and he never wanted me to leave either. On weekends l would brings suit cases and suit cases full of shoes (fill the car up) and we would look at them all and discuss them in fine detail, we would even put the shoes under a microscope and check the grain and see all the hairs left in the leather that the naked eye could never see and we would study every single stitch and the type of needle used etc (every single detail), and we would hang out in his shed where he would show me stuff etc. Really good times. l am hoping Mr X comes back from overseas this Christmas to see his kids, if he does l will be calling him up and will be straight over to his daughter's or son's house with a big bunch of shoes and lasts and will talk all night long and look at internet shoo porn until the middle of the night. l am like part of the family, the kids all know me well and they don't have to put on any show, they are just as they are.

Last edited by The_Shooman (2012-10-29 07:05:57)

I'm going to hell - and getting less evolved -  started as a kid with GY stitched Made in Australia RM Williams all leather on the farm for working in dirt etc - now my latest purchases yesterday was Made in China suede rubber soles.!

I'm hiding from shooey

I think the army disposals were the main sellers of RMs - I'd forgotten that

The best shoe Vass has ever made was the Alt Wien derby on the 3636 last with goiser construction, a completely perfect design and the best looking casual shoe ever. Vass also does an excellent budapester in dark shell cordovan on the budapest last with goiser construction.

Vass does the traditional lasts the best by far. The great thing with Vass is they value a shoe made properly with hand welting, hand stitched soles and good leather. They aren't perfect but they are still extremely good shoes and way better than anything l would ever find in Australia.

Last edited by The_Shooman (2012-10-29 07:07:59)

Last edited by The_Shooman (2012-10-30 02:38:29)

One day your workhorse will be the Lobbs and your average shoe will be the handmades. Shooman are meant to climb the ladder, but they never forget and appreciate their humble beginnings. At the end of the day...all stitched shoos are good, certainly better than the glued Chinese rubbish that most have on their feet. Even if people just wear stitched Florsheims, l greatly appreciate that because it shows they are thinking more about shoes than the average person.

Truth being told, the everyday shoe should be the handmades because they are constructed to be as such, and if cared for can last virtually a lifetime because the construction can be easily repaired and replaced by proper cordwainers without compromising the integrity of the shoe. With the factory made shoes it is a different ballgame because the construction isn't made to last a lifetime of heavy use, and the repair environment compromises the integrity of the shoe and lacks the skill of the cordwaining environment as with the handmades.  Many people don't realise that. When machines are involved bad stuff starts happening to shoes when repairs take place because machines are brutes and will end up ruining the shoe after multiple resoles.

Last edited by The_Shooman (2012-10-30 20:34:26)