13/09/2016
This summer I happened up on a pair of Grenson “Masterpiece” brogues, well used and going for a song. The leather sole and heel were pretty worn down, but the careful owner had taken wonderful care of the upper, they were polished to a deep, gleaming lustre and looked pretty great. So, given my preference for some proper rubber under…
10/09/2016
The British shoe industry has a long and glorious tradition behind it. Most of the well known names have been producing quality traditional shoes for 150 years or more, and do a splendid job as well. Goodyear welts, intricate brogue patterns, sublime craftsmanship and basically doing things as they have always been done. Hardly surprising really, as human feet are…
22/03/2016
The Vibram Christy soles enjoyed a major resurgence in popularity in recent years, as the casual option for a pair of brogues, or as the hipster de jour sole on a pair of classic Red Wings. Pretty comfortable to stride around on and they look nice and crisp when new. In this piece I’m looking at a pair of Red…
19/03/2016
I’m at the start of a series of posts about companies that for some reason or other interest me. Either due to unique products, some quirky aspect of their business, or because they have a background and history that is interesting. In the case of NPS Solovair, the interest starts with the company name. The NPS part dates all the…
10/07/2015
An expression came to mind last week whilst preparing a new pair of rugged Red Wing boots for use, “tough as old boots”. It got me wondering where such an expression might have come from, and also whether there was any significance in the “old” part of it. Were boots stronger in previous times? I have observed that there has been…
22/03/2015
Shoes are an ancient and established piece of technology in most of our lives. Those of us over the age of 5, with normally developed skills and faculties, are also well acquainted with shoe laces, both from the perspective of lacing the shoes and from tying the laces. Given that everyone clearly manages well enough in this respect on a…
20/03/2015
Weekend is almost upon us, and it’s time for the regularly scheduled editorial and Instagram collation. This week has been mainly about the lower end of the legs, both in the photos and the subjects covered. What with the calendar mercilessly progressing forward the opportunity for Winter to make a swift and unwanted return, the season has almost quite definitely…
17/03/2015
A while back I wrote a post about shoe soles, listing up the most important types and ranting a bit about ones I consider to be confusingly misnamed. One sole I decided not to include in that post were the ripple soles. Why? In my ignorance I considered it a bit of a novelty sole. In my defense it’s not one…
20/02/2015
A while back I posted about how I discovered that my classic Dr Martens shoes had developed split soles (read the original post here!). Although four or five years since I had purchased them, they had seen little use and I was very surprised to find that the soles, while displaying marginal wear elsewhere, had split along the sides, opening…
13/02/2015
This has truly been a week of ups and downs! It started well with my new specs arriving last Friday. The feedback on these has been pleasing, though this isn’t the only notable and interesting point about them. Yes, they fit fine and it’s wonderful to have fresh and unscratched lenses, but they are also the result of doing some…