Expense Report #32

I imagine (some of) you want to know what I bought in New York. I didn't buy much, really. The obligatory visit to Uniqlo yielded a couple of gray undershirts (even though I finally got that situation straightened out, it never hurts to have a couple of extras) and, what do you know, a red oxford-cloth shirt very much like the gray one I bought there last year (at the time I was hoping they would make them in additional colors, but I thought red was too much to hope for).

The best part about this is that it will replace the lesser-quality Chaps shirt I bought at around the same time that has the awful embroidery on the pocket, so I no longer have to worry about covering it up. The shirt was $20; the undershirts were $5 each.

[Side note: Broadway in SoHo has really turned into a horrible mall-circus; now that there's Forever 21 and Hollister and all these other crap stores that are in pretty much every single mall in the US, the crowds are borderline unmanageable. (And let's not even go into why people would bother to shop at the same stores they can shop in at home.) But away from Broadway, even just one street parallel, SoHo can still be quite pleasant, even charming. Uniqlo is prepping a gigantic (seriously, around 90,000 square feet) second location on Fifth Avenue around the corner from the Museum of Modern Art, and after that opens I probably won't bother with the SoHo store anymore.]

I made just one other purchase, but it was a substantial one. Last year Wolverine introduced a line of "1000 Mile" boots based on work boot styles from their archives. It's a blatant ploy to cash in on their workwear heritage, but the boots are really nice, especially the model that is made in the United States using Horween leather (which is produced in Chicago).

I'd been thinking about getting a pair of Red Wing Gentleman Traveler boots (another brand parlaying its heritage into sales to the Americana/workwear crowd), but I found from reading comments and forum posts that several people feel they tend to run narrow, which eliminated them from consideration. I'm not a big fan of the Alden "Indy" boots (I don't like the shape of the toe or the moc styling) so those were out too. The 1000 Mile boots came across to me as just a bit more sophisticated than either of those, and lend themselves to being dressed up somewhat.

The "1000 Mile Original" boots (the ones I was interested in) are allegedly available in wide width, but the few online sites that carry them had only medium. Since I knew I was going to be in New York, I decided to visit the genteel Greenwich Village men's shoe store Leffot that I had read about in the New York Times's "Critical Shopper" feature a couple of months ago. Leffot carries the boots, so I knew I could try them on.

Unfortunately they didn't have any of the boots in wide (calling into question, to my mind, whether or not they actually exist), but the boots are cut rather generously in width and have a fairly high, roomy toe box, so it turned out not to matter. One turn around the store and I was sold on them. And besides being superbly comfortable, they smell fantastic. (Of course, the whole store smelled fantastic.) Until I can get around to treating them with Obenauf's, I'm going to wait to wear them when I know it's not going to rain.

[Edit: The Shoe Mart has some in wide, but in very limited sizes, and none at all in rust. There's also a store in San Francisco called On The Fly that seems to have them in wide.]

The boots are available in black, brown, and rust, which is the color I chose. You can see them here.

And yeah, they were expensive. They're the most expensive shoes I've ever bought. But they are made to last, and I will have them a long, long time. So let's call them a "practical indulgence." I won't be buying anything else for a while.