Gray Suede Shoes

I wasn't intending to talk about shoes two days in a row, but things happen... Over a year ago, I found suede bucks on Nordstrom's web site in an array of colors, including gray. I ordered a pair, and when they arrived I was dismayed to find that the toes were "burnished," which is apparently something that's fashionable to do to shoes to make them look lived-in. I exchanged them for dark khaki bucks that hadn't been messed with in any way.

Not long after that, I came across some nice-looking gray bucks made in Pennsylvania by Walk-Over, a company that's been around for a couple hundred years. They weren't cheap, but they were exactly what I wanted. I ended up convincing myself that I didn't need them, since I'd just gotten the other bucks. But one day back in the spring, I was shopping and saw the shoes (in other colors, but not the gray) and decided to try them on, to see how they fit and felt, with the idea that if I did decide at some point to order them, I would know what size to get.

Earlier this week, I came across a link to a sale on the Steven Alan web site. Even though most of their clothing is made in the USA, I never bother looking at their stuff because the prices are pretty high, their shirts are cut way too slim for me, and they make them with this horrible little detail (use the zoom feature and you'll be able to see what I mean) where the placket is twisted around, on purpose, between the collar and the second button.

Anyway, I decided to look at the sale just because I hadn't looked at their site in a long time. They also carry some things made by other companies, and in the sale section I found the gray Walk-Over bucks, marked down almost 30% off their usual price. They aren't carried by many places to begin with, and they don't tend to be on sale, so I decided to go ahead and get them. They're still on sale, if you are so inclined.

Purchases from the sale section are final, and if I hadn't tried on the shoes several months ago I wouldn't have been sure which size to get. They arrived today, and I'm very pleased. They have a 360-degree welt which makes them resoleable if necessary, and a full leather lining. Are they better than Nordstrom's bucks, which are made in Brazil? Not necessarily. The Nordstrom shoes have thicker cushioning in the soles, but they couldn't come up with a gray shoe that was unblemished.