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The $100 – $200 Dress Shoe Search: Nordstrom Cap Toe

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In Person:  John W. Nordstrom Adrian – $175.00

Forget Liza and her bucket.  There’s a hole in the men’s shoe market.  Specifically, oxfords or dress bluchers that are decently made, look great, and cost somewhere between one and two hundred dollars.  Not everyone has the cash for $400 stunners, and not everyone wants to wear department store clearance rack specials.  The search is on for these endangered shoe species, and if you’ve got a bead on one, feel free to send in a style tip.

The Pros
  • The Shape:  Toe shape is perfect.  Certainly not too elongated, but not stumpy either.  Slim but not thin.  Adult but not elderly.
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  • The Styling Details:  Perforations, a true oxford with closed lacing, and a terrific medallion.
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  • The Color:  The shade of the Italian leather is a right in the middle, not too dark, not too light brown.  Not dark chocolate, not cognac.  A rich, medium brown.  Should go perfect with all kinds of blues.
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  • The Free Shipping:  Free returns too.  Always a huge plus when ordering shoes online.
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  • The Construction:  Made in Italy with a soft leather lining and leather sole.  Finding shoes at this price point that have the sole stitched on, rather than just glued, is going to be close to impossible.  So yeah, these are almost surely glued.  Regardless, these feel nice and solid.  Not flimsy feeling at all.
The Cons
  • The Price:  $175 is getting up there, and you have to hope that these would drop below $150 during a half-yearly sale or something like that.
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  • The Leather Quality:  It’s okay.  Just fine if you’re not right up close to the shoes.  Not paper thin by any means, but the leather isn’t bulletproof either.  Has that maybe-too-smooth look like DSW’s made in Italy shoes.
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  • Available only in medium width:  They fit true to size but they’re on the slim side.  Wide foot fellas can forget it.
The Bottom Line

They look great, feel great, and offer a more classic alternative to the DSW lightly chisel-toed Mercanti Fiorentini’s.  But the DSW options can dip to $120 or under during sales, and since these are from Nordstrom, sales will be few and far between.  $175 is also getting awfully close to that “why not just wait for an Allen Edmonds clearance sale” category, but if the slimmer lines, style, and right-now availability are what you want, then they’re there for the taking.

Comments

  1. That’s a good looking shoe. The brown color is spot on and the perforations and closed lacing are really solid. $175, however, is too much imho for these.

  2. Joe, how do you know they’re goodyear or rapid welted? It doesn’t say that on the listing. 

  3. I say spend some more and get the AE strand if you want a cap toe with a medallion (if it fits).  You could get the seconds next sale for $50 more than this shoe, be backed by AE customer service and can re-craft it in the future.  I literally wore my strands for 16 hours in nyc yesterday, with a good amount of walking, and felt great at the end of the day.  

  5. I saw these in black at Nordstrom Rack yesterday, the leather quality in my opinion was horrific. It looked like it was painted on and was cracking in the creases from people trying them on. They looked just as bad as the 200 other stacy adams shoes I see at Nordstrom Rack now. Its very disappointing to try and find shoes there now.

  6. Sounds like they were made of corrected grain leather. I avoid it at all costs. Once they crease the finish starts cracking and flaking. Always insist on full grain leather!

  8. Pretty sure my DSWs are of the same leather quality, and I haven’t had any issues with the finish.  Although yeah, I have seen that happen on other shoes before.  Not.  Good.

  9. I learned the hard way how to identify corrected grain leather years ago with a pair of Bates paratrooper boots I had. The boots were mostly full grain leather with a corrected grain cap toe and heel piece that extended to the top. After a while the heel piece started to crack and the finish flaked off.

    For any novices out there, corrected grain leather has a “plasticy” non-porous look to it. Sometimes euphemistically described as “polished” leather. If a shoe is made of full-grain leather almost always that will be indicated. If you are buying from a company like Alden or AE you don’t have to worry about this. It is in the $100-$250 retail range that you need to be aware of this.

  10. Something I would have considered in the past, but after getting my first pair of Allen Edmonds a few years ago (and several more since), I just can’t see myself ever buying anything else.

  11. I was getting my shoes shined at Nordy’s two days ago and the guy next to me bought a pair of these two weeks before and was about to have them shined.  They looked great.  They looked over $200.  The brown wasn’t a solid color and had nice character.  He said that they run a bit narrow so I didn’t even bother looking into them with my EEEs.

  14. Some people can’t afford much more than Stacy Adams.  Take care of your shoes and they will last.

  15. Speaking of Allen Edmonds clearance sales…those usually happen around summer time correct?

  16. Right, but stay with me here.  I’d argue that not all corrected grain leather is created equal.  For example, this almost “too smooth” leather on these shoes, is real similar to the DSW oxfords I own:  http://dappered.com/2011/08/the-best-looking-dress-shoes-under-125/  I’ve had those since August, and I’ve beat them to death.  Even wore them for 90% of my in-shoe time during a Las Vegas 5 day weekend, and they’ve held up superbly.  No flaking, no over wrinkling, nothing.  I wear them once, maybe twice a week. 

    If all corrected grain leather is complete trash, and most if not all shoes around $100 – $250 are corrected grain, then wouldn’t we see a lot more flaking shoes walking around?

    It’s certainly something to be concerned about, and it’s a risk, but I think it might be a slightly overblown issue.

    My two cents.  I’ll keep everyone up to date though on those DSW Mercs.  So far so awesome though.

  19. If you can stand to wear another’s shoes, I just bought almost new AEs for $90 in eBay.  Just saying…

  21. zmac you are right. I, specifically prefer to buy of a bit higher quality shoe due to the fact that I wear dress shoes 6-7 days a week. And am on my feet standing or walking 70 percent of the time. Plus, higher quality shoe brands usually will come with width sizes, instead of slapping all the shoes M width. Comfort is necessary.

  23. Am I right in thinking that this is the best known deal on a high-quality wingtip thus far this year?

    With that in mind, I’m desperate to know something about these shoes, if anyone out there can help me: if I’ve got a fairly narrow heel but an average forefoot (Cole Haans and Nikes typically fit me well), would this shoe be a possibility for me?

  24. In the FAQ the Brooks Brothers representative identifies them as being made by Crockett & Jones.

  25.  I saw that, but they’re wrong.  Those wingtips are Loake Buckinghams.

    C&Js start at $600 in the US.  Why would BB sell them for $468 (full price)?

  26. I second the comments above asking “when are Allen Edmonds clearance sales?” An update about this type of event would not only make a good post, but an interesting sub-section of the website. Has anybody gone to the trouble of cataloging the sales of major stores over the past decade? That’d be really useful data. (Statistics geek here.)