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Affordable Men's Style

Would you wear it? The new, < $200 Allen Edmonds Dress Boot

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Allen Edmonds McAdam Dress Boot – $197.00 ($295)

Who put the Cronmok in a suit?

This new(?) dress boot option just showed up on the Allen Edmonds website… yet it’s not listed under the “new arrivals.” They’re part of the just launched Allen Edmonds Black Friday Sale, which combines their recent boot & bourbon offers with a few other styles (including the awfully smart looking “Hale” oxford. Perforations without the pinked edges? Looks nice). Now at under $200, is the McAdam a reasonably priced alternative to the super expensive Fifth Street Boot?

 

wing differences

Notice how the sweep of the McAdam’s wingtip doesn’t reach as far back on the side as the McAllister. Also, it appears there’s less room at the toe for the Medallion on the McAdam boot.

What about the wingtip on this one? It’s just like the Cronmok, and the wing doesn’t pull nearly as far back as on the McAllister. With it being a true-oxford, this leaves a bit more smooth leather no-man’s land on the sides. Also, there looks to be much less room for the toe medallion compared to their other full brogues. Sorta takes some of the sleekness away from it.

But it’s under $200, ships + returns free, and the description says it’s got a rubber tap sole. That’ll come in handy now that ice and snow are starting to show up on the walkways for many. It’s a H. Ford paint job special. You can get in any color you’d like… as long as it’s black. So would you? Or does this model seem to be a little lost in-between the slick 5th street and the more casual Dalton? Leave it all in the comments.

Comments

  1. If it did not cost 60 bucks plus import duties for me to get them here, I would snatch them up.

  2. What are these super business conservative environments that don’t include funeral homes?

  3. The Fifth Street is just way more slick. It does look like someone’s tinkering with genetic engineering over at AE. It’s too much of a Frankenboot for my taste.

  4. Brown may be more fashionable these days (in the US at least), but black is always workable and preferable for many in a business environment. It’s nowhere near the same situation as black on a suit.

  5. Hm, for a boot on the more casual end, I prefer the Dalton. If you need a dress boot, the fifth street really just seems to be where it’s at.

  6. In brown I’d say maybe, but in black I just can’t get the image of the grandmother on the Little Rascals out of my head.

  9. Funny, despite all the extra room for details the boot has vs. the oxford, the broguing just makes the boot look too busy and awkward. I think it’s the way the broguing follows the eyelets up the boot. I wouldn’t wear it.

  11. I agree. There were something that was a bit much, and I think you’ve nailed it. Some broguing on the toe and plain going up, I’d seriously consider it for sub-$200.
    But I do have some black J&M dress boots that I wear in less-than-ideal conditions, and those things are my 2nd most comfortable shoe (out of 12). The only thing more comfortable than my dress boots are more casual wingtips with rubber soles.

  16. It’s lovely; if it came stock in AA widths and I didn’t already have one MTO boot order in with Allen Edmonds, I’d strongly consider it — but all that perfing on what’s otherwise a black formal-ish boot kind of confuses me.

    I remain steadfast in my hope that maybe someday they’ll create a proper balmoral boot, perhaps with a perforated cap toe but otherwise austere stitching, maybe black calf with black suede above that horizontal stitching line… something I can break out with that peak-lapel three-piece to subtly crank everything up to eleven. Something like this from Carmina: http://gezzaseyes.tumblr.com/post/43477038309/suede-calf-balmoral-boots-by-carmina-via

    I’ll keep dreaming.

  18. Yep. I’d wear it. Easily. Alas, living in LA and working in a physical therapy clinic does not lend itself to boots, even in the winter.

  19. I guess that depends on the firm one is working at (since I too work in finance with experience on the east coast now currently in the Midwest) and what is deemed ‘super conservative’ to the wearer.

  20. Medicine. Physicians (esp. residents and med students) are expected to dress very conservatively. Brown shoes are “risky.”