I picked up a pair of Florsheim Lexington captoe bals from JC Penney for $50 during the recent end-of-year sale period. I would never pay the list price of $90 for them. It will serve as a general purpose shoe for times when I don't feel like bringing out my PAs.

 

Cheap shoes disgust me.
I am by no means snobbish but for me personally it would be hard to go backwards from Alden even for a kick around.

 

Although the brand is no longer what it once was, I still love it when I watch the scene in "Chinatown" when the water comes rushing down on Jack Nicholson, almost drowning him. He emerges with only one shoe and mutters "God damn brand new Florsheim shoe"!

 

Even the Imperial wingtips are made offshore (in India, I believe) now, albeit one hopes to a higher standard than most of the junk that's now made to bear the once-proud Florsheim name.

 

I have a pair of Florsheim Imperial ankle boots that I really enjoy. The are made very well and are goodyear welted. I have however, never had to have a pair of AEs resoled, and the soles on my Florsheims feel like they are wearing pretty fast.

 

...or "pretty quickly," I should say, if FlatSix is reading this thread. :icon_smile_wink:

 

I would have trouble wearing anything made by Florsheim in the last 10 years or so. They used to make some fantastic, very sturdy longwings (here in the U.S.) that I would rank up there with Alden anyday. However, unless it was new old stock, I would pass.

 

I wear black shoes about 3-4 times a year, so I didn't mind picking up a pair of black Florsheim captoes. I didn't see the reason for paying 4X more for black PAs. I agree that if black shoes were heavily in my shoe rotation, I wouldn't bother getting recently manufactured Florsheims.

 

I wear black shoes about 3-4 times a year, so I didn't mind picking up a pair of black Florsheim captoes. I didn't see the reason for paying 4X more for black PAs. I agree that if black shoes were heavily in my shoe rotation, I wouldn't bother getting recently manufactured Florsheims.

Same here. If I were a young guy with many years of suit wearing ahead of me I would invest in something along the line of PAs; however, I only wear a suit a few times a year now and my Florsheim Lexington captoes do just fine in that scenario.

Someone posted a picture of a pair of Lexingtons a couple of years ago without knowing exactly what they were and some mistook them for PAs. Obviously they aren't in the same league with PAs, but if cared for and with limited wear they can look almost identical.

Cruiser

 

I happen to fancy a pair of Florsheim loafers that sell at JC Penney for about $85. They have been my workhorse shoes for about a year now ... I wear them in all weather conditions, all the time, and beat the living heck of them. For the price, they are decent and super comfortable.