richb,

I've had a great experience with two pairs of Black Hills that I wear as part of my rotation during the summer months when class is not in session. I wore them to Israel (a lot of walking), and they held up great. They are recraftable. A colleague of mine owns a pair of Wilberts that he really likes (also recraftable). Another great option for you would be the McAllisters with a combination tap sole. I have a pair in bourbon that I really like. They won't provide the traction of the former two but will provide much more traction than leather soles. In addition, the McAllisters are a more dressy option that can be dressed up or down.

 

I second the McAllisters. Such a beautiful as well as versatile shoe!

 

I'm looking for some good quality shoes that will work in a business casual environment with khakis or trousers. I live in Wisconsin so we get a lot of snow for a good portion of the year and I'd like to not have to worry as much about sliding on ice, so some sort of rubber sole would be nice. When there's deep snow I wear overshoes or boots, but even light snow is around for months at a time and leather soles are treacherous.

I have two questions...

1) Is there a general consensus of the rubber soled AE shoes that are recraftable such as the Hector or Fenway? I am not referring to the low end line of AE that are sub $200.

2) Does anyone have any experience with wearing a combination tap sole such as what AE offers and if it would meet my needs in the traction department? I won't be walking across a frozen lake in these so I don't need a heavily lugged sole, but I've never word a combination sole and don't know if it actually provides much traction or just a touch of cushion and elimination of the clickity-clap of leather soles.

Thanks!

I can't help with the combination sole, but I really like the rubber-soled AE shoes I have. I have some from the no longer with us Executive Collection, I have the Benton, Nashua, Berkshire, Black Hills, Wilbert, and Parliament with the rubber soles. I really them for wet days. I have a had a couple of the rubber-soled AE's recrafted and they turned out great.

Chris

 

Thanks for the replies. If you were going to be walking on an icy sidewalk, would you feel secure in a combo sole or is there a significant traction advantage in a sole like these:



I'd prefer a combo sole but if I'm sliding and falling 4 months a year that's an issue I'll try to avoid.

 

I think a full rubber sole will offer an advantage over a combination sole on icy sidewalks, but don't think the difference is huge. I have one rubber soled dress shoe, and several that are effectively combination soles (Topy or similar rubber outsole over leather) and both work well on the slippery stuff - and are FAR better than wet leather when you transition from the outdoors to, say, polished marble floors.

 

Totally agree with RogerP on this one. There is an advantage to wearing shoes like the ones you linked to. That said, on an icy sidewalk the tap sole is much better than the leather sole. Have you considered overshoes? I use a pair Totes that I wear to work when there is rain or snow.

 

You could just custom order your AE's to have dainite, combination, or whatever else they've got soles installed. The upcharge is actually pretty small.

The McAllister is/was available with a combo sole. I was told it wore out at about the same rate, so I opted for the traditional leather when I ordered mine. Incidentally, still waiting for them to finish making it....

 

Have you considered buying the AE leather soled shoes that you are already familiar with and having your local shoemaker put rubber topys on the leather soles? A big advantage to that is the soles never need to be replaced; just replace the topy, and there is never a need to cut into the sole. I do this to all of my leather soled shoes as those cobblestones, painted curbs, and granite sidewalks can get very slippery when wet, not to mention the snow and ice in winter. You can also have your shoemaker attach a topy with some rubber treads for traction, instead of just the regular plain topy.

 

Have you considered buying the AE leather soled shoes that you are already familiar with and having your local shoemaker put rubber topys on the leather soles? A big advantage to that is the soles never need to be replaced; just replace the topy, and there is never a need to cut into the sole. I do this to all of my leather soled shoes as those cobblestones, painted curbs, and granite sidewalks can get very slippery when wet, not to mention the snow and ice in winter. You can also have your shoemaker attach a topy with some rubber treads for traction, instead of just the regular plain topy.

I had never heard of a Topy so I had to look it up but it seems like pretty much what AE has on the combo sole, no? Does that work well for you in Philly? Similar conditions as in WI as far as the streets and sidewalks go I'd imagine. I considered having some sort of rubber put on the soles of my leather soled shoes I have currently too, but I was afraid they would start to peel away and that would look atrocious.

 

Could I wear the McAllister with khaki's as well or just dress trousers? They look pretty formal for khaki's.

 

You are correct, the McAllister is a dress shoe. It is not designed to be worn with khakis, jeans, or any other casual pants.
That said, the hipster crowd does wear dress shoes with casual clothing.
Since you are focused on Allen Edmonds brand, I suggest buying one of their many casual shoe offerings, either rubber bottom or leather bottom. If you buy leather soles, then during the winter months wear some Tingley overshoes . Or, wear winter boots outide, and once at the office, put on your leather sole shoes.

Could I wear the McAllister with khaki's as well or just dress trousers? They look pretty formal for khaki's.

 

1) Is there a general consensus of the rubber soled AE shoes that are recraftable such as the Hector or Fenway?

While my opinions hardly constitute a consensus, I'm considering purchasing the Fenway after disdaining AE for the last 35 years. Encountered it at a local store and found it a surprisingly good looking country shoe. The last is rustic with out being Brobdingnagian. It has pretty much all the features I wish in such a shoe. I tend to like and wear tan shoes a lot. It has a decent but discrete Goodyear welted rubber sole. It isn't as heavily built as the typical English walking shoe, and that's either good or bad depending what you're looking for. The written description describes the uppers as oiled, which would be nice, though they appeared to be either top grain cowhide or calf.

Being retired, (Or perhaps just tired.) country wear is largely as dressed up as I get. I.e., tweeds, tie, etc. As such these shoes would fit that level of formality on down to khakis. (Don't ask about jeans!) It could work with business dress too, just nothing too formal or refined. I.e., I wouldn't wear them with a DB and cutaway collar.

 

Could I wear the McAllister with khaki's as well or just dress trousers? They look pretty formal for khaki's.

Works for me. But then again, I just wore some Tricker's medallion cap toes with jeans tonight.

 

I had never heard of a Topy so I had to look it up but it seems like pretty much what AE has on the combo sole, no? Does that work well for you in Philly? Similar conditions as in WI as far as the streets and sidewalks go I'd imagine. I considered having some sort of rubber put on the soles of my leather soled shoes I have currently too, but I was afraid they would start to peel away and that would look atrocious.

I've never had that happen. And with a quality product, installed by a competent cobbler, it certainly shouldn't.

 

You are correct, the McAllister is a dress shoe. It is not designed to be worn with khakis, jeans, or any other casual pants.
That said, the hipster crowd does wear dress shoes with casual clothing.
Since you are focused on Allen Edmonds brand, I suggest buying one of their many casual shoe offerings, either rubber bottom or leather bottom. If you buy leather soles, then during the winter months wear some Tingley overshoes . Or, wear winter boots outide, and once at the office, put on your leather sole shoes.

However, depending on the hue of the McAllister's you purchase, the shoes can fit in very nicely with a more casual rig. Walnut McAllisters work quite well with Khakis!

 

As long as you don't tell the forum, you can wear whatever you want without fear of reprisal. :wink2:

 

I have not read the above posts, but here are my thoughts. I generally don't like rubber soled dress shoes because my feet get to hot in them - except in winter, in which case I welcome the warmth. But for warm weather, no. So, for me, having lived on the East Coast, rubber soled shoes were my go to from about November through March. Here in San Francisco, I get maybe 2 months wear out the few that I have (a nice To Boot brown suede buck I bought in about 2002 and nice pair of black Gucci derby wingtips). Rubber soled shoes also give great traction on icy sidewalks. Buy what works for you and your location. You will certainly never go wrong with AE.

 

McAllisters are worth everything for me.

 

I don't have much of any great reliability to say on the original question. I'm not big on rubber soles, though I do have a couple of pairs of more casual AE styles that have them, and they seem like they'd give you reasonably good traction. Never had the "combination" soles.

McAllisters are fine with khakis, at least so long as they're not black (which has very little to do with their McAllisterness and quite a bit more to do with their blackness). Walnut ones aren't just fine, but pretty cool with khakis. To my mind, that's kind of what the walnut ones are for.

There's no "rule" against wearing dress shoes with "non-dress" pants, any more than there's a rule against wearing a dress shirt with khakis. The categorization of things as "dress" or otherwise ("sport" or whatever) is hardly a hard-and-fast binary thing. It's more a matter of general description, and categorizing something doesn't pigeonhole it. Next thing you know someone's going to say you can't wear a blue blazer, an oxford-cloth dress shirt and a rep tie with khakis, and the revolt of the proles will be well and truly underway. For that matter, I have a suit somewhere that has pants that are pretty well-nigh indistinguishable from khakis if you take away the matching jacket, for whatever that means.

Just lay off the spats, if you can resist them.