Nice article. Thanks for the link.

 

I'm happy to see this renaissance if it results in more sales for Allen Edmonds, Alden, Red Wing, and other quality American manufacturers. But I don't like all this talk about "heritage" brands. Shoes are either good quality or poor quality- there's no need for anyone to consciously seek "authenticity" in consumer goods. When our fathers and grandfathers wore LLBean or whatever 50 years ago and went on fishing trips, they didn't think of themselves as being authentic. When bloggers talk about purposely seeking "authenticity", especially by buying stuff, it comes across as self absorbed and fake. If you need to think about living an authentic life you probably are not.

 

A great article...very enjoyable read but, I sure wish that counter to what the Alden VP was quoted as saying, that Alden were not so resistant to becoming a "hot-line!" It would be nice if they could get back to crafting some of those marvelous individual make-ups.

 

Perhaps, but the quest for authenticity and a fascination with art and craft has been with us at least since the dawn of the industrial age. In its own way, the quest for authenticity is an authentic response to modernity.

What is fake, to me, are Chinese-made mass market goods that are meant to mimic the aesthetics that we associate with "heritage brands." I'm looking at you, LL Bean.

I'm happy to see this renaissance if it results in more sales for Allen Edmonds, Alden, Red Wing, and other quality American manufacturers. But I don't like all this talk about "heritage" brands. Shoes are either good quality or poor quality- there's no need for anyone to consciously seek "authenticity" in consumer goods. When our fathers and grandfathers wore LLBean or whatever 50 years ago and went on fishing trips, they didn't think of themselves as being authentic. When bloggers talk about purposely seeking "authenticity", especially by buying stuff, it comes across as self absorbed and fake. If you need to think about living an authentic life you probably are not.

 

Article~David Murphy, the chief executive of Red Wing, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press: “Do I want spiky-haired weird folks on the runway wearing our boots? I’m not disturbed by it, but I don’t care."

:icon_smile_big:

 

Nice read, Thanks for sharing.

 

Someone asked me about this article the other day - I think it came up because I had recently posted pics of my vintage Handmade 100s from Johnston & Murphy ( https://uptowndandy.blogspot.com/2011/03/shoe-with-memory-johnston-murphys.html )

We talked about how if you're really into the quality of American "heritage" shoe brands, you're inevitably going to end up looking into buying used or new old stock shoes from companies such as Johnston & Murphy or Florsheim. The quality of those older "Made in the USA" shoes, like J&M Aristocrafts, is going to be much better than what you'll be able to get today from those same companies, and usually at a fraction of the price of what you're going to pay for new Alden's or Redwings. Granted, some people just aren't into the second-hand shoe thing, but for me it seems to be a good alternative if you're interested primarily in quality American-made shoes at a pretty good price (that aren't necessarily BNIB).