I recently bought some Florsheim ComfortTech shoes for work. They were fairly inexpensive, under $100. I have a pair or two of Florsheim imperial shoes that I bought a few years ago that have aged really well, but there's something off about this pair. There's a few things I've noticed about the leather on these shoes that I found reallly weird and was wondering if anyone had similar experiences.
- The leather is kind of a coated leather. It feels almost rubbery or plasticky to the touch on the outside. It is real leather, I think it's got some kind of shiny coating on it, however. It is NOT patent, however.
- When breaking these shoes in, they were some of the most crazily uncomfortable shoes ever. Now that they're broken in, the places where they have stretched out a bit, you can clearly see the brown leather through the black, as if the dye job did not extend past the very surface.
- They don't hold a shine for crap. My Allen Edmonds and Florsheim imperial shoes can hold a shine for a good 6 or 7 wears without looking too bad. My shine on this looks like crap after two days, and it takes a crazy amount of spit shine to get anything even sort of decent out of them. They basically don't have a shine on the sides because of this (too much effort, and can't seem to get it to come out).
- The leather looks vaguely like it's bubbling in the creases. It's sort of hard to explain, it just doesn't look like its wearing in the creases the same as any shoe I've ever had before.
So did I get a bum pair, or is this just what I should expect from $80 shoes these days? Anyone have any advice on how to shine these things decently?
- The leather is kind of a coated leather. It feels almost rubbery or plasticky to the touch on the outside. It is real leather, I think it's got some kind of shiny coating on it, however. It is NOT patent, however.
- When breaking these shoes in, they were some of the most crazily uncomfortable shoes ever. Now that they're broken in, the places where they have stretched out a bit, you can clearly see the brown leather through the black, as if the dye job did not extend past the very surface.
- They don't hold a shine for crap. My Allen Edmonds and Florsheim imperial shoes can hold a shine for a good 6 or 7 wears without looking too bad. My shine on this looks like crap after two days, and it takes a crazy amount of spit shine to get anything even sort of decent out of them. They basically don't have a shine on the sides because of this (too much effort, and can't seem to get it to come out).
- The leather looks vaguely like it's bubbling in the creases. It's sort of hard to explain, it just doesn't look like its wearing in the creases the same as any shoe I've ever had before.
So did I get a bum pair, or is this just what I should expect from $80 shoes these days? Anyone have any advice on how to shine these things decently?