been to the Allen Edmonds factobest stainless steel tubing cutter

Ive been to the Allen Edmonds factory and I did not notice these little tacks. Some other companies use a composite shank or a metal shank typically. So, that makes even wonder if they make it in the same factory, and if so, if they just do it for the loafers. Its like a leather fiber material thats what you find in like, you know, 99% of all like cheap shoes. So, I dont know if there were seconds, but you can see theres not much wear on them. And this here is the insole. Okay, the heel looks pretty similar to the old ones. Okay, leather material seems to be very similar to what we had before. And look at that, its that same kind of riveted nail weve seen before. Well see. I dont know. Well take these apart and compare them to the modern ones. Its floppy. Its interesting. Allen Edmonds rubber heel here. New label, new marketing, but construction, pretty much identical. Debonair looks too good on you to second guess. Yeah, but look at that. So, do you have a chance that, for some reason, you do it too much, it can break. If you look here, the heel is some sort of leather. Ill start with the Biscayne. In our series Taking It Apart, today, we will be taking apart four pairs of Allen Edmonds shoes. Well, as you might know, ownership of Allen Edmonds has changed a few times over the last few decades and some people argue that the quality has deteriorated over time. The model is called Strawfut. You can see the inside sole still has the kind of slightly older Allen Edmonds logo, which is the same as on the sole. Heres you see its nailed still from the inside and, uh, I want to take those at first, so dont hurt myself. Its soft. It seems much more like you know high-quality leather. I think, over time, as you stand and put pressure on it, it may sag a little more. That interesting front cap is not leather. So, you see this is not aniline-dyed leather but, in fact, the top brown is a lot lighter than whats underneath. And then, here, the allotments label is sewn in, so you see it from the front. One thing that I do miss are the old Allen Edmonds footbeds. So, this is definitely leather on top, and you can see these strands in here, though. So, Im not sure what exactly happened there. Solid leather, I mean, well-done stuff. Its a slight the broguing piece is still stuck in there after all this time. So, I wonder why it was placed so far back? The welt, the construction is all pretty much the same. Wow! There it is. Just felt a little more supple when you touched it. So, the heel, and I dont know if they bought it like that or if it was constructed differently, but you can clearly see you had two layers of leather. Apart from that, very similar to the loafer that was non-moccasin and Goodyear welted, and the modern Port Washington Allen Edmonds. Okay. All right, the next layer here, very similar to the top one. This is a nice thick cork. Typically, you see it more like may be placed here. Then, heres the old stuff. You can see its, like, layered in here so, to me, it seems like this is a compressed leather product in the heel as well, but maybe of slightly higher quality than what we had before. I dont know. Yeah, you can see its not high-quality material. Youre looking at it here. The lining, which seems to be leather, and its attached to the outer layer, which has an additional lining layer. But, at the end of the day, if you like the look, you get a quality shoe that can be resold and rest assured that the quality level has only changed ever so slightly from 50 years ago, which, in terms of shoes, is a good thing because mass factory mage shoes typically have become a lot worse since then. Seems to be like a nice lining liner by the way. Nice piece of leather. What is that? Because you had the shoe that was curved, right, the heel was also curved. These are quite soft. As you can see here, this is the gem band that was, again, glued onto the insole, so the 360 welt could happen. So, Ill just keep the shank here. I looked around to see if I could quickly see a damaged piece. Its just a handmade, handmade product. Otherwise, the leather lining is very, very similar. Now, aniline-dyed leather is generally a very good leather. And, look at that, the usual suspects. Heres some of the new stuff. Now the last thing was this really cool-looking strip here and whats inside of it. As you can see here, leather heels are sewn together in the middle here. So, the back was leather-lined, and the front was linen-lined. So, you can see, it was light so it was a little longer on the outside than the inside. This is very, very typical. If you look at it here, we still have those seven nails that we saw before. I just taped it over. The level of workmanship is a little finer here. Obviously, a thicker sole, they still sell this today, but the last is different and the shape. The other one here doesnt have it. Sometimes, they claim that when you have a metal shank, you know, and you go to the airport the TSA, it will beep and you have to take off your shoes. Theres no benefit. Before, remember, we saw those little kinds of tacks that were used all along. Its directly glued onto the outer layer. They havent been re-soled. This looks like not even rubber. If I scrape up the top coat here, you can see underneath this is kind of whitish leather. So, this is basically a lining leather material insole. This insole, on the other hand, is leather. So, next up, lets go through the sole stitching here and try to cut it open. The leather has a nice kind of soft, cushy touch. And its kind of funny if you look here. You can see the upper here for the wingtip, slightly kind of taped reinforcement here, so the leather doesnt rip in the areas where its, theres demand for support. Leather quality, I mean it seems very nice leather, even after all these years. So, its a good indicator but its not like absolute truth. Based on the catalog information, this is from the 70s here because it was only produced in the 70s. Yes, they use a sock liner all the way through and a little foam pad, but it doesnt hide any, like, solders of inferior quality. This is a great Brand I hope theyre able to fix everything and turn it around. Okay, full brogue upper here. Some form of starched fabric, it seems. No idea what that was for, to be honest. Its the same lining material that you had here. I can feel theres that fabric layer underneath. You can see here, from the outside, it looked like it was one piece of leather but, in fact, they have seams here and they do that to just save on the cost of leather. Alright, you can see here, this is the rubber heel block. Nice level of workmanship. With a wooden shank, you dont have that issue. So, glad we opened up this one because its quite different. Same construction as before with the exception of the shank being further back. As far as the upper leather goes, you can see, you know, the layer on top its lighter underneath. I wonder how they, maybe they stretch the fibers, then put the leather around it and let it go back. They say Custom Cork Insole. You can see the texture its different here. You can see its like the stitching kind of slight irregularities, but thats, thats cool. So, you could see it on the inside. So, underneath, you just had this wooden shank, then the cork, and then the outsole. Yeah, I wonder if thats supposed to be instead of a shank. Otherwise, it doesnt look like its sanded. Also, if you look at the Biscayne, the Allen Edmonds labeling, here, its pretty center, here, its kind of slightly off-center. Now, on the inside of the shoe here, you see its like moc-style sewn together all the way underneath here, and then connected here, and then at the bottom they added in another layer of foam that left a hole here for a shank as well to get the foam through. You can even see all the tags. They probably didnt want to use black, but they didnt have that branded element. The next one had the same kind of sole logo, but a different inside one. So, leather-wise, if you look at the leather here, you can really see the white coming through. I also think its partially based on this moccasin style. The same lining that we found underneath the loafer bridge there. Its between the outer layer and the lining. It seems to have the same construction as the old one. This does have like a compressed look to it though. You see here, theres like a lining material underneath the penny loafer part and you can also see that the leather was burnished after it was sewn together. Same looking Allen Edmonds rubber patch and they also kind of angle that because the idea is that, when you walk, the inside corner doesnt get caught in your cuffs or turnips. After all these years, its obviously a little more brittle, but it still feels nice and supple. Okay, so the insole liner was on top of this partial leather fiber insole foam. Alright, here is the insole from the bottom, and now they have an insole lining. Here its not as neatly finished. Outer sole. You see the cork mass that we also saw before. As you see, no shank quite yet. So, if you define the crease line you know thats whats going to happen, and thats exactly what they did here. The claims that, you know, from this shoe to that shoe, the quality has declined is not true from what I can see. In a custom or bespoke shoe, youd have this insole to work out a channel and then a gem band. You see, on the welt here, its disconnected here because the welt is actually a long strip that is then bent, formed into shape, and its open. This is not a layer of cork as maybe a custom shoemaker would offer you. If you have been an avid reader of the Gentlemans Gazette, you might notice that when we talk about mens shoes, the brand Allen Edmonds always comes up. The last two brand new parasite bought was during the pandemic and yes I agree the quality has deteriorated a little bit. The touch is pretty nice. Makes the shoe maybe a tiny bit smaller and tighter, but if they adjust last, I dont see why not. Then you have that thermal cap again, just like you had in the heel, and then underneath, theres really just, its just glued on onto the leather. Its called the Biscayne.. Thats a very different alignment than what you usually see. This is kind of like, I dont know, almost like a softish linen. If you see here, theres a little nail, but definitely not the nails that were used to seeing otherwise. Well, we got a nail out here. Alright, heres the kind of welt. Different labeling, different branding. These are just sewn together and kind of cut straight and taped over the lining, the shoe, with this stiffened toe cap and this kind of leather paper-ish feeling heel cap. I dont think its age-based. Maybe it shifted during production. The shank is attached with two little rivets. All right. Top-coated leather can be good, but the majority of cheap leather is always top-coat colored, not aniline-dyed. It looks like a compressed leather of some kind I would guess or maybe its just because its so old. Obviously, it was on the shoes. Got my good pry bar here. It was just wrapped around on the side. Nice piece of solid sole leather. Sometimes, thats the way its done. Interestingly, you also see this, uh, metal shank, which, you know, typically, Allen Edmonds has the wooden shank. So, now, as you can see here, we have a shank and Allen Edmonds is known for their wooden shank. To me the Allen Edmonds dress shoes from the last 3-4 years feel lighter and less substantive than those I have from 15-20 years ago. And here you see those little tacks again. Now, in here, it doesnt flex as much because at the bottom its all attached, but it flexes a little bit. (Uniqlo, Everlane, & More), Reward Yourself! Its definitely glued on; leather was glued into the fabric, so nothing shifts. The short thing to start is the Elites one has the heel with the Allen Edmonds on it. So, first, we want to take off the sole and start with a heel block. I have been an Allen Edmonds wearer since 1995. Just different here, cut differently because of the model and sewn together differently. So, its basically nailed down. There was no foam or anything of that kind. Kind of mock-toe, just making it look neat. Okay, so this is the Leeds insole with the gem band attached. I cant peel that off. So, well see how cushioned the heel actually is. Here we have the oldest ones of the modern Allen Edmond shoes. Exactly the same construction as what weve seen before. Handcrafted in America from Import Materials. Its the style Grandview. After, its wetted. Its just falling apart, but this looks like the insole right underneath. Yes, they use a different machine here than they did here. Down here you see all these tacks again. Underneath the cork here, you can see another layer here. And the idea is that your foot will get used to it over time and it will be more comfortable to walk in without being too squishy and soft. So, this layer, now, comes off like so and then, you see. One, two, three, or four layers of leather basically. Seven nails here again and you can see the typical, kind of, thicker-on-the-outside, thinner-on-the-inside.