It's my friend Jon's fault.

He has a small store that sells tartan items (hats, scarves, blankets, and such but not kilts sadly). Anyway I have been a model on his store's website for a couple of pictures for a few kilt related items in his clearance section.

Now previously I had decided that my pair of black dress shoes were perfectly fine for my Kilted formal outfit. Hamish and Glen didn't bother with them and if regular dress shoes were good enough for those two well dressed gentlemen they were good enough for me. So I had decided to never bother with ghillie brogues.

It happened that Jon had a few pairs of ghille brogues in his clearance section that didn't sell so he reduced the price.

I was a little tempted (hey I like bargins) but my dress shoes were in fine shape and ghillie brogues still seemed a bit theatrical.

Then he reduced the price again.

For $47.50 I just couldn't resist so I ordered them

They arrived today and here is what they look like



They are the "Appin" model from Gaelic Themes. The ends of the laces have this little tassel (almost like a sporran tassels) on them



For those that own these kind of shoes do I have the laces right?



There is this very small metal plate on the outside of each heel, I assume to give longer life to the heel



My Flame-Haired Celtic Amazon Goddess isn't quite sold on them yet but thinks that they would work with a formal outfit. They have a leather sole so they might take a bit for them to break in.

All in all I like them and they do give a bit of flair to a kilted outfit. I think I will reserve them for semi-formal events though.

Cheers

Jamie