I have both brown and black pairs of ghillie brogues. I wear them when I am more dressed up above the waist than a t-shirt or golf shirt---nice dres shirt, shirt and tie, vest and tie, kilt jacket of any sort, etc.. Depending on my activity I may wear them with a nice sweater. If I am doing outdoors activities like housework, shopping the hardware store, or woodsy hiking where I would tend to be dressed more casually and functionally oriented I default to a pair of hiking shoes (Merrells) or even the scrunch hose hiking boots look.

Having brown and black allows for decent day wear with brown accessories and saving the blacks for slightly more dressy occasions and evening wear.

jeff