My new brogues

[longhuntr74]

Very beautiful shoes !

Very beautiful indeed...the UPS man delivered them today. Unfortunately, they are going right back to Zappos.com. Upon close inspection, I was happy with neither the quality of construction nor the quality of the materials used..

The first shoe I looked at was fairly good at first glance. I noted some relatively thin leather...and then I noticed what I expected to be a stacked leather heel is just a facade...the inside of it actually appears to be a block of plastic, just like my other, cheaper Florsheims. The sole is, in fact, stitched to the upper...or at least from the heel forward it is...but the groove and holes (on the bottom of the sole) seemed awfully large, which I would assume would cause weakness in the sole and excessive dirt or water to seep into the bottom of the shoe.

Upon inspecting the second shoe, there was no question left in my mind that the shoes are being returned. The upper half of the threads used to stitch the soles on (think sewing machine with lower and upper threads) left large loops hanging out in 3 places...meaning the stitching is not doing its job and is holding nothing. Very poor quality in construction and apparently little to no quality control.

I'll be getting my $140 back and putting it into a fund for those Allen Edmonds.