My new brogues

[Calico]

Longhuntr74, your thread here made me get started on my quest for brown shoes. My wife is insisting on Ghillies, and I don't mind. But I want brown this pair. First I looked up the shoe you are returning and decided at that price point it was not quite what I wanted. Available for $140 at Nordstrom.

We have a "premium outlets" center 1/2 hour away, so we drove there for some shopping last night.

Rockport - very light, acceptable wingtip - in black or burgundy only. $60 (casual use only)
Bostonian - really disappointed. Feels cheap and hard.
Johnston & Murphy - again disappointed. And no brown.

Most of the browns that I did find were not the right brown. Very light tan or very burgundy/brown. And sizes were all over the board! I wear a 9 1/2 (US) and had to go as high as 10 1/2 EEE to get some of these on!

I really did not want to buy from the Internet, but I gave in and and ordered brown ghillies from Mackenzie Frain. Their buckle brogues look good, too. 95 GBP. About $200 US shipped.

I'll give my impressions when they arrive (which being overseas probably won't be soon). Oh, and they are out of US 9 1/2, so I had to go up one size. Most shoes are too narrow for me, so that would probably be necessary anyway. We'll see.

Good luck in your quest.

edit to add: Most of these shoes up to about $150 glue the leather to the sole instead of Goodyear welt. Very disgusting trend.