Sweet! "The early bird gets the cheese!"For those of you who have the white Bates Lite disintegrating sole issue.... I went to the Bates website and sent an email to them stating pretty much everything that's been said here....they sent me an Return Authorization, and I boxed up the shoes and sent them off. Took about 2 weeks, but I just received a new pair of white Bates Lite shoes. No charge other than sending the old shoes back.
You know, before the advent of synthetic crapola to make white dress shoes (which pre-dates even my experience) I'm led to believe that dress white shoes were actually made from a very fine-nap buckskin…e.g., "White Bucks". A real leather material that could take actual washing with saddle soap, and then whitening with whatever after drying. No idea about the soles and edge welts, but probably "by gawd" leather as well. Just guessing they were probably better, if less economical. Think pre-WWII, when the uniform of the day everywhere was either some form of whites (probably SDWs), or SDBs.
Well, if you actually read my post, you'd see that I specified that "non-synthetic crapola" white shoes pre-dated my personal experience.You mean back when you were a JO?
I like the neutral polish, the brown was darker than the dye in the leather and it would leave an uneven coloring when I was done if I didn't get the wax layer equal.
Do you mean "shinier" on the toe, or actually a slightly lighter shade? Interesting...... a sort of uneven look on his shoes (e.g. brighter on the toe of the shoe), and they looked awesome.
Do you mean "shinier" on the toe, or actually a slightly lighter shade? Interesting...
Parade gloss brown, repeat.