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WHICH Brown Shoe?
- Thread starter nittany03
- Start date
floridaseabee
Member
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.
Sweet! "The early bird gets the cheese!"
Oh, wait…I think I screwed that up.
I wonder how long Bates will honor that commitment to customer satisfaction?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.
Naw, that was his DH Photo!
BzB
BzB
Well, if you actually read my post, you'd see that I specified that "non-synthetic crapola" white shoes pre-dated my personal experience.
But…well played!
But..I will admit to the fact that "in my time"…USNA grads (and probably others) actually wore "Navy Blue" dress uniforms…not the black that I/we wore/wear. Not sure when that stopped happening.
How should I be shining my brown shoes? One guy told me to alternate two or three coats of neutral with a coat of brown polish, but another guy told me not to mix them. I just have the Bates Lites for now.
I suppose, but the LCDR that taught my DIVOLC class had a sort of uneven look on his shoes (e.g. brighter on the toe of the shoe), and they looked awesome. I just couldn't tell if it was the way he shined them, or if that's just how it looks after quite a while of use and some TLC. I probably should've asked him, in retrospect.
Do you mean "shinier" on the toe, or actually a slightly lighter shade? Interesting...
Lighter shade, it had a nice aged, worn look to it
Okay, I caved and picked some up today, should I remove the neutral polish I've been using and work in some coats of brown polish before using the gloss to protect the leather? Or can it just go right on top of the neutral?
Last question, and then I'll stop obsessing about shoes. Do NA's/NFO's wear the khakis that much, or at least often enough to justify buying a nicer pair like the Allen Edmonds Leeds? I imagine the vast majority of the time, the uniform would be the flight suit, except for certain shore duties. I'd definitely wear the Leeds with my civvies too, but $600 is still quite a bit to shell out on a pair of shoes.