The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Oh, man, I wish you wouldn't have told me that. Now I'm soooooooo tempted. Beautiful shoe.

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Chris
Club Member #0070
2009 TT Chrono Evo w/Rose gold, blue face
2009 Airwolf w/black face, Co-Pilot module
2009 TT Lady Cockpit w/Mother-of-Pearl, Diamond face for the wife

the AE recrafting program totally rocks, and they run specials for like $120 including shoe trees and bags. They come back basically new.

Second and third pair acquired today

I got two pairs of Cheaney captoe Oxfords, a black one and one in a mid brown tone that Cheaney calls dark leaf.

Both look great, fit great and are something to behold in terms of perceived quality.

Not quite like the Westons, which have a special finish on the soles including a closed channel and a rib cut from the insole instead of a cemented one... But the Cheaneys remain impressive nonetheless.

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Cheers from Switzerland,

Fred

It's a slippery slope........

Congratulations! I was just looking at my closet and thinking that I needed more boot options for the winter

I get my dress shoes hand made by a small outfit in Central in Hong Kong a few floors above Shang Hai Tang. Perfect fit every time. One pair of blacks to go with black straps and one pair of browns to go with my brown croco straps
The odd pair of Loakes gets into the shoe cabinet now and then but I still prefer the locally hand and custom made ones.
On top of that a pair of hiking boots (hardly used), a pair of runners (also hardly used) a pair of bike shoes (used most weekends) and last but not least a pair of rubber flip flops (used as much as I can).

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"It is just a matter of time!"

Sounds great, seems like in Asia people really still know how to handmake stuff properly. Around here if at all its unforgivingly expensive...

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Cheers from Switzerland,

Fred

I'm going to go a little off topic here, but I think my question is still relevant. I have pretty narrow feet and have issues with my heels sliding out of my dress shoes. I have a pair of Santonis and Ferragamos. Is there something I can put in my shoes to keep my heel more secured?

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Chronomat 01- Sierra Silver/Steel
Navitimer 01- Limited Edition #1337/2000

Not being an expert but i doubt there's many a cost effective way to narrow shoes along the back... One would have to entirely recraft the part where the heel is sewn together. Stuff to slide in would have to be quite hard to stay in place and could eventually injure your feet. Its not known as the achilles heel because its so terribly rugged.

This answer is clearly not a very satisfactory one, but i can at least add the following: there are some tying techniques with running shoes, that help against heel slipping. Then again this may only help with derby style shoes... And not look great either.

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Cheers from Switzerland,

Fred

If your feet are slipping out of them then they are the wrong size - get your feet measured in a Brannock device and find out what width fitting you need.

Moving forward, this is good advice. However, I'm looking for a way to salvage the shoes I currently have. A while back I had some slip on loafers with the same issue. I found a heel pad thing that stuck to the heel cup of the shoe and it seemed to work alright. I was wondering if there may be more "elegant" options than this for my dress shoes, though.

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Chronomat 01- Sierra Silver/Steel
Navitimer 01- Limited Edition #1337/2000

Heavy wool socks? Just kidding. In your case i'd be inclined to add material (pad or other) on top of the foot, ie under the laces. This might press the foot to the back of the shoe and fill out the heel. Or get the shoes cleaned and waxed and up on eBay...

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Cheers from Switzerland,

Fred

Hey Fred, thanks for the help. I have actually tried the pads that go under the laces and did not have great results. I haven't tried them in these specific shoes, so perhaps I could give them a shot again. I forgot about that option.

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Chronomat 01- Sierra Silver/Steel
Navitimer 01- Limited Edition #1337/2000

a shoe made from a last that does not fit your foot will never be comfortable, whatever you do.

This might be a very crude suggestion but I do remember in my young days when I still lived somewhere in central to Northern Europe, my leather shoes would occasionally get completely soaked in the winter melting sloshy snow. I was too lazy as a kid to give them a good coat of shoe polish to increase the water resistance (like my father told me to do) so the leather absorbed water like a sponge.
I would then put them next to the heater overnight to dry them out and sure enough, next morning they were pretty much one size too small and pretty stiff but a good dose of shoe wax would get the softeness back, mostly.
So I'm thinking, if you take one pair that you dislike most to experiment with, get them soaking wet and dry them rapidly in the sun or next to a heater. They are bound to shrink.
After that give them a good coat of wax based shoe polish and give them a day or so to absorb it to soften them up and it might just do the trick.
Not much lost if it does not work out if you pick your least favorite pair to experiment with but if it works, it might be one way to get some more use out of the shoes that you find a bit too big.
It might shorten their life expectancy somewhat but it should not matter much if you are not comfortable wearing them right now anyway. It might just work to get a few extra miles out off them.

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"It is just a matter of time!"