Another great video Tristan! I completely agree with your point that one shouldn't put too many shoe caring product onto the shell. I also don't like people putting mirror shine on shell, to me that covers up the natural beauty of shell!
I think that color 8 is overly saturated in Alden cordovan, personally. What you say is true, from a leather care perspective, absolutely. Misting and microfiber wipe (+ ample brushing) for dirt is really all that shell cordovan needs. If your preference, however, is to have your shoes reflect a bit more variance in shading at the stretched and bent parts of the material (perhaps emphasizing the tonal values of the color that come with age and wear) then occasional light application and brushing of creams is a good way of creeping up on that effect a bit faster. Personally, I love color 8 as a baseline (in chromexel or shell cordovan) that can be stretched or pushed to more red tones... with the use of soaping and conditioning with red creams (like old meltonian) a couple times a year. I'm glad I found your video. Thank you.
After pre maintenance. looking closely there are so many micro scratching marks from horse hair brush and cloth on shell cordovan. I think my brush and cloth is soft enough which I also use with other leather shoes. It seems like my shoes before pre maintenance looked nicer.😢 Did I do anything wrong ? or Its just normal for this kind of leather. Thank you.
thanks for telling me the truth, i have whole lot of shell shoes, horween shell is already good enough to give shine, alden put plastic coating on it just ruin up the product and wont give the patina they make shoes so beautiful
Shell's oil needs to be replendished too. If you do not use renovateur at least, the shell will soon lose its oil and lustre. There's a visible difference between shell with renovateur applied and one without. Sometimes compromise is necessary and some products, like renovateur and Famaco cordovan balm, have acceptable level of solvent which make them usable.
Horween actually recommends venetian shoe cream for their shell. Saphir renovateur works good as well but I've tried both myself and venetian works better on shell.
Great video. Shoes look great been debating between these and the cap toe boot. How long have you had these or how many times have you worn them? Just curios because they look great.
I feel that they are overpriced and the street you walk on will reflect on the bottom of that shoe as it would on a pair of 50 dollar shoes , 700 dollars on a pair of shoes that can be scraped and can get wet or scratched is not worth it , I can buy 5 pair of Bostonian men's shoes that be a better bargain and they look great with a suit also
mrnyc220 no one cares about the bottom of the shoes. Alao those 50$ pairs you mentioned generally have glued o. soles so once they're done they're DONE lol further more these arent work out shoes or shoes for playing sports. So there's no reason they should be gettinf acrayched and scuffed cept for maybe someone stepping in them by accident by generally that won't do anything but even then iy almost always repairable with some polish and cream. So whike your i.itial investment may be cheaper over time you'll spend more than I will. Taken cared of properly these shoes will last the rest of your life and can even act as very nice hand me downs like watches rings etc. But i dont blame the thought process I used to think the same thing. But ive had mine now going on 10 years and they still look basically brand new only way you can even tell they're not is the bottom :)
Dont get me wrong they are great shoes , just I feel with 700 i can get two pair of great shoes and shoes are made to be worn out and enjoyed , and then get something else
mrnyc220, With $700 you can definitely get two pairs of great shoes, no doubt about that. But the best you can get for them are with calf skin leathers. I can tell calf skin shoes from shell cordovans from far away. Shell cordovan looks much more expensive and nicer. Shell leathers are from horses and not just at any part of the horse. The leather doesn't crease but roll and been in the tannery for 6 months before they are ready.; that's why a shoe of shell will look like new after 10 years. They're never on sale, and the price keep going up because of limited supply of horse shell cordovan.
