Allen-Edmonds Cambridge Cordovan

I'd been looking at this pair of AE cordovan shoes for the past 12 months. To tell the truth I felt that the colour looked muddy (it looks nicer in these pictures than in reality) and I was unsure if the wing-tip brogue style was something I could wear (I wear jeans everyday, and everytime I tried the shoes on they looked slightly odd). So I hesitated for 12 months, and finally decided to get them since they're the only cordovan shoes that I've seen in Australia, and they were at a bargain price.

I guess that they'd been in the store a lot longer than 12 months since AE don't offer the Cambridge style shoe anymore. They also have a few scratches and dings from shop handling.

I noticed this strange white deposit on the tongue of the left shoe. Perhaps it's cocaine...

Anyway, the shoes are a burgundy colour. The edges have black piping which I don't think is cordovan. The waxed laces are a bit sticky. You can see the irregularity of the colouring on the cordovan pieces on this next pic.

The sole is quite stiff and thick, but I'm sure it will break-in over time.

I'm quite excited to see how these shoes age over time. The descriptions that I've read about shell cordovan are very impressive. The shoes will probably outlast this blog.

You can read about shell cordovan:

here

and here at horween