The 5 Best Alden Boots, From a Guy With 30 Pairs

g'day guys this is nick at stridewise.com where we look at men's boots and a power that's built to last i'm in new jersey with jd sasso from instagram looking at his 30 strong collection of alden boots jd how's it going good to see you my man thank you for having us you're well how are you uh well i'm very well i'm in a kind of a state of awe at this unbelievable collection alden boots now what went wrong in your life that you just decided okay so i want to do a deeper dive on alden's shoes and you were obviously the first guy i thought of jd has a very good instagram which is very old and strong because you just you just landed on this brand as like the brand for this was it how did you how did it happen what is your story of landing on old and there's like the preeminent the best shoe and boot brand for your feet because he also has a lot of shoes we're just doing boots here as well there's like a half dozen more than that she's in the corner over there as well we're just talking about boots right now how did it happen everything relates back to childhood trauma right childhood trauma that i had was that i inherited extremely fat flat feet from my father so at 12 years old i had to start wearing custom orthotics so since the day i was 12 my feet ache every single day so got custom orthotics when i got into my 20s and 30s i just kind of stopped wearing them i thought i don't need these anymore right so i injured my ankle a couple times both ankles i seem to have weak ankles and from the lack of wearing orthotics i develop tendonitis go to the foot doctor i have tendonitis in my ankle just killing he's like number one you got to wear your orthotics number two you have to start wearing better shoes not these junky shoes that have a brand name on them that are made like crap and that are gonna not last you have to buy a good boot why don't you go look at alden or allen edmonds or something like that so my podiatrist sent me that direction i had known the brand but i had never ventured into the territory so that's how the alton story started okay because old in the company they have like a history of making like orthopedic footwear yeah right like like medical footwear like that's that's how cause they come the company was founded in the 1880s i believe yeah 1884. uh-huh and at some point in history they were like we're gonna make boots for people with foot problems yeah the most foot shaped boot we can make yeah basically i think the story is before modern um medicine and inventions if you had severe foot problems you had to wear an orthopedic shoe especially fitted orthopedic shoe and that's what they focused on so the indie boot is actually on the true balance last which is an orthopedic glass you know if you go to old-time shoe stores who actually know what they're doing they'll show you how this boot is made for foots that have a certain pronation it has extended counters high counters it has a wide toe box so this was made for people with foot problems most people will tell you when they put on the indie boot they can't believe how comfortable it is it's not a fashion boot by any means this is like a boot that's 70 years old they made it i think in the 40s or 50s well no they would have made it well before 1936 which is the first indiana setting for those who don't know i should have opened a video with this this is the very boot that indiana jones wears in all of his movies uh you can see it in many of the shots especially when he's like uh walking around the temple the beginning of phrase the lust arc and he's like trying to avoid stepping on the stones that will shoot darts at him get nice close shots exactly themselves uh so i guess that he had some uh some foot issues and that's why he did yeah the story was he was he was a carpenter right and he wanted this is what he wore on the job every day for comfort and for that harrison ford the studio execs wanted him to wear a red wing really yeah and he said i'm wearing my aldens sorry scuff them up make them look old but this is it the 405 that's the that's the original indie that's fantastic okay so uh we know why you went into alden you know why it works on your janky feet we've talked about indiana jones what now a normal person their story would end there so i got myself a pair of aldens you decide to get thirty pairs of orders and this isn't even all that authentic he's ever had he's constantly like selling ones that he gets tired of jd why so many organs why are you collecting them i don't know if i can really answer that i've always loved shoes i used to take a lot of trips to italy and come back with a lot of italian juice so i had a good collection of italian shoes for a while always love shoes maybe it's the italian heritage in me but what i think what really got me was the comfort so just being able to put on a pair of boots and walk around so i did a lot of walking working in manhattan just to be able to walk around and not be in pain it's almost like priceless right so anybody who has pain will tell you i'll do whatever i have to do to ease the pain so just being able to put my put my foot in something where i could take steps and not have to feel those burning sensations that's what's kind of got me that's a good reason to get two peasants yeah one or two pairs if you look at an alden boot this is a this is a wingtip boot to me it's the most perfectly balanced food so everybody makes a wingtip boot right but i think the proportions of alden are just beautiful the length of the vamp and just how they cut the the sizes for the vamp yeah there we go they make it very easy to keep buying because of the custom program that's right customers can customize oldens as well exactly so most of what you see on the table here are not standard alden models that you'll see in a catalog if you pick up all the catalog you'll see this one you'll see this one you'll see i think this here this wing tip and shell cordovan and maybe the black one but the rest are special makeups retailers with good imaginations or customers who have good imaginations like this one i designed with a retailer in in seattle this is called the sasso boot so this had never been made before this is scotch screen on the plaza lass with a split toe the possibilities are almost endless makes it difficult to not keep your eye on the inventory and purchase new models very cool all right now as a man who has more experience with olden than perhaps anyone else in the world and because the internet runs on the word best tell me what are the best olden boots subjective but i'll pick five okay i'll pick five from here that are pretty easily attainable yeah okay because some of these have been made once and never again so let's look at what's attainable this right here is colorado quarterman norwegian split toe commando soul so nice in the winter in in the northeast weather extremely durable colory cordovan alden the madison runs this some other people run it too right and it's become more ubiquitous these days and for those not in the know cordovan is made from a membrane of skin at the base of a horse's tail out of a whole horse you get like maybe like this much of it it's unbelievably expensive but it is uh it lasts a really long time i did a video on this with carmina i'll like put it up there but uh yeah it's very durable it keeps it shine forever and if you're going to get second-hand shoes uh you know you can you can get secondhand cordovan and it looks like it does on day one most of the time in the last row cordovan you just brush it up you don't even need polish people put polish on and it does more harm than good just brush it up and it comes like it's new what do you think of the split toes style as well i just got my first split toy boots i love the split toe i have a couple boots and a couple shoes off to the side there but i love it i think it's a beautiful i mean they're hand sewn the issue is if you like it too much it can be a problem because alden is known for being notoriously slow in getting them into production because i think they have like two or three women there who do all the hand sewing and you can only do i think i don't know the exact number it's maybe 15 pair a day something like that so if you put a boot into production and it's hand sewn it takes a long time to give me all right that was number five yeah let's let's look at this one this is uh pretty easy to get this is black shell cordovan wingtip boot you can definitely dress it up this one has a double leather sole so it's nice for for formal wear if you want to wear it to work it's also like more flexible and like softer than like the average like rubber soles right it's very nice very thick so they're long lasting i wasn't a black boot fan for a long time but i've recently come around so this is very versatile i actually just got my first pair of rogi wingtip shoes and they are from alden as well are wingtips casual or dressy i think by nature they're more casual okay because i think the you know the history of why there are brogues down here because they're hunting baits hunting boots yeah so by their make they're more casual but yeah i think they seem to become more dressy somehow in our society yeah that's true the broguing is like an old-fashioned way of like making a bit more water resistant because like the holes helped to drain water or something like that yeah so it was like that was what old-fashioned country boots used to be made from all right that's number four number three yeah those those are two great chef quarter models this is a model put out by exclusively by lefoe in manhattan yeah how you doing steven i asked stephen for a long time to redo this boot i think the last time they made it was around 2011 or 12 and i couldn't get my hands on when they saw that really quickly so i i begged them and begged them and stephen decided to rerun it again so if there's a lot of interest maybe he'll keep doing that but i know it's a rugged boot and a water resistant boot with a nice wingtip pattern this is reverse tobacco chamois so it's got the commando soul it's got the water resistant chamois it's just a really great looking rugged boot now chamois is chamois leather which is split sheep leather so it's like sheep suede right i don't know if it's cheap for sure but shamwow i mean historically i actually just got some chamois uh alden bruce myself and then my first shamwa boots shamway it's it's like a gaudy antelope type thing from europe and it's so that used to be what shamwow leather was and these days almost all chamois is sheep yeah and it's and i and it's split so it's uh i don't know if that makes it like technically suede or not but it's a split leather yeah it looks like suede but it is but it's not sweet it comes from a sheep and it's like more hard wearing than suede i understand yeah this is very hard wearing okay so that's three can't go wrong with indie boot in chrome xl trying to think of the color but there's no color that they just it's brown creme xl yeah there's like some like undercurrents of red there to make it a bit more versatile but yeah this is this is i have this boot myself yeah um and the canvas right yeah you can't mess with this one this is got the nice uh like contrast stitching here on the mark this is actually easier to get than the original indie boot this is considered like the indie booth that indiana jones wore um but what he actually wasn't chrome excel it was cough skin yeah and that is your yeah this is my number that's a number all right let's let's let's take a look at this why is this the best olden boot to me it's about comfort so the way these indie boots have this curved thomas heel the way it gives extra support to to the inside of your arches i mean that's exactly what i need so you put this boot on it it's extremely comfortable it's got a nice wide toe box it's got these neocork soles which i mean these boots are pretty used you can see there's a lot of there's not a lot of wear on those soles so it's a very long-lasting sole and not a great winter sole like an ice sole but it's good for most everyday wear and the indie boot is uh unlike many olden boots like the individuals on the tree balance last which is wider at the at the forefoot which many people find more comfortable even if they don't have foot problems but everything you just said is the same with the chrome excel version why do you like this leather better the only issue i have with chrome excel and you can see if you put them together see how the chrome excel has gotten very wrinkly and almost stretched out yeah it's comfortable but i don't like the way it wears as much as the the regular 405 leather that's fair that's my only issue no that's that's a really good point this does look a lot better it's my first time handling the 405 in person and uh from even before i came here from the stuff i've seen online yeah the kopskin ones really uh they just they just age better yeah um very cool and i understand kaf has like more tensile strength than uh cowhide as well doesn't it because like the fibers are closer together that's a good point i don't know i don't know if that's true many consider it more unethical than grown-up cow but that's up to you to make a decision on but uh if you're looking at the two of these boots yeah there it is this is you can't go wrong with either one you can't get wrong with either one the chrome someone's easier to find to be fair but if you can get your hands on the kafka one this is the indiana jones boot and it aged a bit better as well so uh that's your ultimate guide to all the goods if you like the aldens i definitely say build relationship with retailers it's all about building those relationships it's not a pay-to-play game per se where you have to go out and buy tons of stock models to get invited to some of the rare offerings but you got to have those relationships so i would encourage people if they like the all-ins just build their relationships all right i love it thanks for having us in your home introduced against your amazing collection i'm glad you came by it's good to see you again yeah yeah um i'm glad to see you showed up with alden i did i did indeed i should have been standing like this the the entire the entire video uh follow jd on instagram he's mr alden i mean his handle is jd sasser i would call him mr alden he is just the the alden central of instagram uh and subscribe here as well if you just went up here because we got plenty more videos about boots and heritage apparel and stuff coming up keep doing what you're doing love love your channel thanks man thanks see you everybody

Channel: Stridewise

Views: 25,188

Keywords: stridewise, alden, alden boots, alden indy, best alden boots, best alden shoes, best alden indy, best alden indy boots, alden indy 403, alden indy 405, alden 403 vs 405, alden 405 leather, alden 403 leather, alden split toe, alden wingtip boot, alden greenwich boot, alden norwegian split toe boot, alden cordovan, alden cordovan boots, boot collection, boot collector, jd sasso, jd sassone

Id: XDx7F1V7T3s

Length: 13min 22sec (802 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 14 2022