Your Guide To Horsehide
As some of you know, I have a mild obsession with "exotic" shoes and belts. There's ostrich, sharkskin, caiman, crocodile, and alligator in my closet. Truth be told, however, most of the time I'm wearing proper dress shoes they are made from "shell cordovan".
If you get your shoes from Kenneth Cole you probably think of cordovan as a color, but it's actually a material. And it's called "shell cordovan" because it is made from the "shell" of a horse. The shell is the relatively small round area on the rear haunches where the skin is the perfect combination of thickness and toughness. You can only get one shoe (or belt) from a shell, so every pair of shell cordovan shoes I own represents an entire dead horse.
Not to worry, though; nobody's prowling the hunter-jumper fields of America like Ted Levine looking to kill someone's horse and steal their shells. Most horsehide comes from Europe, where some people still enjoy eating horsemeat.
When my Hillside cafe-racer jacket arrived last week, it was labeled "front quarter horsehide". This doesn't mean that they just made the front quarter of the jacket from horsehide; it means that all of the hide is from the front quarter of the horse. Still confused? Horween, the source of virtually all the properly-tanned shell cordovan in the whole world, has blog post to help you understand the various grades of horsehide.
If you are just getting started in your personal horsehide adventure, the best possible place to start is the Allen-Edmonds MacNeil. This preternaturally durable shoe will be one of your best friends for the rest of your life. It's nearly impossible to wear it out and it can be recrafted endlessly. There are very few places where a set of cordovan MacNeils would be unwelcome --- funerals, black-tie events, the Ironman Triathlon. You can wear them with denim. I wore mine to drive the Nurburgring in 2006, for all of my track events in the 2005 One Lap Of America, and for various adventures including a couple of very long walks through Manhattan. After nearly sixteen years and two recraftings, they still look like new shoes.
If you're willing to accept the odd ding or scar, you can get the MacNeil as a factory second from the outlet store for $425 or thereabouts. After the first recrafting, there won't be any difference anyway.
Paying $650 or even $425 for a pair of shoes seems like a rather unjustifiable expense, until you consider that you are buying something that you are likely to own, and use, until the day you stop walking.
Last but not least, out of fairness I should also mention the Alden Long Wing. I own two pairs of Aldens and in my experience they are made to the same standards as the high-end Allen-Edmonds, not even the slightest bit better. But if you live and work on the East Coast, the minor extra snob appeal of the Aldens might be worth the sixty-dollar upcharge. Both the MacNeil and the Long Wing are made from the same grade of Horween cordovan, so they are literally brothers under (and in) the skin.
It's nice to own things that last. It reminds you that your actions are also lasting, which is something that many of us forget in the heat of anger or passion. So whenever I think I'm going into a situation where I think I'll be tempted to belt someone in the face, I like to wear cordovan shoes. It reminds me of time and patience. And should things really go sideways despite that, the heels are excellent for stomping someone's face in.
Forget I mentioned that last. Happy New Year!