Re-Imagining Alden

If you take a look at all of the Alden products on our website, you’ll see that each piece is a quality, intricately made item for the sophisticated and well-dressed man. The kind of man you see walking down the street, briefcase in hand, with an air of importance around him. A head turner. The kind of man you want to be.

If you go back into the history of Alden boots and shoes, you’ll find that the company began (and remained) in New England with a reputation for making the finest shoes a man could own. Their shoes are handcrafted with the finest leather and stitched to perfection to transform any wardrobe from an everyday wear into a cultivated and refined look that demands respect.

Have you ever flipped through pages of a Victorian Era fashion book with pictures of trends evolving from one decade to another? When I was in high school, I took a Humanities course where topics changed each quarter. The first quarter we watched and discussed classic black and white movies, the second quarter we studied the origin and history of photography, the third quarter was making pen pals with students from the other side of the country, and the fourth quarter was about fashion. Each topic was as fascinating as the previous, but what really got us working hands-on was fashion.

Our assignment was to browse through books scattered across tables filled with fashion statements and trends throughout history and create a line of about five outfits either drawn by hand or designed on a computer for presentation on a poster board. Of course, all of the modern fashion trend books were picked up immediately. Although those would have been easy to base designs off of, what drew my attention were the fashion books based on the Victorian Era style of clothing. Of course, I mixed in modern designs and pieces with the style of clothing from that era, but what really brought the entire outfit together were the shoes.

As you probably already know, shoes say a lot about a man. From first impressions to the type of lifestyle a man leads, personality, dating style, and more; the type of shoes an individual decides to wear can give other people insight into the kind of person you are.

Going back to the designs I created for my Victorian Era-inspired fashion line, the only images I have of the shoes I “designed” are poorly drawn on paper. However, the shoes I imagined to match the outfits for the hand-drawn models in my fashion line look exactly like the kinds of shoes you could find on TheShoeMart, specifically Alden.

Alden has blurred the lines between Victorian Era footwear and modern footwear. If I look at all the different styles of Alden boots and shoes, I can just imagine the men of the late 19th and early 20th centuries strolling the street with cane in one hand and the arm of a woman linked to their free arm. Their suits fit to their exact measurements, boasting wealth and prosperity. Buttonless jackets laying across their chest with lapels accenting their buttoned vests and shirts with ties. Chains of pocket watches peeking out from under the vest and slipped into their inner coat pocket sleeves, ready to check the time at a moment’s notice. Top hats secured to the tops of their heads with matching canes to indicate their status in society, but above all...the shoes. Now, I can’t say for sure what percentage of men decided to adorn their feet with the comfortable and effortless style that Alden boots and shoes had to offer, but I can imagine a high percent being Alden.

Alden footwear is the kind of footwear any man strives for. Classic, elegant, stylish, and refined. Having come to fruition in 1884, the Alden shoe company has been a leader in long-lasting quality footwear for a long time. Throughout the following years, countless New England shoe companies were unable to keep up with troubling times caused by the Depression and moved to manufacturing regions that offered lower labor costs. Alden, however, continued to prosper by providing high-quality dress shoes and orthopedic and medical footwear. To this day, Alden is the only original New England shoe company remaining. Their footwear highlights the wardrobes of those bold enough to wear these impeccably designed shoes that reflect the changing and modern times of today, but also hint at the stylish and classic wear that has always been popular.

If you’re the kind of man who strives for a dignified shoe to pair with his wardrobe, head on over and check our all the Alden products we have for you. Aside from shoes, we also have Alden leather belts, Alden leather luggage tags, key rings, coin cases, pen cases, magnifier cases, and more! Get yours today!