The Great Winter Boot Debacle

Now without sounding like the male equivalents of The Devil Wears Prada or Sex in the City we at The Established Man do take pride in our appearance. So with wet weather in London and a chilling wind whipping off the Atlantic in NYC it's clear that our bedraggled collection of tatty Converse and even tattier Plimsolls that cost a fiver in Brick Lane were not going to cut it in terms of both cutting a stylish dash but also avoiding trench-foot. It was time for those winter boots to emerge from our closets, yet this one staple item appears rather underrepresented in The Established Man shoe cupboard. 

We thought it would be a simple task but after schlepping around every department store, boutique and online store it appeared that a good pair of boots for a relatively affordable price was out of the question. How we lusted after those Maison Martin Margiela distressed boots that would have a required one's own personal army to get them off, or the fisherman's boots that we're sure people use to muck out stables or gut fish whilst wearing them but they were non-starters either on price or comfort.

Our office relocation to New York for two weeks meant that we arrived here with a pair of B-store brown Oxfords which did not survived the journey well, worse than a piece of rare porcelain shipped off to Aunt Sally in Florida, they have bummed as the locals here would say. But after a lengthy walk around Central Park on Monday to escape the madness of Manhattan that shining beacon of male retail therapy should come into eye shot, yes, we had chanced upon Barney's, Ta da! Boy did Barney's do us proud, a pair of Fiorentini+Baker boots later, reduced as well, we are now suitably soled for the coming cold season. Their boots are wonderfully comfortable and come looking a little pre-distressed, meaning we won't have to spend hours rubbing them against abrasive surfaces to look like they've spent one too many nights in Camden.

www.fiorentini+baker.com