An institution online for all those interested in men’s vintage shoes. The website Classic Shoes for Men collects and sell quality vintage and antique shoes, both used and new, and the library with over 2,500 shoes is a goldmine to dig through.
There’s few websites that I’ve spent more time on than Classic Shoes for Men. Especially when I was getting into shoes and wanted to see and learn as much as possible on quality footwear, I spent hours every week going through the library, looking at the photos and reading the descriptions. It holds one of the largest collections of antique and vintage men’s shoes in the world, gathered during more than three decades by the German Sevan Minasian (who is based in the US though).
Spade sole oxfords from the American brand Hanover, dated 1925. Lovely stuff.
There’s some newer stuff that aren’t that interesting and in cases priced weirdly (like used Carmina shoes more expensive than new ones), but a vast majority are stuff 20+ years old, and quite a lot are from pre 1950’s. Of course lots of vintage American stuff, a bunch of really nice old bespoke shoes from names like Tuczek, Cleverley and John Lobb, and loads more. If you’re out to buy stuff, I recommend filtering through size and start from there to find something interesting. Should sizing not work, one can easily return the shoes. If you’re just browsing, you can for example filter through makers, central European brands, etc.
Button boots from 1910 by the legendary bespoke maker Nikolaus Tuczek.
Don’t expect to make bargains though, Minasian is a collector and he mainly sell to other shoe collectors who knows the values. And note that shoes that have already been sold are still listed, but it’s clear what is in stock and not. I’m very grateful that he still keeps everything online in this ever growing shoe archive. The main con of the site is that the photos are in low resolution, not giving one the chance to fully appreciate the shoes.
Hand stitched sole on a vintage Regal shoe.
This is a great one, by the defunct American maker Knapp, Horween cordvoan leather and steel toe caps. Hard to get better looking proper work shoes than this. Made in the 70’s. All pictures: Classic Shoes for Men
I probably won’t be buying however it’s a wonderful site to peruse 🙂
Tony
Anthony: Yeah, sites with lots of good shoes are per se wonderful! 🙂
Hi
Just two remarks:
1) Their shoes are usually more expansive than the ones in better conditions sold on ebay;
2) It also happens that makers are merely misidentified. A case in point when it comes to Poulsen Skone shoes. Not all had been made by Edward Green.
John