Shoes

[Abilene, SASS # 27489]

I've always worn tall boots for CAS.  Black ones from the beginning and added a brown pair several years back.  I even have a separate pair of cathedral stitch black boots that are my "banquet boots", only worn to banquets or formal affairs to keep them looking new.  And yeah, dressed up in a frock coat, fancy vest and tie, top hat etc. looks good with the pants tucked into tall shiny boots.  But no, that's probably not what they did back in the day.  Sure, a cowboy will put on his nicest shirt and scarf to go to the barn dance, but folks dressed up in fancy clothes were not cowboys, they were townies of one sort or another and would not be tucking pants into boots.   Many people shoot in packer boots, and those would do for Townie foot wear, but I wanted something a little more dressy plus my usual criteria which means it had to be cheap  inexpensive  .   So I looked for high top brogues.  There were a variety of similar styles out there but almost every one of them had a zipper up the inside even though they were lace-up.  Well I could not abide a zipper.  I ended up with these from Arc Brothers (Chinese made) from Amazon for $69.  Knowing I could return them if they didn't fit, I threw the dice and ordered them a full size larger to make room for a foam inner-sole, which turned out to be just right.  It will be quite a while before the next banquet but I wore them to a match and they felt fine!  The soles have rubber lugs which is not authentic but that doesn't show and makes them safer so I'm okay with that.