There are few shoes that are more classic than a pair of saddle buck shoes with the red brick sole. Not only is it an American staple piece, but apparently also an English one too. The saddle shoe was created by the founder of Spalding (the company that makes basketballs etc). Its first use was as a gym shoe, where the saddle piece was used to reinforce the instep area for stability. Twenty or so years later, their two-tone cousins arrived on the scene and became more of a style piece than a functional gym shoe.
Knowledge credit here.
In the 1950s, two-toned saddle buck shoes became all the rage on University campuses, where many students owned and wore a pair of ‘bucks’ as they were commonly referred to. To my knowledge, this was an American style that went East, all the way to Jolly ‘ol England where students alike dressed in this Ivy League look of the saddle buck with the brick sole.
Back when I worked at Nordstrom, we had two saddle buck shoes on offer. The classic white and one more akin to the darker version that C&J offers here. I remember being attracted to them but never officially pulling the trigger on one. Partly, as I was 20 years old and they only seemed to be purchased by older men and also because they had a really robust toe and I liked pointy things back then.
Being a bit older, more refined, and more mature, I could see myself wearing these on the weekends. The red brick soles are very comfortable, and lightweight and could easily fit into my ‘suburban weekend shoe’ that I have been mentioning as of late. Maybe I am now just that older man I used to look at when I was 20 lol. Jokes aside, it is nice to see the saddle buck shoes making a comeback.
Crockett & Jones decided to pay homage to this classic model this year, introducing their new Penn model, coming in two classic and versatile colorways. All that is missing is the white version. Let’s see if that comes next year along with any other unique colorways!
Learn more here: https://us.crockettandjones.com/
Read more about Crockett & Jones here.
—Justin FitzPatrick, The Shoe Snob
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***Crockett & Jones is a sponsor of The Shoe Snob Blog and this can be considered a sponsored post***
