Club Obi Wan

I know there have been some complaints about the bad leather on the newer Alden's. If anyone wants to know, I just got an email from Renner's boot's telling me that there will be another 6 week wait on my re-placements because of this. Its already been a month for me, whats another 6 weeks. I guess waiting for an AB really improves a person's patience;) lol

It seems that schmidty finally got their attention! See, he HAS been working for you guys, just like he said!

Good job, schmidty!!

Regards! Michaelson

Is there an Official Press release about a recall? Didn't see anything on there website. How do we find out if our shoes are affected? I just got mine in December 08. Any SPECIFICS?

Well, if your newer Aldens contain peanuts, they might be tainted with salmonella.

Maybe they were infected with mad cow disease causing rapid deterioration?

Randy

So, if I suspect my boots are wearing abnormally around that lace area, do I contact Alden directly, or deal through the retailer?

I would like to know the symptoms (besides the lace scuffs) for the bad leather as well. My contact from Renner's told me they currently had some C's in stock to send out instead of waiting 6 weeks for D .He said the leather was just fine because Alden didnt allow any defective leather to be sent out. We know that some DID get out though.I have a narrow foot so I figured what the heck and got the C, but I also want to know if the shoes I recieve are quality in case they fit well.

I'd think if there was something seriously wrong with your shoes, you'd notice it right away and take them back. Who needs to wait for a recall?

True. I'll see how it goes

Keep us in the loop.

It's very good that Bryan was able to get something done about this...I'm sure most people would get their pairs of 405's and just chaulk the poor quality up to setbacks and money saving on the part of Alden...But really for those of us who are more familiar with the history of the brand and their quality products (I.E. Schmidty whom has been selling the 405 for a great many years now) knew something was just not right...It appears that this was the case and hopefully Alden will take a long healthy look at their leather before placing it into production from this point on...I'm just curious which other shoes using the same bad Calf Leather were affected by this...Shoes outside of this board and not of the 405 model....

We'll probably never know. Let's face it, outside of our experience with Aldens, who really deals with custom/hand made shoes anymore? Just about everything else we deal with are purchased at a local store, and almost ALL those are made overseas from other leather sources.....so, except for the rare few who deal with custom shoe makers on a regular basis, that's a question that will probably be left unaswered to us.

Just a thought....

Regards! Michaelson

Michaelson wrote:We'll probably never know. Let's face it, outside of our experience with Aldens, who really deals with custom/hand made shoes anymore? Just about everything else we deal with are purchased at a local store, and almost ALL those are made overseas from other leather sources.....so, except for the rare few who deal with custom shoe makers on a regular basis, that's a question that will probably be left unaswered to us.

Just a thought....

Regards! Michaelson

Very true Sir...

But it's my thinking that if in fact this was a large enough problem that Alden would need to conduct a recall of it's product it would almost have to be more widespread than just our little corner of the world here...

I'm venturing to guess there are people out there who have purchased Alden shoes of some form recently and have no idea that their product may be faulty...

It's very sad to me because due to the misstep of Alden letting the bad product get through they may now scare away customers that arean't used to their quality product...Customers that now think that All of the product from Alden is shoddy and of poor quality...Very sad for a company that depends so much on word of mouth trough their customer base to generate sells...

If in fact this is widespread then perhaps down the line this could actually hurt the company as a whole...Let me break out the crystal ball...

Hopefully it's not that bad though and they were able to put a stop to it before too much of the product got out...

True. It's bad enough for a large company in this financial climate, but a real killer for a hand crafted product company like Alden. Thing it, it may be limited to only the orthopedic side of the 'store', and not impact any other section of their shoe making operation.

The fact that they're being proactive helps their case.

Just looking over your shoulder at your crystal ball.... ;-)

Regards! Michaelson

Very good point sir...That's a sad thought as well seen as though the Orthopedic side of things is the side that should get the best quality as those customers are the ones that actually require shoes like this...

Like I said earlier though with any luck they got it taken care of before too much faulty product got out...

Thought I felt somebody looking over my shoulder too...

Just got my C width Aldens today from Renners. They are perfect, except........ the top of my big toe slides down to touch the top of the boot, but the width feels pretty good. My toe isnt squished, but noticeable. I sent the original 10 D's back cuz they had some faulty stitching and seemed a little too wide. So, they let me know they had some 9.5 C's in stock and asked If I wanted to try those because of the recall wait. But Im thinkin now a 10 C might do the job. I just appreciate Renner's for doin' their best to help me get the right boot. Also, the leather on this new boot feels better than the ones I returned, but that could just be me.

anyone care to tell me the defects? Is it only the leather (including the ones in the lacing) or are anyu other parts involved as well?

Bought my 2 pairs from schmidty around Nov-Dec 08.

anyone care to tell me the defects? Is it only the leather (including the ones in the lacing) or are any other parts of the shoe involved as well?

Bought my 2 pairs from schmidty around Nov-Dec 08.