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Selvaine

An Honest Accounting · By Thomas Reilly

5 Reasons The Men Who Used To Resole Their Boat Shoes Three Times Are Stockpiling Pairs Now

When the Connecticut resoling program closed, the men who lived by it did not stop owning boat shoes. They started buying them differently. This is what they actually do now.
1

A pair handed down from a father, kept through three resolings, finally let go in 1991

If you grew up around a marina in the sixties or seventies, the resoling ritual was part of owning a boat shoe. The shoes went back to the company. The company replaced the soles. The shoes came back. The same pair could pass through three or four cycles before the leather finally surrendered. The shoe outlived the dog, sometimes the marriage.

I was handed down a pair from my father, the leather moccasins were still good after several resolings. I finally let them go when Sperry stopped resoling. — Craig Paton, who inherited his pair in 1965

That is the closest thing the cohort has to a sacrament. A pair that started on a father's feet, moved to a son's feet, came back from the Connecticut plant three times with new soles, and only stopped getting worn when the company that did the resoling shut the program down. The shoe was repairable. The system that repaired it was not.

The Marlin is built to be worn hard for years, not handed down for decades. I am not promising a 1965-to-1991 lifespan because no current-run shoe at $45 honestly delivers it. What I am promising is the silhouette and the feel of the shoe Craig's father bought him, at the price the original used to cost.

2

The local cobbler who would have fixed the shoe is also gone

If the brand will not resole the shoe, the cohort's old fallback was the local cobbler. Every coastal town from Mystic to Newport to Annapolis had a man with an industrial sewing machine and a shoe-last collection who could rebuild a sole for forty dollars and have it back to you on Friday. By 2010 most of those men had retired without successors. By 2020 most of the shops were gone.

They buried the lasts. The metal and wooden forms ended up in garbage dumps here in the US. — Jeffrey Leonard, former shoe fitter

That is the economic story of every workshop that depended on a steady supply of resolable shoes coming through the door. When the brand stops making a resolable shoe, the cobbler stops getting work. When the cobbler retires, his shop closes. When the shop closes, the next pair the cohort buys has nowhere to go for repair.

The Marlin is not pretending to fix that system. The system is gone. What I can do is build a current-run shoe at $45 that does the job for the years it does the job, instead of selling you a $185 premium-tier shoe that comes apart in a week and has nowhere to be repaired anyway.

3

The men who could not get the originals resoled started stockpiling vintage pairs instead

This was the most striking pattern in the comment threads. Men in their late sixties writing publicly that they had given up on buying current-run heritage shoes entirely. Instead they were going on eBay, hunting for new-old-stock pairs, buying them in lots of six or twelve, paying a local cobbler to do a one-time rework, and storing them in closets to last out the decade.

I went on eBay, found vintage Allen Edmonds, paid about $50 a pair, then $100 to a cobbler to rework them. I have twelve pairs. They will last me the rest of my life. — Chris Hamman, on the workaround
First stop China — absolute terrible build quality. Next stop Central America — a little better but nothing compared to Maine built. I sought NOS all over online spots including Europe — probably snagged a dozen pairs. — Bill Donahue, on the same pattern with Sebago

Two different men. Different brands. Same workaround. A dozen pairs each, sourced from defunct stock, hand-reworked, stored to last out the decade. The cohort has been telling itself for ten years that the only honest boat shoe is the one that was made before the production move. The Marlin is the first shoe in a decade built to the silhouette they have been hoarding.

The Marlin · Current Run

Built to the original silhouette. Wear them hard. $45 a pair.

Leather-grain hide-finish upper. Classic deck-lace tie. Stitched moc-toe construction. Siped non-slip sole built for wet decks. Modern construction at the $45 pricepoint.
Get The Current Batch →
30-day domestic return. US return address inside every box.
4

The ones who could not stockpile started repairing with whatever was in the garage

If you cannot send the shoe back. If the cobbler is closed. If you cannot afford to buy twelve pairs of new-old-stock at fifty dollars apiece. The next move is duct tape.

Used to wear mine held together with duct tape. — Steve LaPaglia
Red gaffer tape on the left, green on the right. — Jim Childs
Totes rubbers over my worn-out Kudus, just for gardening. — Jonathan Kwiat

That is what stubborn loyalty looks like in this cohort. Three different men, three different repair improvisations, all trying to keep the original pair on their feet for one more season because they had tried the post-overseas replacement and decided the duct tape on the original was the more honest option.

I am not selling a shoe that needs duct tape in the second season. I am selling a current-run shoe at $45, built to the original silhouette, that does the job for the years it does the job. The thirty-day return covers you if it does not.

5

The retail places where you used to buy them are also gone

If the brand will not resole the shoe, and the cobbler is retired, and you have run out of garage tape, the last place to go was the store. The marina retail counter. The hardware store on the harbor that sold boat shoes alongside boom vangs and winch handles. The outlet on the edge of the highway that ran the new-old-stock at twenty dollars a pair. Those stores are mostly gone too.

Saddest day, when there was no Sperry Top-Sider store in Annapolis, the sailing capital of the U.S. — Thomas Christopher
Bought a pair every year at Spags in Shrewsbury in the 80s and 90s. They were always under $20. — Carl Peterson
My dad used to tell us go to the Boatique and get a pair and charge them to the boat. It was a yearly ritual. — Bruce Terry, on the Florida marina retail spot

Three different men. Three different retail anchors. The Annapolis flagship store, the Massachusetts hardware store on the harbor, the Florida marina counter where the dockmaster knew you by name. None of those places are still selling the shoe. The cohort that lived by them now buys online, from someone who answers the comment thread by name. That is what I built Selvaine to be.

What is rebuilt
1935
Silhouette
$45
Honest Price
Stitched
Moc Toe
30 Days
US Return
Siped
Non-Slip Sole
What the cohort has said in the comments
When Sperry stopped resoling
"I was handed down a pair from my father. The leather moccasins were still good after several resolings. I finally let them go when Sperry stopped resoling."
— Craig P., on the inheritance pair
Twelve pairs in the closet
"I sought NOS all over online spots including Europe. Probably snagged a dozen pairs."
— Bill D., on the stockpile workaround
Exactly like before
"Exactly like boat shoes used to be."
— Bill D. (different Bill), on the Marlin

30 days. US return address. No tricks.

You cannot send the Marlin back to a Connecticut resoling line. That line has been closed for thirty-five years. What you can do is wear the shoe hard, on a wet deck, in the garden, to the cookout, the way the original was worn before the brand stopped making it.

If they aren't the silhouette and the feel you remember from before the resoling program ended, send them back to the address printed on the box. Domestic. No store credit. No ship-to-China runaround.

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Current production batch · 30-day domestic return