Versatile business casual dress shoe
The Allen Edmonds Grantham is a very specific looking dress shoe, in my opinion. It's far from the traditional straight-laced cap-toe or plain-toe like the Park Avenue or Carlyle, but it's not normal business casual the way a derby or a wingtip are. Instead, the Grantham is nearly wholecut, with the leather being one seamless piece from the plain toe all the way down the sides to the back. It's only interrupted by the true blucher lacing, where the eyelet facings sit affixed to the top of the shoe and don't cover all the way down the sides of the shoe, like any derby or Chukka. In principle, that's a dressy shoe, but on the other hand, the chisel toe design is almost square-toed. True cheap box-square-toed designs are frowned on by the bloggers, but modern chiseled square toes are considered acceptable--and a little casual, I would say.The Grantham is a good dress shoe, and in my opinion, it is chisel-toed, not square. But it's also wonderfully versatile. In black, it's fine with a suit. But in tan and oxblood, the Grantham becomes a great complement to jeans and a polo shirt.Fit and creasing is an issue, but that goes for any plain toed shoe. Even with the softly squared toe box, and even in my size 9EEE, my big toes feel a smidgen tight, and the shoe feels narrow at the ball of my foot. My right shoe is creasing more than I'd like, but creases are okay in the end. I'm expecting the breakin period to smooth out the issues a bit.On the other hand, the blucher lacing opens the shoe very wide and makes getting in and out a breeze
✔ Verified Purchase
Good shoes.
Allen Edmonds makes sharp looking, good quality shoes right here in the USA. These are not different. With the blucher format they can very from formal to more casual environments and look right at home. Highly recommend.
✔ Verified Purchase
Beautiful looking shoe, runs small and narrow
The Grantham from Allen Edmonds is a gorgeous and well-crafted shoe, but runs small and narrow. It's not a very comfortable shoe and will be relegated to special occasions that don't require a lot of walking.
✔ Verified Purchase
Great looking dressy Derby
I took a chance on this one but given the discounted price I thought it was worth a shot but I'm very pleased. There was a couple of minor defects such as the stitching not completely inside the sole channel but nothing to be too concerned about.The oxblood color has a lot of depth to the color and looks much better than the stock photo. It's a very dressy style for a Derby shoe with a narrower than normal profile and a slight chisel toe. Overall I'm very pleased.
✔ Verified Purchase