Mens boots - not fair!!! (Han Solo,pirate...)

joeranger

joeranger

Sr Member
I was in NYC for work and walked miles through the garment district, East Village, Greenwich Village stopping in every shoe and boot place, fetish clothing, Goth, resale, consignment, shoe repair, costume store...
I was looking for tall black leather riding boots for my Han Solo project.
I actually found a perfect pair at a consignment shop but they didn't fit.

What I noticed was that there are no "Cheap men's boots". Women will buy shoes just to wear once with an outfit. The industry recognizes this and has tons of options for footwear that look good but the heal will fall off after a few weeks. They just buy a new pair.

Outside of costuming, I wear the same shoes/boots all the time. They get more comfortable as I wear them.

There are functional cheap shoes/boots at discount stores for men. I am not talking about these.
Has anybody else noticed the difficulty in finding reasonably priced men's boots? Pirate, Renaissance, Han Solo...

I saw a women's boot for $29 that would have been perfect but they don't make them in bigfoot sizes. A cheap plastic/vinyl costume boot was $50.
 
Agreed...they are harder to find, but on the other hand, we have the advantage of military surplus. I've seen a fair few pairs of tall boots in vintage stores but have never found anything I would wear. For me, this is a bay or online quest.
 
Well, you covered all the reasons why there are no "Cheap Men's boots".......function, materials, size........as men's boots are usually a lot more "hefty" than women's boots and since men generally wear boots more for function than fashion, more men's boots are made out of real leather and sturdier materials. Not to mention bigger sizes requiring more materials, so I guess that's why you hardly ever find any reasonably priced men's boots........

Don't be jealous that we can buy a boat load of vinyl hip boots for what you'd pay for a pair of Zappos!

Shylaah
 
I had the same problem for my Star Trek costume. It sucked when I would be at a store or website and see boots that would work really well but were only available for women. It was either fake it or get a custom pair made for $300-$400. I ended up getting some cheap boot covers that made my dress shoes kinda look like old style Trek boots. It actually worked well if you did not look too close.
 
I needed a par of fake converse shoes and i went and bought women shoes. No problem as im going to change them a little bit.
 
On the other hand... our clothes tend to have functional pockets. I think it's more than a fair trade off ;)

But I agree, it is frustrating looking for a pair of cheap, character boots. This season in NYC all the Ricky's Halloween Stores had all their Secret Wishes character shoes on sale for $4.99!!! But naturally, they were all for women. Go Go Boots, Spats shoes, pirate boots, moccasins, etc... all women's!!! ARrggghh!
 
Shyaporn said:
On the other hand... our clothes tend to have functional pockets. I think it's more than a fair trade off ;)
Click to expand...

Eurgh, don't remind me - I had to visit far too many stores to try and find suit trousers with pockets. I'm still annoyed that half my coats have pocket flaps but no pockets - why do they do this? It's just false advertising combined with cruelty :unsure

Also on the flip side, it's so hard to find either decently made women's boots that don't shred your feet, or shoes without heels - event military-style boots seem to need heels if you're a woman. As a woman who can't walk in heels (especially not for 8-or-so hours at convention) it makes costuming difficult.

Anyways, we had to find a pair of brown knee-high riding boots for my partner for a costume and we ended up finding an equastrian supplies store online - it seemed that only online stores had any variety of boots in a size 10. We still ended up paying about £100, but it's worth a look - if you're not as picky as he was you might find something good.
 
I get so frustrated every time I walk through a shoe store, and see 40 different styles of tall boots for women, and cannot find any for guys. I like tall boots. I want to wear tall boots in real life, especially at this time of year. >.<
 
You speak the truth, my friend.

Zeppo said:
I get so frustrated every time I walk through a shoe store, and see 40 different styles of tall boots for women, and cannot find any for guys. I like tall boots. I want to wear tall boots in real life, especially at this time of year. >.<
Click to expand...
 
You can sometimes find decent prices on surplus boots from the USSR or former soviet republics. I have a saved search on ebay that notifies me anytime a listing goes up with the words "Soviet Parade Boots" in my size, I'm not in a rush but would like to do a Solo costume at some point and figure if I'm patient and watchful I can snag a pair at a price I'm willing to pay.

~Hero
 
Personal experience - beware of SCAboots.com. They do have some nice looking boots. I ordered two pair of musketeer-type boots from them almost 2 years ago at about $120 each. They took 3 months to ship, sent the wrong size, and I returned them for a partial refund (partial was all they offered after so long, even though it was their fault) as the event they were for was long over and done. Never received the refund, and they refuse to answer emails. Try them if you dare!
 
I had once needed a pair of TOS Trek boots when I was doing Kirk "look-alike" gigs. None were available, but I did find a pair of ankle high men's zippered boots that fit, a pair of women's knee high zippered boots that would fit around my calf at some thrift stores and took these to a shoe repair shop where I had asked the proprietor if he could cobble these into a pair of Trek boots. He said he could and enjoyed the challenge other than simply repairing a pair of shoes.

I had a decent pair of boots for my costume for no more than $50.00 total. I still have them somewhere around here.
 
I work in the apparel industry (you probably walked right by my office)... the demand just isnt there.

About 2 years ago when I was living in London for work some very trendy guys were wearing knee high boots with their pants tucked into them like women do. I thought for sure that might catch on but it doesn't look like it has.


however we now have men in leggings
 
I work in the apparel industry (you probably walked right by my office)... the demand just isnt there.
Click to expand...

I did see that movie "Kinky boots" DEAR GOD, BURGUNDY!!!!???

I don't need red heals, but see if you can get the Han Solo look to catch on:)
 
You can try retailers who carry plus size clothes for larger women, instead of mainstream boutiques.

I wear a men's size 10, so a ladies size 12 fits. Plus size retailers usually carry women's shoes/boots up to at least size 14 (men's 12).
 
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