The Mexicans are coming! Well, their shoes are at least. In the past 6 months or so, a few brands have come on the scene out of Mexico. Just A Men Shoe being one and John Doe Shoes, being the other (yes, I know, the names could use some work). Today we shall discuss the latter brand, in particular their Dover Chukka Boot.
John Doe Shoes specializes in Good Year welted shoes, which are made at their factory in Mexico. Which, if you care to hear my opinion, we are going to be seeing a few brands come out of there. As I said, I opted for their chukka boot, but John Doe has 10 other shoes in the line, including one style of dress boot, which I almost opted for.
The John Doe website certainly leaves something to be desired. Although it is informative and the layout/navigation is simple the product photography needs some work. I think that the Dover Chukkas look both better in person and in my photography below, but I may be biased on the latter statement. Anyway, so far I have been pretty happy with the boots, but let’s take a closer look.
Overall, the shoes have a good look to them. I like the shape of the last (and it fits my foot well) and John Doe did a good job of mating the pattern to the last; it is certainly one of the better looking shoes in their collection. However, the tongue could use an extra half centimeter of length, it is a little short. The leather that is used is decent. It is smooth and looks nice, but does not have the suppleness of a really fine leather. It is also quite thin, which is not necessarily a bad thing, just a matter of preference and design. But for $150 shoes, the leather works well.As you can see, the shoes are a 5-eyelet style. The toe shape has a nice curvature to it and the welting/sole does not protrude excessively.I am fine with the heel counter. However, I could do without the the lateral line that goes from heel to the front of the foot. It serves no functional purpose (although I am sure it makes the shoe easier and less expensive to make) and visually it cuts the shoe in half. But aside from that, she shoe has a nice profile. Although I do wish the soles could be a shade of brown to complement the brown of the upper. It would look better than the black that it is.See my comment above.I am glad to say that the heel is on the slimmer side of things. It does not have the girth you would find in an Allen Edmonds shoe (or the Beckett Simonon chukka I reviewed). You will also notice that the welting stitching goes around the entire shoe, on some shoes it stops before the heel.The stitching for the welting is even and without defect on both shoes. I am thankful that John Doe did not try to do any type of contrast stitching here.The stitching on the uppers is okay. It could certainly be better and it could certainly be worse. But for a price of $154, I would say you get what you pay for.I have until this pair of shoes, avoided rubber soles on dress shoes and any type of welted shoe that I own. I just don’t like the look of runner soles. But I figured that since these shoes will be worn primarily in the fall and winter (or really any inclement weather) I could deal with the rubber sole. And to be honest, it has been nice to have the rubber soles and not worry about stomping through snow and salt – the soles are beasts.Previously mentioned snow.
For $154 I think the Dover Chukka is a good buy. You can tell by looking at it that it is not a $300 shoe, but that it is also not a $100 shoe. Although I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I think they should offer the shoe in more colors than the brown shown here. But John Doe is a young brand so I would assume that expanding the color selections is in the near future. I wouldn’t wear the shoes with a suit, but they look great with a pair of chinos (as pictured above) and if I wore jeans I would wear them with jeans (I don’t wear jeans, ever). That said, if you are in the market for some affordable chukkas I suggest you take a hard look at this offering from John Doe Shoes.
Note: FYGblog did receive the shoes being reviewed for the purposes of review. However, as always, the utmost effort was taken to evaluate the product in an unbiased manner.
First off, I love your articles and reviews. You do a wonderful job. I do want to share my recent purchase experience with your audience. I recently purchased a pair of loafers from John Doe shoes and when they arrived they were very banged up on the outside of the shoe. There were dings on the sole and the cut of the leather seemed poor. The inside of the shoes were also poorly done with parts of the inner cushion not properly glued down. All in all the shoes seem very cheap, and I wouldn’t recommend these shoes even if they were free.
First off, I love your articles and reviews. You do a wonderful job. I do want to share my recent purchase experience with your audience. I recently purchased a pair of loafers from John Doe shoes and when they arrived they were very banged up on the outside of the shoe. There were dings on the sole and the cut of the leather seemed poor. The inside of the shoes were also poorly done with parts of the inner cushion not properly glued down. All in all the shoes seem very cheap, and I wouldn’t recommend these shoes even if they were free.
How do the shoes feel? Are they comfortable
How do the shoes feel? Are they comfortable?