I have a few vintage shoe catalogs that I have collected over the years. Having a reference for old models and descriptions helps with my hobby of buying and selling vintage shoes. There isn’t an archive anywhere on the internet for vintage shoe model information so printed materials can help fill in that gap but old catalogs are rarely sold on eBay.
This catalog was produced in 1962 and has all the standard Bostonian models produced during that year. I found it interesting to look at what styles were popular at the time. And I was a surprised by the large number of shoes lasts used. Also, Bostonian made far more shell cordovan models than I expected. Its very rare to find any of these shoes on eBay but they do show up every now and then.
This catalog was intended for businesses reselling Bostonian shoes, not the general pubic. It must have been costly to put together and produce at that time. The catalog materials included an order sheet for buying the shoes in bulk. A lot of these shoes look great but in my experience, the pictures/photos often look better than the actual shoes. Like the ad for a restaurant hamburger looks better than the actual burger. But I still like hamburgers and vintage shoes.
What else was going on in 1962? I wasn’t alive but according to Wikipedia, lots of big things including John Glenn orbiting the earth, Marilyn Monroe dying, the Rolling Stones played their first show, US established a ground command in Vietnam, and this thing called the Cuban missile crisis. So this could have been the final Bostonian catalog had things turned out differently. But we survived and so did Bostonian, at least for a few more decades.
See the second half of the catalog here.
I’m new to shoe collecting, but from watching You Tube shoe videos, I’m getting the impression that Bostonians have become the Rodney Dangerfield of shoes: they “don’t get no respect”.
I have two pairs of Bostonians that I bought through Poshmark: a pair of oxblood bookbinder leather cap toes for $6; and a pair of black calf skin cap toes for $10. (Those prices do not include shipping and tax.) Leather uppers, leather linings, leather soles, and delightfully comfortable. I don’t know when they were made.
Let the detractors detract to their hearts’ content, these shoes have my respect.
I’m not new to collecting vintage shoes, but I’m new to the online community. I mostly buy from local thrift stores. I also did not give Bostonians much respect, but that was because my impression of them was mainly due to their current line. Not that their is anything wrong with them. They have just gone the way of many other manufactures. That is, overseas made, throw away when you wear them out shoes. The designs still look good and they now have an upper line that looks like they are bringing back past glory. Recently, I found a pair of cap toed cordovan (color) oxford brogues that had been newly resoled that checked all the boxes. Can’t tell for sure if they are full grain or corrected grain, but the leather looks good and shinned up to a spit shine with basic polishing. The are Goodyear welt with leather lined uppers.
These are very well made shoes, right up there in quality with the J&M shoes that I bought in the 80’s. They were $16. I will now keep an eye out for vintage Bostonians!
Since my above post, I bought a few truly vintage Bostonians, in the “gunboat” style: double leather soles, 360 degree welts with wide heel bases. Full grain uppers, leather linings. Two pairs are longwings, one pair is of the plain toe blucher style. Very happy to have them.