Alden 977

Alden 977 Dating and Restore

Welcome to 2020 vcleat.com. Finally. New decade. Same old shoes. I am not sure what the last decade was called. The teens? Maybe someone has named it. If the name hasn’t been solved, I trust that we (humanity), will solve it one day. We’ll solve the Cleveland Browns too.

During the decade that I can’t name, I picked up this pair of vintage Alden long wings, model number 977. The pair was in my size and had light wear. The Alden 977 is a pebble grain long wing with a Goodyear welted double leather sole built on the Barrie last. And this particular version came with a v-cleat leather heel. A v-cleat heel on an Alden pair is rare and made me think these might have been made in the 1960s.

Alden 977

It’s uncommon to find any vintage Alden pairs because before Alden became “Alden” sometime in the early 2000s, the company was a lower volume American shoe manufacturer whose business appears to have been split between making high quality orthotic and medical shoes and premium pairs sold through Brooks Brothers and various men’s shops. Management’s decision to not sell out and focus on these core businesses allowed Alden to avoid the great American shoe industry Götterdämmerung.

Vintage Alden logo

There isn’t a lot of information on dating vintage Alden pairs on the world wide web. People would rather write articles on topics that readers deeply care about. Like Megxit. Searching trademark databases though revealed that this pair’s Alden AAAA logo was trademarked in 1975. The trademark application lists the first use of the logo as 1972. So the pair had to be made after the beginning of 1972. More Roger Moore than Sean Connery.

Alden stacked leather heel

Below are two ads that I found. The ad on the left is from 1971 and the ad on the right is from 1972. In 1972, the AAAA logo first appears and the “C.H. Alden Shoe Company” changes to the “Alden Shoe Company”.

Vintage Alden Shoe Ad.

Alden uses a two character date code in their shoes. The first digit of the date code is the year and the second character represents the month. The date code in this pair is “5D” meaning they were made in a year ending with 5. If the pair was made after 1971, that left 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015 as potential years of manufacture. Searching more newspaper ads, I found that the AAAA logo was largely replaced with the current Alden crest in the early 1990s. And the pair’s v-cleat heel likely meant 1975 rather than 1985. Thus, I am calling this pair as being made in 1975.

Alden Date Code

Fixing up the pair was fairly easy. The shoes had limited wear and mainly needed to be cleaned and conditioned. I used Lexol Cleaner to remove the years of dust from the upper. The welt was cleaned with a Sonicare toothbrush. The upper leather was conditioned with multiple rounds of Bick 4.

Alden Leather Cleaning

Alden Shoe Care

When applying one of the rounds of Bick 4, I massaged the vamp leather with my thumbs. This helped ease some of the creasing in the leather. It was a technique I saw in a Bedos Leatherworks Youtube video. The creases did come back somewhat though after wearing the pair.

Removing Leather Creases

The leather was a bit dull, so I gave the pair two rounds of Saphir medium brown cream. I also burnished the broguing a bit with Allen Edmonds Dark Brown cream. I finished the shoes with dark brown cream on the sole edges.

Alden Polish

Alden Shoe Conditioning

The Alden 977 is basically the same shoe as the Florsheim Imperial Kenmoor 93602. Alden has discontinued the model (I believe), and it’s rare to find a pair on eBay. In 2016, I tracked over 1000 eBay sales of the Florsheim Imperial 93602. In that same year, just two Alden model 977 were sold on eBay. It’s quite possible Florsheim outsold Alden by 1000 to 1. This is how I imagine the 1975 sales forecast looked.

Florsheim 1975 Sales Forecast

Even though Florsheim outsold Alden by a wide margin, Alden ended up having the lasting success while Florsheim exists today in name only.

Comparing the Alden 977 to the Nettleton 0205 and Florsheim 93602 models from the same era, the shoes are more similar than not. Each use soft pebble grain leather on the uppers along with double leather soles with storm welt. The pairs are fully leather lined. All are great shoes. Wearing any of them will make your eyes sparkle and give your voice a smooth, measured confidence. Men will admire you and women will want to be with you. Without a doubt.

Alden Florsheim Nettleton

Nettleton Alden Florsheim

Alden Nettleton Florsheim

Alden shoe Florsheim Nettleton

Below are a few more photos of the pair. Enjoy.

Alden Broguing

Alden Long Wing

Alden Shoe Leather

Alden Sole Logo

Alden Long Wing 977


See more Alden 977 long wing pairs at the Alden Model Project.





15 thoughts on “Alden 977 Dating and Restore”

  1. “All are great shoes. Wearing any of them will make your eyes sparkle and give your voice a smooth, measured confidence. Men will admire you and women will want to be with you. Without a doubt.”

    Agreed. That has been my experience.

  2. David – Great and humorous read as always. What surprised me at the end of your post was you’d been discussing an old Alden with 4A heel pad, yet the stamp on the bottom of the sole is the modern logo. Does that potentially help clarify dates or just muddle it more?

  3. Thanks. The crest logo was trademarked in 1990 but the filing says the first use was 1884. Pretty sure these weren’t made in 1884 though. One thing I forgot to mention in the article is the lack of a stamp on the insole. Most Alden pairs have a stamp saying “Goodyear Welt – Genuine Leather Insoles – Alden – Made in U.S.A.” What does that mean? Not sure.

  4. II wonder if this is the same Barrie last of today…..most guys have to go 1/2 size down. Is that also the case with these?

    1. I think they are. Normally I wear a 11D in the Barrie last. This pair is 11.5C and they feel a bit long. About the same width. Alden construction doesn’t seem to have changed much since 1970.

  5. That is indeed a fine and rare pair. While it seems there has always been very few Alden pairs in the second hand market, fewer and fewer of any brand over the last couple of years, I’ve just noticed that the Alden brand no longer appears on “the watchlist”. Is the end near?

    1. I occasionally add Alden pairs to my watchlist but most Alden pairs were made in the last 20 years. Too modern 🙂

  6. Hi, I have a pair of black Alden V cleat Moccasin Tassel loafers that came from Carmel By The Sea, California. They are in very good condition but the inner identification numbers are difficult to decipher. They look like the 660 and I think that they may be a size 10.5 b/d. Derek Rayne Ltd was the original seller and the family retired in 1995 although I don’t know if the store remained open.

    I am interested in knowing the fair market value of this pair as I am a reseller. What might you or your readers be able to tell me about them? Thank you all!

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