Brown Ghillie Brogues review

[ForresterModern]

There was a thread a month or two ago about folks looking for brown ghillie brogues, and I chimed in that I had ordered a pair that had not yet arrived, but promised to review them when they did. Well they came a couple weeks ago but yesterday was my first chance to get them out and take them for a bit of a walk.

They are a budget end of the scale leather upper, tannish-light brown finish, with composite soles, and decent quality laces. I bought them online from Heritage of Scotland (wait for the boos and hisses to abate) where I still haunt the website occasionally looking for exceptional bargains on decent items. I paid $25 US including shipping, after I got about a $10 discount from their already sale price of $35, down from their normal $70 or so. Was not expecting a whole lot, but wanted a pair of brown to wear with my other brown leather gear for semi-dress day wear when my brown Merrells just were not dressy enough. I was very pleased with the appearence and quality of what I got when they arrived, and here are my pictures. They are lighter in color than most of teh rest of my brown leather stuff so I will likely have to throw on a coat of darker brown shoe polish to get a match. Their fit and finish is comparable to my leather over leather black ones I acquired a year ago from an American vendor for nearly $100. I think I got a pretty good deal, regardless of where they came from.

[McMurdo]

I'd say leave them the colour they are, I think with the different shades of brown you should be fine. A few years ago when I was just starting into wearing the kilt I ordered my PC form them, as I wanted one for Burns Night, the price was right, so I went for it, the only problem was the duty I had to pay when it got here. I hope you get lots of use from them.

[BEEDEE]

Did not see this post before commenting on your Braveheart tartan post. They are really interesting and something I might have to think about.

Brian

[vmac3205]

I think they look great. You got a great deal.

[Chas]

Hi ForresterModern,

Your post came at just the right time - I've been looking round for brown/tan ghillie brogues for quite some time now. I had not heard of Heritage of Scotland before and as I live in the UK, they are probably worth it to me.

To reply to McMurdo's point about duty. When buying from overseas I always ask the vendor to write on the customs declaration 'Commercial Samples of No Monetary Value'. If they do, I am never charged duty.

Regards

Chas

[ForresterModern]

Luckily, duty was zero, as they were under $200 US valuation, and because they shipped via Parcelforce, which ends up being the USPS over here. Customs for some reason lets a lot of Parcelforce stuff through as long as the declared value is not much in excess of the $200 per day per citizen limit. Sometimes you can save on duty on a larger multi-item purchase by asking the vendor to break the order up into equal smaller valuation packages and ship them separately on different days, even though you may pay more for shipping. But an expensive kilt could be tough to get through no matter what you put on the packaging.

[The Barry]

Interesting.. I don't see too many ghillies in brown.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I wonder if those laces are similar to the ones that used to be made by the Gillis Wax Lace company in England before they went bust in the 1960s? Just a joke. Like the history of Ghillie Brogues I posted elsewhere.

[Bugbear]

I wonder if those laces are similar to the ones that used to be made by the Gillis Wax Lace company in England before they went bust in the 1960s? Just a joke. Like the history of Ghillie Brogues I posted elsewhere.

A Broadway musical is being written about that now. It's called:

Gillis and Old Lace

[svc40bt]

I am generally not fond of ghillies, but I would actually consider them in brown. I think the color as is looks pretty good, but a shade darker would look good too. Congratulations on an excellent purchase, very reasonable price for a nice looking pair of shoes.