Looking back through Rancourt & Co’s archives on their website, the very first post about their company – before they even opened as an online store – was about Kyle Rancourt wearing a pair of Rancourt boat shoes boat shoes. Back then, to order a pair you had to email Kyle directly describing what you wanted and he would get a pair made for you (it cost $215, in case you’re wondering).
The Alden Leisure Hand Sewn, or LHS for short, has a bit of a cult following, particularly in the “trad” or “ivy” community. It’s considered the end goal or grail for a lot of people. However, even among the range of $500+ loafers in the LHS line, one in particular stands out to the navy blazer wearing crowd – the unlined shell cordovan model.
Perhaps fittingly, while the lined shell model is available at almost every Alden retailer, the unlined version has traditionally been exclusively offered at another brand associated with the navy blazer, Brooks Brothers. In fact, the shoe wasn’t even branded as an Alden, instead featuring the Brooks Brothers logo throughout and coming in a different box without any hint of the Massachusetts-based shoe company.
To many, the bit loafer is a slightly garish middle finger in a wardrobe. The loafer version of Nantucket Red pants. To others, it embodies connotations of men who are the human equivalent of Pepe Le Pew – and not in a good way. Either way, bit loafers generally don’t fade into the background. Rancourt does a few things to try and put their thumb on the preppy/academic side, trying take it away from the more negative connotations this style of shoe might have.
In doing research for this post, one thing really stood out. Over the past decade, we’ve seen the rise (and sometimes fall) of a number of really impressive bootmaker brands: Viberg, Truman, Oak Street Bootmakers, Grant Stone, etc., however these brands are not really compared all that often. Whenever someone posts a review, the question that comes up is almost always “How does it compare to the Alden Indy?”
Rancourt’s history is an interesting one. The current company is one of the newest companies making shoes within the United States, being founded in 2010, but that only tells part of the story. The Rancourt family has been making shoes in Maine for decades.
Oak Street Bootmakers is now one of the most established names in the American-made footwear market. In fact, by late 2018, the brand was so large it was able to save a storied Maine factory that at one time made handsewns for Alden, Red Wing, Sperry, Sabago and others by simply buying it when the previous owners were unable to keep the lights on.
Shoes with Quoddy stamped into the sole have been around since just after the end of WWII, but like many of the other Maine-based companies, that iteration of the brand doesn’t exist today. The current owners of Quoddy started far more recently in 1997, with the goal of reviving the nameplate in order to sell shoes in their small knick-knack store that also had “Quoddy” in the name.
The Sperry Top-Sider has been a staple of those who want to look like they could jump on their yacht at any moment – even if the closest they’ve been to a large body of water is Point Place in Toledo, Ohio. Most people will point to 1935 as the year the Top-Sider was introduced, but that isn’t exactly true.
Truman Boot Company is a relative new comer to the world of higher end footwear. Most of their competitors have long storied histories that go back several generations, where Truman started just six years ago in 2014.