Rancourt Horse Bit Loafer: 1 Year Review
Highlights:
- Price: $340 MSRP
- Pros: Splits the difference American and European style, Mostly great materials
- Cons: Snaffle bit sound, Tough competition
Contents:
History:
We’ve already covered a brief history Rancourt on this website before, and it’s worth checking it out. They have a great story. The family founded and sold not one, but two different companies to giants in the footwear industry (Cole Hann and Allen Edmonds) before founding a third. As mentioned in the other review, it’s entirely possible your Rancourt Horse Bit Loafer and your dad’s old Cole Hanns were made by the same family.
The bit loafer more broadly, however, has a bit of a more checkered history. Nearly 70 years old at the time of writing, the shoe has been taken up by everyone from the fashion forward to academics, from preps to 1980’s bankers – if there is a difference there. While everyone is able to place what a penny loafer, service boot, or oxford represents, the wide variety of groups that have “owned” the bit loafer look at some point in time. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on what a bit loafer tells the world.
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. 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. They try to take it away from the more negative connotations this style of shoe might have. Unlike the Blake Wingtip we reviewed a few weeks ago, which leaned heavily into being a business-focused shoe, these loafers are a blend of traditional Maine-style handsewn construction and more dressy features.
Looks:
The blending of dress and casual is evident from the very tip of the shoe. The all black upper’s toe features a middle ground option between the Gucci-style apron stitched toe and a penny loafer’s traditional toe. Rancourt has opted to fold the plug (or top piece of leather) of the loafer over on itself at the toe. This creates a rounded appearance similar to Gucci. However, the bottom half was sewn on using a standard moc-toe design.
Moving further back, Rancourt opts to use a pinch-style strap for their horse bit’s. This is where the strap extends partway onto the vamp, but stops before hitting the sole. Again, splitting the difference between the more formal full strap loafer and the more casual beefroll. The strap is topped with a silver-colored snaffle bit, slightly smaller than you’d see on other common bit loafers.
Around the back, the company finished the shoe with a simple piece of leather on the back and the throat of the shoe. The stitching here, along with that on the strap, is incredibly tight with no loose threads even after a year of wear.
Inside, a tan colored lining covers all of the interior, with a slightly padded heel pad covering about half the length of the shoe, wrapping up on the arch slightly to provide a bit more support there. The blake stitching is visible inside the toe box.
The sides of the sole were painted black, hiding the natural brown featured on the bottom of the outsole. The rubber cap on the heel finishes everything off with an R/C logo.
The creasing on the leather is incredibly tight across the shoe. Scratches are a bit of a mixed bag, with fairly easy scratching, but the scratches it receives generally stay black and are not particularly visible.
Fit, Comfort & Break-In:
Overall the Rancourt horse bit loafer follows a typical American-style loafer fit, with a rounded, shorter toe – though it does skew slightly on the more narrow side compared to most of the other brands in this category like Quoddy and Oak Street Bootmakers. Don’t expect any noticeable stretch in the leather. This pair is an 11.5 D, slightly smaller than my 11.75 D brannock size, but fits with extremely thin summer-weather dress socks. If you plan on wearing normal thickness socks, you’ll probably want to go with brannock sizing – even if there are problems with that.
A full comparison of the sizing of all reviews can be found here
From a comfort perspective, these shoes are not particularly noteworthy. The materials that make up the shoe are all fairly stiff, including the standard thickness single leather sole, and require several wears to break in to your foot. For whatever reason, unlike the Blake Wingtips, the exposed stitching in the toe box is hardly noticeable on this pair, and a few wears in you don’t feel it at all.
There are not a lot of shock absorbing materials between the ground and your feet. These are not the best if you’re planning on a lot of walking when you wear them. However, unlike the Quoddy True Penny Loafer, these do have a bit of padding built in to the heel pad and the rubber cap on the heel so they are wearable if you find yourself in a situation where you need to get your steps in.
Materials:
Rancourt chose high quality materials for everything on their horse bit loafer, with just one exception.
The upper is made of what Rancourt calls Mimosa Calf. This is a chrome-tanned calfskin from the La Venta tannery in Italy. The leather is on the dressier side, taking a shine well and being fairly stiff. As mentioned above, the creasing on this leather is top notch.
Inside, the lining isn’t as soft as what you see on some of their competitors, but knowing that these shoes are probably designed for wear with socks, that isn’t something that should be considered a big deal. It should be long lasting and keeps the structure of the shoe so no complaints here.
Sewn onto the bottom, Rancourt uses their single leather outsole. While they label this as “watertight”, the soles are still leather. Leather outsoles, even “watertight” ones, will absorb water if you walk on it for too long. The blake construction is also less water resistant than goodyear welt, or the blake-rapid stitch that Rancourt uses in their dress shoes and boots, and in really bad weather expect to get some water entry. That being said, while I’ve worn these almost exclusively in the dry, they have held up well. Many miles in and they clearly have the majority of their life ahead of them, though they might need a heel tap soon before the next review.
The one area where I think the shoes could really improve from a material perspective is the snaffle bit itself. The bit, which is made of nickel plated brass and visually looks great, sounds and clicks like very thin, cheap metal. Think about shaking a cheap metal watch bracelet and you’ll get an idea. It’s unfortunate as it let’s down what otherwise would be a good overall package.
Ease of Care:
For a real leather shoe, the maintenance on these shoes is extremely easy. If you condition every 4-6 months, using something like Bick 4, they shouldn’t need much else. I prefer my loafers to be matte. I polished a small portion to test the leather, but in the pictures these have only seen Bick 4 and a wet rag.
Rancourt also offers the best resole policy and pricing of any of the major brands. $85 dollars will get you a full resole – including shipping. This is on par with what a local shop would do, but you know it’ll be done the way it was intended and you’ll have your choice of twenty different sole choices.
It is worth noting that most cobblers don’t have the machine to do a blake stitched resole. If you don’t live in a major city you might be forced to go with Rancourt no matter what.
Pricing:
Rancourt prices these at $340 dollars if you go through their website. While I’m not sure if this is intentional, but this price aligns exactly with the no-longer-produced Alden “Cape Cod” bit loafers. For comparison, this puts them ten dollars more than the Carmina Horse Bit Loafer ($330), two dollars less than the Oak Street Bootmakers Horse Bit Loafer ($342), and twenty five dollars less than the Allen Edmonds Verona II – though that one is seeming on sale constantly ($365).
When I purchased these a year ago, finding a pair on sale from a third party was fairly easy. I bought this pair for $200 (+ $20 shipping), and there were at least half a dozen other options under $250. Checking at the time of writing, however, I wasn’t able to find any sales. [UPDATE: I don’t know how long it will last, but French Sole has several pairs in Brown for $238 here]. Rancourt used to have countless third-party retailers offering their product, but this number has shrunk in recent years.
The company does offer a 10% off your first order offer when signing up for email. Also, they typically hold a black Friday sale that will be 15 to 20%.
Value:
With their pricing compared to other brands, Rancourt clearly needs to not just be good “for the price” but it needs to be good. Period. Looking over the shoe, there is only one minor concern when it comes to materials, and there are no concerns at all with the quality of construction. Of course, you can also say this about Oak Street Bootmakers’ and Carmina’s offerings as well. (The Allen Edmonds? maybe not).
Which is right for you will depend on what you value. Where the Rancourt excels is the blend of the casual and formal style. Their made-in-America construction combined with the stiffer European-style calfskin. And their increase in durability, and their affordable maintenance. If this are what you are looking for in a shoe, you won’t regret the purchase.
Wrap Up:
Bit loafers are often a divisive style of shoe, but Rancourt has done a great job of toning that down. Adding some American ruggedness to the svelte, European design Gucci originally launched in 1953. Rancourt designed these loafers to be closer to a penny loafer with a snaffle bit than the thin-soled and squared-toe style that bit loafers are famous for.
For me personally, that makes the difference. However, I also understand that part of the joy in owning bit loafers is really leaning into the “go-to-hell” style. That’s something that this middle-of-the-road approach to a bit loafer doesn’t do.
Do you agree? Do you disagree? Leave a comment down below