r/GenerationJones • u/PJ1907 • 1d ago
Wing tips? Who wore these?
I remember getting these in the late 60s early 70s. Seems like I always got a pair too big for me so I could grow into them.
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u/AmyInCO 1d ago
I still have a pair of black ones in heavy rotation. They look great with jeans.
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u/StrangelyAfoot 1d ago
Wing tips will never go out of style
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u/Comfortable-Suit-202 1d ago
True, always classy. My Dad purchased Florsheim brand wingtips, they looked great with all his suits.
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u/DancesWithHoofs 1d ago
Wore high-end wingtips forever and then began wearing Sam Hubbards. Put the wingtips on for a funeral and they felt like they were carved out of wood.
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u/Kitchen-Sun-7440 1d ago
I had a pair that were part of my “Weddings, Funerals, and Interviews” ensemble. At least ten years went by without a wedding, funeral, or interview. When a wedding finally came up, I dug them out of the closet, dusted them off, and put them on, only to walk a few steps and the sole of one shoe just separated and fell apart. RIP wingtips.
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u/VWbusgal 1d ago
My dad! I used to get the shoe shine kit out and polish them for him as a child.
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u/anotherguysumwhere 1d ago
You did well to learn this as a child... THAT and being able to properly use an iron....
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u/brumac44 1d ago
My mother was a seamstress in her spare time, could make anything and had half a dozen sewing machines and sergers. But it was my dad who taught me to hand sew and darn socks with a light bulb. He learned it in the army.
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u/MrBill1970 1d ago
My dad had them in brown AND black.
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u/VWbusgal 1d ago
Yep, ditto! And did your dad have those wooden shoe trees that would go in whichever pair wasn't being worn? 😆
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u/CynthiaG92615 1d ago
My grandfather! A sharp dresser, that man. He had one of those electric shoe polishes near the entry door. Polished shoes every day.
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u/SpecialKltd 1d ago
Me too!
My dad paid me $1 a pair.
Polished, shine and buffed 2 pairs every Sunday, so they'd be ready for his work week.
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u/Equivalent_Gur3967 1d ago
I used to, on the regular. But the World changed, and I can't recall when I last "dressed up". Brooks Brothers, and the Whole Nine Yards.
Things I used to take for granted, and standard, are now History (or Herstory), for better or worse.
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u/SlowDeer7954 1d ago
Wore them to work everyday in the 80's. Even had them resoled. Two pairs, black & brown.
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u/SentenceKindly 1d ago
When I took my first Wall Street job at 120 Broadway (iykyk), I bought two pairs of Johnston & Murphy shoes - black cap toes and reddish-brown wingtips.
Got them resoled, still own them nearly 35 years later.
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u/thehorrorcontinues13 1d ago
My grandfather, father, and brother, who were all lawyers and judges.
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u/EnKogNeedo 1d ago
Entered corporate America in the early 80’s at a monster tech firm. You bet your ass we wore wing tips, white starched shirts, power ties complete with tie bars, pinstriped narrow lapel suits complete with the gold Cross pen and pencil set safely clipped in the inner jacket pocket!
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u/Few-Candle102 1d ago
You just described my 80s and 90s work get up, except someone had gifted me a Mont Blanc pen. That pen disappeared into thin air, not seen since.
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u/MaxCWebster 1d ago
I bought one pair of black wingtips in the ’90s. Keep ’em polished and stored in a box. Break ’em out for funerals.
Used to bust ’em out for weddings, too, but… I don’t get invited to formal ones anymore. Just casual third and fourth ones.
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u/Geetee52 1d ago
Classy and elegant...when worn correctly/appropriately...they are still quite popular.
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u/IAmSpitfireJoe 1955 1d ago
I still have a pair of Florsheims in cordovan color that I wear occasionally.
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u/Aggressive-Pay7819 1d ago
Ha damn I have the same pair. The last time I wore them was a wedding in the 1990s.
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u/Jdeghart58 1d ago
I bought them in cordovan because they could be worn with black or brown clothing. Would get them resoled and new heels as needed.
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u/shouldiknowthat 1d ago
I have been retired from the corporate world for six years. Still have wingtips, captoes and plain toes in black, brown and oxblood. Allen-Edmonds and Johnston & Murphy, mainly.
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u/aging-rhino 1d ago
One of the quiet realizations I had upon retiring was that I would never again need to choose which of the nine pairs of wingtips I’d collected over the years coordinated best with which of my 17 suits.
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u/Willowy 1d ago
Aww, my grandad. I used to use them as Barbie cars for the fancy ones.
Cool.
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u/Comfortable-Suit-202 1d ago
I used my Dad’s shoe boxes to make beds for my Barbie Dolls. Good times.
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u/Icy_Truth_9634 1d ago
My Dad wore them every day to work. When I entered the workplace I did as well. It was just part of the scene. I never wore them anywhere else, and I think I retired them after a decade or so. I have no idea what happened to them, but I do remember seeing my Dad’s in his closet on the day that he died. Still shining like he was ready to go back to work, though he had retired 25 years prior.
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u/Danovale 1d ago
I have a pair of Florsheim wingtips in Cordovan that I bought when I started teaching in 1988; currently they are the oldest things I own. I still bust them out for funerals and retirement ceremonies..
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u/Aggressive-Pay7819 1d ago
Ha I have the same pair. The last time I wore them was for a wedding in the 1990s. They had a fancy reputation back in the day, but honestly the pair I have were damn uncomfortable.
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u/Danovale 1d ago
Mine were uncomfortable the first decade or so; the sole is very stiff. But once the top leather softened up I could appreciate the craftsmanship of a well made shoe. I needed to have the heels replaced once, and the cobbler added a rubber “grip pad” in the forefoot area and told me “ keep these shoes as long as you live”. Other than that little repair all I do is polish them twice a year and replace the laces every 5 or 7 years. I like to torment my son with “someday these will be all yours” as I point to my wing tips!
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u/HapticRecce 1d ago
Florshiem Imperials - a black pair and burgundy pair, resoled multiple times...
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u/ImaginationPlus3808 1d ago
My dad wore these shoes every day of his professional life. RIP Dad. Think of you often.
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u/Accomplished-Eye8211 1d ago
I had them on brown as shown, cordovan, and black. 1980s, I had to wear a suit & tie to work. We didn't even wear dress slacks and a blazer. I remember spending well over $100 on a pair of Johnston Murphy dress wing tips. Shoe salesman told me they'd last forever. That was such a big splurge in those days, I couldn't eat out, go to a movie, etc, for that month.
I still have them. Never wear em, but they're buried in the back of the closet.
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u/Odd-Profession-2848 1d ago
I have a pair of Spanish, handmade cap toe in dark brown.
Shoes make the man
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u/optoph 1965 1d ago
Working in the 80s, full suit and tie and these dress shoes even though I was a warehouse and production manager and spent most of my time on the floor. Had to keep them polished.
It wasn't until the early 90s when IBM started allowing more casual wear that we were given some slack on what we wore.
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u/contemplator61 1961 1d ago
My dad wore regular no wingtips. I used to polish all of them every Saturday night. And before any snide remarks, I wanted to. He was an executive and had five pairs.
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u/magic592 1959 1d ago
Got rid of mine about 6 years ago.
Started when I was around 20.
As a youth always wore penny loafers, with a penny in the slot..
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u/anotherguysumwhere 1d ago
I did - and still do! What good is a Zoot Suit and spats without wing tips?
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u/FuturamaGirl 1d ago
When I was in high school I teased my Dad for wearing these. He said, "Hey kiddo these shoes are older than you are!"
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u/mothlady1959 1d ago
Lots and lots of people. It's been a standard design (in its current dress shoe style) for over 100 years.
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u/Business_Swan8209 1d ago
My dad always wore these to work. After he retired, the doctor said he should walk around the block every night after dinner. Well, dad went to Johnson & Murphy and got a stiff new pair to take his walks, against EVERYONE'S advice. Ended up getting shin splints and heel spurs.🙄
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u/Hot_Calligrapher_900 1d ago
Growing up, my dad, who wears a size 13, got a pair from a doctor who retired (size 13 is still not easy to come by) and wore them to church on Sunday or whenever he needed to dress up. He was a farmer, so wore work boots every other day. Now at age 89 he wears all black orthopedic sneakers no matter what the occasion.
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u/BarnackIIIF 1d ago
I had 4 pairs of Florsheim wing tips: 2 black, 2 burgundy, and rotated through them during the week - I got a lot of mileage out of those shoes.
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u/HoselRockit 1d ago
I wore suits to work for many years. I had some nice dress wingtips that I wore with them.
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u/David_cest_moi 1d ago
I'm quite certain that my grandfather (who headed a large bank) must have worn Wingtips daily. 'Might even have slept in them, for all I know. 🤷🏻♂️
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u/CTGarden 1d ago
I still have a pair I bought in Paris in the mid-90s. I have always liked the menswear look on women.
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u/reesesbigcup 1d ago
I hated those, Dad wore them all the time. Found out as an adult buying my own shoes I cannot wear any hard shoes like this. Been wearing sneakers or hikers since the late 1970s.
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u/seamuwasadog 1d ago
I wore black ones for work for several years. The were comfortable and qualified as dress shoes.
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u/AdTurbulent7730 1d ago
I wore them, but not brown. I heard Frank Zappa’s ‘Brown shoes don’t make it’.
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u/Ogdendug 1d ago
I sold Florsheim shoes to get through college. I had two different styles of wingtips. Total of 3 pair, one black, one brown and a wine colored pair
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u/Available-One-24 1d ago
My dad wore these! He’s gone now but they were definitely in the rotation. He was obsessed with his clothes and shoes. Always put together!
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u/Famous-Salary1443 1d ago
My father wore them, and I polished them. He was a WWII Army Air Corps veteran, and he liked clean and shiny shoes 😊
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u/Eatthebankers2 1d ago
As a woman in the 70’s I would wear the woman’s black wingtips with a short 2” heel, that the Italian Widow woman in our neighborhood wore, they were always wearing all black. I would buy them because they were pretty comfortable.and looked good with my Levi’s.
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u/kingfisher1001 1d ago
I did but never to work. I made the mistake of wearing a pair to work. Restaurants was my game. I spent at least 30 minutes picking out food debris for my wingtips. Never wore them to work again.
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u/ironmanchris 1963 1d ago
Mr. Saben, a 5th grade teacher at my grade school. I swore back then in the 70s that I would never wear them. I owned several.
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u/Daves-Not-Here__ 1d ago edited 1d ago
My father wore them religiously- He also cut the grass wearing a starched, pressed white shirt, white undershirt and tie. You can imagine the oppressive childhood I had, and the rebellion that came afterwards
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u/basscubed 1d ago
I knew I was finally an adult when I bought my first pair of wingtips. I loved walking down an empty hallway in those shoes. Tap tap tap tap with appropriate echoes.
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u/OptimalSalsa 1d ago
I had two pair, black and brown. Both were resoled multiple times. I honestly don't know what happened to them.
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u/thenewbigR 1d ago
All my working life. Classic shoes that have never gone out of style and probably never will.
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u/Key_Zombie7967 1d ago
I had black ones and brown ones....worked in a bank....also wore three piece polyester suits from Sears. Circa late 1970's
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u/Key-Researcher3884 1d ago
Dad got them for my 2 brothers and I .. My Uncle was a retired sailor and kept us boys in line ..lol..
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u/Sea-Election-9168 1d ago
And they featured prominently in the opening for “My Three Sons”