Best Men’s Loafers: A Skeptic’s Guide to Vegans vs. J Butler

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What’s happening friends? This is Michael, and today, we’ll be taking a look at Karl Morowski’s worst enemy: loafers! Pendant and all, baby!

Today, I have a sack full of the best men’s loafers. I don’t know all your thoughts about loafers, but generally, I’ve never liked them. But I have a rule in life that I should never get stuck in my ways and just say I don’t like something – you should try everything unless it’s really bad.

So I have a group of loafers here, two of them are Weijun, Bass Weijun, but the other two kind of show you why Weijun are not a good deal. The difference in quality relative to the price difference is absolutely absurd, and a good friend of mine actually makes them, so that’s today’s agenda.

Also, if you don’t know who Carl Morowski is, he is the king of heritage clothing on YouTube. He hates vagabonds so much that I don’t know if it’s a joke or not.

Anyway, let’s wear these shoes.

Let’s talk about leather, baby

Okay, so the first thing we should talk about about these loafers is the leather, because it Layton Lug Vegan Loafers Are made of leather.

Anything below this price point – except used, and I’m probably wrong, I don’t know a ton about loafers yet – doesn’t have leather; It’s just plain plastic, which doesn’t break in the same way. I have plastic Doc Martens, I was trying them out to see how they feel, and let me tell you, they feel terrible.

Layton lugs are made of Weijun leather, and when you look inside you can see that you can see the other side of the leather. Like Doc Martens, it’s not nice leather, and you might be thinking, “Okay, but when I look outside, the leather is very smooth, and that’s beautiful.”

I get it, I get it, but really, what you’re looking at is incredibly heavily modified grain leather. This is actually the bottom barrel or just very flawed leather that is then sanded down, and essentially plastic put on top to make it look very smooth, which is not good because it means that as you move and as you wear these more, instead of the leather aging and looking beautiful, it will start to break down.

The actual top layer will break off, and then you’ll see the very ugly sanded leather that’s actually underneath it. They’ll look much closer to a worn-out sneaker, like a patent leather sneaker, than a pair of your favorite cute aged loafers you’ve saved on Instagram.

Sizing: A quick comment from someone who got it wrong

In terms of size, I’m not really a very good person to give references because I feel like every pair of loafers I have right now, I think I’m half a size too big.

So I think you should size down half a size. I read on the internet that you should cut your size in half. I think this is because they don’t have laces and they will stretch and break in to your feet a little better.

Well, we’re almost at the point where I believe we’ll have enough information to explain what’s better about the other loafers I have, but before we get there, we have to talk about how the Veejun is constructed.

So these are made by hand in El Salvador, which is obviously another plus – it’s great to have hand-made shoes at this price. Then they are well constructed; I really don’t think you’ll have any problems with the construction of these loafers.

I believe, and I may be wrong, they are using Blake Stitch. So there’s the Goodyear welt, which you’re probably very familiar with, where there’s actually a welt between the upper and the sole, but it’s a block stitch so the leather upper is stitched directly to the sole.

And if you know a lot about Goodyear welts it might not seem that cool, but it’s a different application. It’s not water resistant because you can actually walk in water and the stitching will get wet and go straight into your shoe, but it allows you to make a kind of slimmer looking shoe – a lot more flexible, a little more supple feeling, and bendier.

Price Tag Talk: $166 vs $199

Layton Lag Vegans cost $166.

If you go up a bit in price point, you really get a completely different product. It’s not easy when you are reviewing vegans, you only know that you have a far better deal than them when the alternative is right next to them. When you put these two things together, things become much clearer.

Full disclosure: I have a pair Jay Butler Maverick. I’ll talk about him in a second, but I know Mr. J. Butler—that’s not his real name. He’s a very, very nice guy, and he sent me two pairs of loafers.

Also, off topic, Jay Butler has great belts – they sent me a belt in a care package, and it’s the belt I’ve been wearing every day for about six months. I don’t know, I like it. I really love Jay Butler products, so shout out to them.

Jay Butler vs. Vegans: The Face-Off

The J. Butler loafers are priced at $199, and the Layton Lug Weejuns are priced at $166; Shipping is free for both. You know, for Weejuns you can get a lot of discount codes or whatever.

There are a few design differences that we’ll quickly go over. First is the shorter vamp, so the top part of the actual loafer you’ll see is much shorter than the J Butler, and the second signature thing with the J Butler is that they feel more like a slipper than a shoe.

J Butler’s loafers definitely appeal to a different market than these Weejuns. Weijun is a little more trendy, and Jay Butler is a little more traditional.

When I wear Vegans, I feel like I clearly live in Brooklyn and am under 30, although if you’re 30, you can still wear them.

leather quality smackdown

If we take a quick look at the quality of the leather the difference is astonishing. If I press my finger on the leather of the Layton Lugg Vijans versus the Jay Butler loafers, you’ll see the Vijans move like a fish – like a plastic fish – and the Jay Butlers crinkle, and you can see the character come up where the scratches are.

Its color is also a little light. The inside is also completely clad in leather, but the inside of the Veejun isn’t clad in leather – it’s just leather on the outside, and the roughness of the leather helps keep your back heel in place. J Butler adds a little rough leather on the back to keep your heels in place and give you an ultra soft lining.

To solve or not to solve?

I’ll never actually get the Vegans sorted, just because, frankly, I think by the time I’d want to sort them out, the uppers would look kind of crappy, so it wouldn’t really be worth the money when you could put it on something else.

But I’d get Jay Butler’s Resolid because the leather upper is so nice, and as they start to age, they’ll look nicer, and I’ll want to wear them more. And if I wanted to really go crazy when I was going to fix them, I could add a lug sole on them, which would probably be some fun.

Wild Card: That Fresh Larsson Vejun

I was excited to have the kids—these are the loafers that my next-door neighbor Meg has, and these are where I said, “Okay, as long as I can buy these, I’ll make a video on the best men’s loafers.”

they are larson vijun loafer And they are fresh to die for! I’m not trying to change my style, but I just wanted to spice it up a little bit, and that’s where I think Weijun shines.

I probably wouldn’t want to get a really nice pair of Larsen Vegens until they become like a niche thing, but they are very loud, rather unpleasant.

I don’t know how to incorporate them into a costume, that’s part of the fun.

comparison chart

Check out this review

Final Thoughts: Still Figuring Out the Vagabond Life

that’s about it. I don’t know what I think about loafers. I don’t know how any of you will react to me wearing loafers—hopefully overwhelmingly positive, but still, that’s it. Thank you for reading!

This article was adapted from Michael Christie’s video on The Iron Snail with editing from FashionBeans, and was reviewed by Michael to ensure the integrity of its original content. Watch the full video here.

Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!), starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail larger than a quarter. The duo set out to take over the fashion world by creating the one clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you everything you need to know about the best clothing, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets and sturdiest boots…Iron Snail has you covered.