If you have ever wondered how to tell if alligator shoes are real, It isn't just a matter of knowing the brand and where you bought them from. There are many types of imitation alligator shoes out there to buy, from your fake-looking plastic type of poly urethane gator style shoes to your high end and even hand made alligator printed leather shoes that might make you scratch your head wondering why all the effort was made to make every expensive shoes to look like alligator without actually using the real skin, to begin with. Learn how to take care of alligator shoes here.
Key Takeaways
- They have a quality heft to it
- They are full leather inside and out
- They are fully handmade and they look like it
- The alligator skin texture and appearance look real
- Luxury shoe price tag
- Authenticity on the Sole
It's been a long time that men who like to dress with style like wearing alligator shoes as well because of the exotic nature and style of the shoes that real alligator skin possesses as well as the fact that these are luxury high end shoes that show people that you not only do you have style but have the wallet to prove it. They have always been seen on men who favor fancy Italian suits when they get dressed. Alligator shoes have been the zenith of exotic skin shoes being that even compared to real crocodile shoes, alligator has always been most pricey in comparison due to the limited supply that is available each and every year to be made into fine luxury shoes.
For the overwhelming majority of imitation alligator shoes, the price point is the term of the day. Most products are manufactured to a price point for those who aren't in the business. The price point is rule that dictates how much the manufacturer thinks they can sell their product in the market place and cost structures are employed to keep the manufacturing price from going over a certain limit for that item. On a pair of fake alligator shoes, depending on the type, it is all about price point. The very lowest price point for imitation, Gator shoes are the PU variety. PU stands for polyurethane. Now we all know that leather shoes are never cheap, but PU shoes certainly are. There is a whole market of PU alligator-style shoes being made for people who want that look but certainly don't have the scratch to pony up for a real pair of alligator shoes that usually cost about $700. These PU alligator-look shoes could never ever be confused with real alligator shoes simply because they look and feel like plastic dress shoes. They are usually extremely shiny to the point that they never look realistic.
The shoes, also, if you were blindfolded, could tell they were fake just by holding them in your hand. They are always light in weight in comparison and don't the heft and quality that you can feel when you hold a real pair of alligator shoes in your hand. You'll find that
lizard shoes are made to the same stringent attention to quality. The PU shoes don't use any leather whatsoever in them. It's all PU from the fake printed gator uppers to the full urethane sole and heel combination that you know was spit out of a huge shoe sole making machine form that is about the cheapest way you can make any shoe soles. They are made by the hundreds of thousands to be made into cheap PU shoes.
The second type of imitation alligator shoes are the leather type of price point shoes, primarily made by makers like Stacy Adams. Stacy Adams has been making leather shoes for a very long time but they have a price point as well to abide by. They would be considered mass market as well but they are much better shoes since they are always of leather uppers and often times have leather soles as well but are made to a price point. The price point that they use dictates that they can use real leather and it's leather that they use in their shoes. Now on their shoes, what they do is take their leather and stamp the alligator texture into it trying to imitate the look as best they can but it never quite looks real or feels real for that matter. The reason is that on real alligator skin, the scales aren't just laying there but have a texture that that is unidirectional.
Since nature creates the alligator, Evolution has made the skin feel a certain way for protection of the animal and real alligator scales have a direction that they go in. The scales are also different depending on what part of the alligator the skin comes from as well. Some scales are a certain size, and some scales are a certain shape,
like the ones that come from either the belly or creature or the horned back of the alligator. All textures are completely identical on a pair of imitation gator shoes. You will never find this on a pair of real alligator shoes. Even on the same exact styles, there will always be a difference because no two skins are the same. When they make alligator shoes, they will match the skins used from the same animal but on different pairs you can see a difference. You'll certainly notice this on a pair of
Belvedere shoes.
Since alligator shoes are luxury shoes and don't have to follow any price point rules as cheap mass market shoes do, you will find that these shoes are made completely by hand with a handful of skilled shoe artisans compared to mass market dress shoes that are made in enormous shoe factories in Asia with thousands of factory workers and machines. Real alligator shoes will use one or two shoemakers who make them by hand from the start of cutting the skins to the finished product, whereas mass-market shoes will have dozens of different hands and machines making them. Real alligator shoes also have the honor of being completely made of leather and skin inside and out. They are full leather lined in buttery smooth leather inside so that your feet will know the difference compared to cheap shoes. It's a difference that once you experience the feel of luxury shoes on your feet, it will be tough to go back to wearing cheap shoes because of the difference.
Another way to tell as well is the shoe sole. A real pair of alligator shoes will have either a stamp or tiny plaque nailed into the bottom of the sole telling you that you have an authentic product in your hands. On a pair of real alligator shoes or crocodile shoes for that matter, the shoe sole is thoroughly made of shoe sole leather. Shoe sole leather is a very durable leather that is almost wood-like and, on alligator shoes, is exclusively used. There will usually be two layers that are glued together to form the actual sole of the shoes, which will be hand-cut and carved. There we go with the whole hand made thing. That leather sole is then attached to a full leather heel which is always made of stacked shoe sole leather that is cut, carved and shaped into a shoe sole that is both glued and nailed with brass nails to the shoe sole. The shoe soles are then sewn with a special machine slowly to attach to the shoe upper. It is this feature that will be noticed first that gives you clue that these shoes are real alligator shoes. Mass market shoes cannot imitate an authentic leather sole and heel combination and will immediately seat real alligator shoes from a fake pair.