Some of you know that I bought Steve Madden Intyce Boots, thanks to seeing these deliciously cute boots on Aubrey when we met up for sushi a while ago. They’re pretty expensive, but I figured for real leather, Steve Madden and the gorgeous colour cognac, they’d be worth it, armed with a small coupon.

I purchased first the 6s from shoes.com, then got worried after reading numerous reviews about how narrow they were and went ahead and bought the 6.5s. Sadly, this was after their 20%off coupon had expired which worked with Mr. Rebates, so I got the 6s first with the 20%off coupon + Mr.Rebates 12% off cashback, and the 6.5s with only a 20%off coupon using VISA. I was getting ready to return just the 6s when I came across the boots on endless.com for 20%off+10%off, at a starting price lower than shoes.com, which prompted me to decide to return both shoes.com orders.

Well, here comes the comical part. I received the endless.com boots yesterday, opened them up, and to my dismay, they looked awfully different to the ones I received from shoes.com:

Can you tell the difference?

Steve Madden Intyce Boots in Cognac

Made In
Color
Lining
Fit
Heel

I typically love boots made in Brazil, and I can tell by the workmanship of the stitches that it is better than the boots made in Mexico. But the fit and the color leaves something to be desired. Due to how supple and soft the leather and the lining were (almost suede like), it caused the ankle area to bunch a whole lot more, and my calves to look a lot more funny with the boots on (they look like they just flare out, and I have fairly normal calves).

Makes me wonder about all these reviews now over the web. I see some complaints about the boots being an avocado peel, not enough of the rich cognac color, or it being too slouchy, and it starts to make me wonder about “which” boot they received! I will say one thing though – had I received the boots first from Endless.com, not seeing them on Aubrey D, I wouldn’t even have thought about sizing them up to 6.5 because they weren’t really all that attractive! The 6.5s that were made in Brazil fit more snugly, like a size 6, but not as bad as the 6s that I ordered from shoes.com that were made in Mexico (where the toes hit the top of my boot). The 6.5s made in Mexico are definitely more roomy, but the perfect fit were the 6.5 pair made in Brazil. (Are you following along? I’m starting to get confused myself!)

The sole of these boots seem slightly thin, which makes me wonder if there might be enough padding on the sole. I think I might add a foot petal to the bottom to add some cushion to help the ball of my foot. Long story short, I’m going with the pair made in Mexico because the cognac color is what I expected them to be and they seem to hold their structure. They’re a bit more roomy than I’d like, but I much prefer them to the pair made in Brazil. So, while I like the softness of the suede lining, and I also prefer items made in Brazil, I will stick with the boots made in Mexco, despite the price and the fact that endless.com packaged the shoe box much better than shoes.com did. I keep my boots in their shoe boxes, so I prefer to store them in a box that’s not beat up.

All in all what do I take away from this funny situation? Unfortunately, some reviews online (without accompanying photos) may not always be reliable because items could be made in two different factories, producing what seems like two different products that are under the same name and model. This contributed to the somewhat disparaging reviews between shoes.com and endless.com.

What do you think of the boots? Has anything funny like this happened to you before?

Read Aubrey’s recent review of the boots here.

Sorry for my blabbing. I’m constantly trying to improve my writing and grammar 🙂 Back to the work grind tomorrow!

~Grace