Hush Puppies Boots, and How to Style Them Sharp
Hush Puppies started in 1958 at Wolverine in Michigan, built around pigskin suede and a crepe sole, and the name came out of a dinner: a salesman was told that...
Hush Puppies started in 1958 at Wolverine in Michigan, built around pigskin suede and a crepe sole, and the name came out of a dinner: a salesman was told that fried hush puppies got fed to barking dogs to quiet them, and that sore feet were also called barking dogs. A million pairs sold in the first year. Within four years, one in ten Americans owned some.
Which is the whole problem. Being right about comfort for nearly seventy years is what made the label read sensible, and sensible is a hard thing to shake off. The boots themselves are good. The image is the bit that needs work, and the fix takes one decision.
“A comfort boot worn with comfort clothes is a slipper with a sole. Give it something hard to sit against.”
What they are good at
Suede, mostly. Flat and low-block-heel ankle boots in tan, taupe, brown and black, with the soft construction the brand has run since the fifties. The Chelsea boots are the other strong seam and the elasticated gusset ones are the easiest to get on and off, which matters more than it sounds by about November.
What you will not find here is a party boot. Nothing in the range is trying to be Carvela. Go in expecting a boot you can be standing in for eight hours and the brand is very hard to argue with.
Hush Puppies ankle boots
The styling rule
Do not pair a comfort boot with comfort clothes. A soft suede flat boot under wide soft trousers and an oversized knit is three soft things in a row, and it is the exact outfit the brand's reputation is built on.
Put something with a hard edge next to it instead. Stiff cord or a raw-hem straight jean. A mini and thick opaques, so the boot reads deliberate rather than practical. A leather jacket over anything. The boot stays comfortable, and the outfit stops announcing it.
The trousers that do the most
Corduroy is the one. It has structure where the boot has softness, it comes in exactly the browns and khakis the suede is already in, and a straight or slightly wide leg sits over the shaft without swallowing it.
The same boot, other brands
A flat suede ankle boot is not a rare object, and it is worth seeing the field before you commit. This grid is not brand-locked, so it will pull whatever is closest across everything we carry, at whatever the current prices are.
Buying notes
Suede needs a protector spray
Ten minutes before the first wear, and again after any proper soaking. Untreated suede in a Welsh autumn is a short relationship.
Tan over black, for once
Black suede is hard to keep looking like suede rather than tired leather. Tan and taupe age into something better.
Check the shaft height against your trousers
A low ankle boot under a straight-leg jean disappears entirely. If you want to see the boot, the jean has to be cropped or the boot has to be taller.
Stock and prices in the grids above are live, so what is there today is not necessarily there next week. Sizes in the popular widths go first.