Aldo

Despite being quite a small shop, this Aldo manages to pack quite a lot in, with a wide range of shoes for both men and women, as well as hand bags and accessories. Aldo’s prices are about average high street prices, or just above… their range appears to reflect this with most styles pretty standard for a high street shoe retailer but with a few standing out a as bit more fashion forward.
For blokes, unless you’re going for ‘casual loafers’ or ‘sports shoes’ you have to abide by the current apparently unbreakable fashion rule that is irritatingly long pointed toes. I must admit I’m getting a bit tired of this look. To me, most guys wearing a pair of these shoes just look overly-​self-​consciously trendy but it appears a man would have to try pretty hard to find a non-​pointed toe on the high street… unless venturing into Clarks or Slaters. It has actually got to the point where a man wearing a more rounded toe will probably look like he’s making some sort of fashion statement… cue rounded toes coming back ‘in’. Yawn. But if you like your toes trendy and pointed there’s plenty to choose from!
So to sum up, Aldo’s not breaking any boundaries, but probably serves the average shoe-​shopper well.

My first experience of Aldo Shoes was wandering past and espying some rather fab looking biker style boots that were a bit slender than actual biker boots with a bunch of fab buckles and shoe bling, being a sucker for footwear I wandered in and picked them up expecting their price tag to read £300 plus, colour me pleasantly surprised when they came up at £140. Further poking around, led me to see another buckle clad biker boot for just £90, a quick sniff test and, yes, it was leather. Why hadn’t I taken the plunge before? It’s always been a place I’d walked by and never felt compelled to explore. Is it because I’ve got an uncle Aldo and I was avoiding it through disassociation? I’m not sure. It could be down to the fact that every time I’ve wandered by the store is absolutely teeming with people, or that I prejudged it to be super expensive and beyond my budget. My sensible shoe/​non sneaker budget is always less than my kickass sneaker budget. In addition to women’s shoes they do a range of men’s boots and shoes, although on first glance, your man in your life would have to be a bit on the metrosexual side, as styles are more on the exploratory fashion conscience side of things rather than practical Clarks’ types. Some of the selections are hit and miss, and as a demographic it’s hard to decide if they’re targeting the older middle aged crowd, the fashion conscience students, or the teenagers with far too much money yet a healthy appetite for switchblade stilettos and thigh highs. Hmmm. The last time I went in sale season was still in bloom, and due to busy periods staff were a little fraught and run ragged from traipsing up and down stairs, one imagines. More comment on that when I go back for my boots, preferably at a quieter time.

shoe lovers and handbag lovers place to be!
not been openned long in leeds, and they have some fab shoes that could compete with the office shoe chain and in the same price range. though they don’t have a vast range of shoe styles that office has, the range of shoes consist mainly of heels and some very nice ones at that!
the store has a for the older ladies feel about it? but it could just be because of the stores name?
the shoes all seem to have that certain, must have look at my new shoes! feel about them, inspected some closely and they seemed well made, no glue showing, or mis-​stitching etc, mainly leather shoes, in fact i think all the shoes were leather that i looked at.
the platformed heels looked dainty, not clumpy looking or over big!
other then the knitted boots? woolly shoes? it beggers belief! what the buyers must be thinking at times! if they get wet, would they shrink? of worse smell of wet dog?
the handbags however didn’t do it for me, their nice flash looking things, but just didn’t have the edge that would make me want to part with my money! and style wise seemed kind off last season?
but would be interesting to see what next season and the sales are like in this store