Sole construction: Quality Oxford shoes will have its sole either Goodyear welted or Blake stitched, both of which allow for cobblers to resole them, thereby extending the shoes’ lifespan significantly. The right price: Leather dress shoes like Oxfords lately fall into one of two camps: the affordable direct-to-consumer brands, like Meermin and Beckett Simonon, that can manufacture fairly solid shoes at a $200-$300 range, thanks to scale, simplicity, and globalized manufacturing. Oxfords have a closed lacing system (the two sides will touch, or come close), with eyelets punched directly into the “vamp” (the term for the piece of leather covering the upper part of the shoe).