I am not going to say that Allen Edmonds is my favorite brand but I have always liked the way they do their brogued oxfords. Something about them always stood out for me. Trying to thinking about it now, it would appear that there are a couple of things that I notice that differentiate them from others:
1. They use double stitching around the brogueing. This feature here is probably the one that really helps to accentuate the fact that the shoe is a strong brogue. The more lines of stitching one puts on the seams the more these seams (or other areas of the shoe) will be noticed and stand out.
2. I believe (although could be wrong) they use one tone deeper of stitching than is the color of the leather. This will always help to make the stitching pop and give a nice contrast on a lighter leather. In fact now that I think about it. The brogues by Allen Edmonds that I like are always the ones on their Chestnut and Chili leathers, the lighter ones that when putting dark brown stitching on them really helps to show the different pieces of the leather. Their black and dakr brown beogues, well, are just like anyone elses.
3. The settings on the brogueing punch machine appear to be very tight. What I mean by this is that it would appear that each set of holes is very close to the next which makes them stand our more as there are more of them per se.
Combining all of these techniques you get a very striking, bold brogue much like the one in the highlighted photo. A shoe that I actually like. Even a shoe that I would wear!
Allen Edmonds use to be the real deal, especially with the broguing. I enjoyed the shoes for the details, however now, thats pretty much out the window