Over the last few weeks I've had my eye on a pair of Office Nighthawks, which at the moment retail for £80 in store and online. I really wanted a pair for my trip to Amsterdam next month, but at that price they were a little bit too expensive for me and I couldn't justify it. After searching I did find out that Schuh do the exact same pair called 'Bob', also for £80. I managed to get myself a 15% discount code for Schuh which would have knocked them down to £68 - a bit more reasonable, but still too much for tight-fisted old me. Today I was on my way through town and decided to pop into a shop called Garage Shoes... and lo and behold I spotted these boots!


If you didn't know, Garage Shoes is one of those cheap shoe places that I (and most people) never really look twice at. What made me notice this shop one day was because they had some particularly good dupes of Jeffrey Campbell's Night Walks, and found out that they had quite a good and unoffensive collection of shoes. It seems that this company are on a roll with dupes because I was genuinely not expecting to find a pair of boots similar to the Nighthawks, but there they were! These are called the Austin boot and are also available online to buy here. Obviously these are not exact dupes, the main differences that I found were:

- The heels on these are bigger
- The studs do not extend around the back outer side of the shoe
- The studs on these are not set into a shape/pattern
- The studs are gold, not silver (That being said, in Office today they did have a pair of gold studded Nighthawks for £85)
- These feature two buckled straps, not three

However, these Austins were just £35 - so for less than half the price, I think that you'll agree that these are pretty impressive and are not bad dupes at all!


Quality wise, they're pretty good considering that they come from a cheap shoe shop. Obviously they're not going to be quite up there with the Nighthawks but like I said... for the price I'm not complaining and I honestly don't think that the Nighthawks would have lasted twice as long as these. These are made from faux leather unlike the real leather Nighthawks, but these days it's getting harder and harder to tell and these don't look bad at all. The studs are fixed securely and the buckles don't look like they'll tarnish too easily. They're extremely comfortable, easy to walk in and have a nice fit - the only thing I've noticed is that they are a tiny bit tight across the width of my foot. However, this is the case for a lot of shoes that I own, and with a bit of breaking in they'll loosen up and get even comfier. So all in all, if you're desperate for a pair of Nighthawks but just can't quite stretch to them I would seriously consider having a look at these and saving yourself £45!

EDIT: It has come to my attention that these are a PERFECT dupe for Topshop's Alvin boots - everything from the buckles to the studs are identical! Topshop's Alvins currently retail for £90, so you would be saving yourself a whopping £55 if you purchased these instead!