I finally got home, and was able to see my 88s (from NDC)!
They look beautiful and feel very robust in hand and on foot: I have been wearing them around the house after I put in a set of inserts (mine run larger than most of the other size 10's that I have). The print is the perfect thickness, and it is uniform across both shoes, the leather is gorgeous and feels great. I am very happy with the quality of these!
The imperfections on mine are:
They have that 'factory crease" on the toe box, but it is barely noticeable.
There appears to be some midsole paint that is on the leather in one area, reaching up about 1/2" from the midsole on the inner left shoe.
The is one small area where the paint on the midsole looks less evenly distributed than the other areas, thus a little 'less white.'
The Nike Air on the left shoe looks a HAIR of center, although thankfully not at all crooked. Barely noticeable.
The 'I' on right side was missing a little bit of black paint- I dabbed it with a sharpie and can't tell the difference.
The one larger issue was that there was a large clump of glue under the insole of the right shoe. I mean, if felt like there was a rock in the shoe. When I tried to take out the factory insole, i realized that it was glued to the shoe. It took me a while to work it out, but it was STUCK in there. I eventually got it, and used a knife to shave and pull the glob of glue from the bottom of the insole. It was very sticky stuff and the whole time I was worried that I was going to tear the foam of the insole. Here's a couple pics:
Other than that , I have absolutely no complaints, am VERY happy to have the shoe and can't wait to wear them on my next work trip to SF.
Thanks to all for the helpful maintenance tips over the course of this thread, as well as everything else!
