The All-Inclusive Shoe & Boot Thread

for the virgin cork tread (not ground cork paste). for the back two thirds wood and leather
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shookt said:
S


Is cork better than leather for the front?
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in my opinion and this is only an opinion hardens less than leather. on the other hand you should know that the hole that is created when carving the pen by hand is very very small (handwelted).
When the gem is glued the hole reaches 6 mm. this cork filling sinks (goodyear) this produces a large shoe with the use
 
Enrile said:
in my opinion and this is only an opinion hardens less than leather. on the other hand you should know that the hole that is created when carving the pen by hand is very very small (handwelted).
When the gem is glued the hole reaches 6 mm. this cork filling sinks (goodyear) this produces a large shoe with the use
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Thanks for the explanation - yes I agree it would be different in a goodyear shoe.
 
Enrile said:
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Cordovan Horween
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It's very interesting how many cordwainers there are that still make shoes by hand, and it is also interesting how many customers are prepared to pay the high prices for custom handmade footwear.

Enrile Enrile , who are your typical customers? Are they into shoes, or fit or other things. In other words, why do your customers pay the high prices for your footwear? Does word of mouth play a big role in you getting customers?Are most customers local? Does the internet get you many customers?

It seems like most people don't appreciate really good shoes(handmades), yet there are a number of people who will pay big money for makers who are largely unknown. Why do customers initially go to these makers?
 
Lobbster said:
Would you care toll tell us more about your lasts and how to order?
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Thank you
For a long time I made bespoke shoes, and based on that experience I developed two different last styles. Also for each style, I made half numbers and three different widths.
Through email, we have a first contact, the customer can provide me with their number in any of the international quality industrial brands. Then we continue on wasap because it is faster (you will have noticed that my English is really bad), I like to ask the client what problems they usually have in their shoes, then help photograph their feet in their shoes and photographs of their feet outside the shoes.
Then the client must decide many things,
- Last style
-Shoe model
-Type of leather (Box-calf, small grain, Cordovan Horween )
-Sew and details
-Sole type (JR or Vibram)
-Violin waist
.........
 
The Shooman said:
It's very interesting how many cordwainers there are that still make shoes by hand, and it is also interesting how many customers are prepared to pay the high prices for custom handmade footwear.

Enrile Enrile , who are your typical customers? Are they into shoes, or fit or other things. In other words, why do your customers pay the high prices for your footwear? Does word of mouth play a big role in you getting customers?Are most customers local? Does the internet get you many customers?

It seems like most people don't appreciate really good shoes(handmades), yet there are a number of people who will pay big money for makers who are largely unknown. Why do customers initially go to these makers?
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Very interesting all these questions, I like to reflect on this.
There are very few people who can appreciate this, but really although the number of shoemakers on hand increases in recent years, the number of customers does too. It is a cultural issue, the more people know the work and quality behind a well-made shoe, the more customers make the decision.
There are many people in the world with money to spare, they buy what they consider best for them (or what is ready to take), big brands convinced them that the best and most exclusive is what they are going to sell (even if they have it) thousands of people "exclusivity misunderstood").
When a potential client understands this, he becomes a loyal customer. On the other hand, these shoes are not a necessity, rather a whim, so when a customer is happy they usually repeat purchases from time to time.
The Internet attracted many new customers, but not only online. Seville is a tourist city and many foreign people seek to go out of stores outside the established circuit, we are exactly this.
Word of mouth is important, both online and in my own city, it is easy to do a good job and make yourself known, Seville is a small city. Other points in Spain also go through the network or live.
Finally, a small workshop like ours does not need too many customers, as it does not produce too many pairs a year. We can still grow a little in production, but I don't think that more than 20%, we want to maintain quality above all. Our real business is leather goods (belts, wallets, watch straps, cufflinks ...) The shoe is the most expensive and least profitable product in the entire product range.

Well-made shoes are not expensive, they are really expensive to produce and therefore cannot be priced low. Normally when a customer understands this, the price goes to the background. The human being is really absurd in many aspects, there are people able to pay much more to wear a brand and wear a shitty quality, I repeat it is only education.

My relationship with the handmade manufacture of shoes is a love relationship, really all the people who help me in the business advise me to dedicate that amount of time to other more profitable things. But really the shoe brings me happiness and gives prestige to my work and the brand.
 
Enrile said:
The human being is really absurd in many aspects, there are people able to pay much more to wear a brand and wear a shitty quality, I repeat it is only education.
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Other makers have told me the same. So many cashed up people, and yet many will balk at paying so much to a custom shoe maker with no name recognition, yet they will pay big $$$$ for a brand name that is cheaply made.

I remember going to a shoe shop once and seeing a younger guy skip over the quality shoes for a Gucci brand name at twice the price but half the quality. Of course it is a matter of education. People aren't so familiar with quality now (much quality went away in the 80's with globalisation), so brand names have become important to uneducated consumers, especially those folks from countries that were once poor....they were never brought up with quality so they know nothing about it, and those are the ones lined up outside the famous brand name boutiques without realising they are full of overpriced massed produced factory products. I can't blame humans for being hoodwinked and so absurd, those marketing people are so clever, and they know their target markets.
 
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Enrile said:
Very interesting all these questions, I like to reflect on this.
There are very few people who can appreciate this, but really although the number of shoemakers on hand increases in recent years, the number of customers does too. It is a cultural issue, the more people know the work and quality behind a well-made shoe, the more customers make the decision.
There are many people in the world with money to spare, they buy what they consider best for them (or what is ready to take), big brands convinced them that the best and most exclusive is what they are going to sell (even if they have it) thousands of people "exclusivity misunderstood").
When a potential client understands this, he becomes a loyal customer. On the other hand, these shoes are not a necessity, rather a whim, so when a customer is happy they usually repeat purchases from time to time.
The Internet attracted many new customers, but not only online. Seville is a tourist city and many foreign people seek to go out of stores outside the established circuit, we are exactly this.
Word of mouth is important, both online and in my own city, it is easy to do a good job and make yourself known, Seville is a small city. Other points in Spain also go through the network or live.
Finally, a small workshop like ours does not need too many customers, as it does not produce too many pairs a year. We can still grow a little in production, but I don't think that more than 20%, we want to maintain quality above all. Our real business is leather goods (belts, wallets, watch straps, cufflinks ...) The shoe is the most expensive and least profitable product in the entire product range.

Well-made shoes are not expensive, they are really expensive to produce and therefore cannot be priced low. Normally when a customer understands this, the price goes to the background. The human being is really absurd in many aspects, there are people able to pay much more to wear a brand and wear a shitty quality, I repeat it is only education.

My relationship with the handmade manufacture of shoes is a love relationship, really all the people who help me in the business advise me to dedicate that amount of time to other more profitable things. But really the shoe brings me happiness and gives prestige to my work and the brand.
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thanks for sharing, and l am glad you make shoes. Handmade shoes is such a special thing to experience, and it's good you have played your part to give people opportunities to experience such things. Handmade shoes are one of the few really great things in this world. A good bed, a good seat and a good pair of shoes, all so important, because if you aren't in one you are in the other. Nothing quite like a great pair of shoes though, the most worthwhile thing to spend extra money on IMO.
 
The Shooman said:
I remember going to a shoe shop once and seeing a younger guy skip over the quality shoes for a Gucci brand name at twice the price but half the quality. Of course it is a matter of education. People aren't so familiar with quality now (much quality went away in the 80's with globalisation), so brand names have become important to uneducated consumers, especially those folks from countries that were once poor....they were never brought up with quality so they know nothing about it, and those are the ones lined up outside the famous brand name boutiques without realising they are full of overpriced massed produced factory products. I can't blame humans for being hoodwinked and so absurd, those marketing people are so clever, and they know their target markets.
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This is sadly true, and we've discussed it here before.

Coincidentally, I was having a chat last week with a friend of a friend. He is very well off and collects watches, thinking nothing of spending $70,000 or more on a model that he wants. He complained to me about how his leather wallet had split and, when he showed it to me, it was a Vuitton canvas monogram model (that is, fabric sprayed with a layer of PVC). He talked about how he had bags, wallets, shoes and so on from many high-end brands (his words) such as Gucci, Bally, and Hermes but that none of them last long - but that he continues buying them because he has been convinced that they are good quality. Plus, of course, I suspect that, like his watches, he wants to show that he is a connoisseur when it comes to brands.
 
Many of the wealthy are said to be snubbing brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton now because they have become so common. Even if people can't afford them they can take out loans, so even people who have little money can own the fancy labels now, but the rich have had enough of it so they have gone to Chanel and Hermes' because it is out of the reach of most people and more exclusive. The true connoisseurs naturally go custom. None-the-less the middle classes get stuck on brands because they associate brands with certain ideals. It's a very interesting subject and l wrote about this at FNB a while back. For many the fancy labels elevate one's perceived status, and you'll probably find that many of these people don't have status in the first place so they chase brands to fill a perceived status that makes them feel good. It's the perception of luxury that really sells, and virtually any old cheaply made good can be sold because the public is easy to hoodwink. Think about it, people buy PVC coated bags and purses for thousands of dollars.

It's also happening to cars with some BMW being made in India and some being assembled in China now, and only the top of the range (a small percentage) being made in Germany. Humans want fancy symbols on their cars but they don't want to pay the big bucks, so mass produced versions are made so people can feel elite.

If one really is low on money one can still buy status for only a few thousand dollars. You buy a used Mercedes that looks like a rebadged Toyota, because it is not really about what it looks like or how reliable it is, it is all about the 3 pointed star. The marketing people know all of these things.
Mercedes-toyata-second-rate.png
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Here is a Mercedes that looks like a rebadged Mazda, but it has the 3 pointed star and thus has STATUS.
Mercedes-mazda-1.jpg
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If you are a student or you don't have much money you can still have status buy owning buying this:
Mercedes-junk.png
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OR if you are Chinese you get smarter and just stick a fake Mercedes badge on a cheaply made car. Serious, they do that in China. :iseewhatyoudidthere:
www.youtube.com

Fake Mercedes Scam in China is Dangerous!

So how can a fake Mercedes actually be dangerous in China? If you missed Conquering Northern China: http://vimeo.com/ondemand/conqueringnorthernchinaDISCOUNT...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com


It's a funny old world.
 
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I studied marketing, sometimes artisans like to complain about how companies cheat customers ... maybe we must humbly acknowledge that they do better than us and try to do this without fooling anyone, it should be easier than to them.
 
Some of the antiquing highlights on the internet.

Better than Dandy shoe care, Berluti, Corthay and the rest. Few patina antiques speak to me, but these below are superb.


MASON PATINA
Mason Patina 1.jpg Mason Patina 2.jpg Mason Patina 3.jpg
 
Harris shoes - FAKE norvegese construction
Harris - fake norvegese.jpg

Nothing to do with norvegese, it's all a show about nothing. It has an inturned upper and employs a t welt with decorative stitching on it while the real inseaming is inside the shoes and not visible. It couldn't be any more opposite to norvegese because it has a t welt and an inturned upper where-as the norvegese has no welt and an outurned upper with two stitches going into the sole.
 
I wish there were more written on the history of shoe patterns. Does anyone know if the Norweger is in fact the progenitor of split toes in general? And how is it that most split toes don’t come with Norwegian or storm welts but just plain welting?

Contemplating getting one made, maybe something like this:

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Daniel Wegan (head shoemaker at G&G for 10 years) shows off his first shoos under his own name.
Daniel Wegan bespoke - new range.jpg


The Classic bespoke look v's rtw

An interesting sharing.

The bespoke chisel toe will often have no cliff at the end of the toe in order to show off the bespoke look. This can make a very elegant shoe on the right type of foot. No cliff needed because the feather is carved lower and consequently the insole doesn't need much filling, and you are closer to the ground.

No rtw shoe can imitate that!
Daniel Wegan 3.gif

rtw MUST have a cliff face because the feather component is high and needs to be filled with cork, but this creates problems of itself. Berluti - green patina rtw.gif
 
shookt said:
I wish there were more written on the history of shoe patterns. Does anyone know if the Norweger is in fact the progenitor of split toes in general? And how is it that most split toes don’t come with Norwegian or storm welts but just plain welting?

Contemplating getting one made, maybe something like this:

View attachment 33314
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This is really very true. I have been fortunate to see some old high mountain boots with welt Norway, but none of them with the broken finger.
It is very curious how a name of the welt has been linked to a shoe model.
 
Some great shoes from legends.

Otto Bartkiewicz bespoke
Otto Bartkiewicz bespoke.jpg


Scheer bespoke

check out how good the sole stitching is.


Scheer bespoke


Scheer bespoke
 
Love the 3rd shoe which is an Archduke Johann model...a shoe dream to get a pair made by one of the Viennese makers. My current last at Attila is not suitable for that pattern, but should work with a Norweger.
 
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