Bic Pentameter
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2002
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In 2005, I was able to have my name placed on the waiting list for a pair of bespoke shoes made by Spigola, the shoemaking operation headed by Mr. Koji Suzuki. It was with great excitement that I went to my appointment in June 2006. Mr. Suzuki was a very friendly and humble young man in his early thirties. A year before, I had a pair of plain bespoke black cap toe shoes made by another maker, and I was eager to see how Mr. Suzuki tackled the job.
Mr. Suzuki took numerous measurements of my feet, and examined the well-worn pair of C&J Savilles that I wore to our meeting. He traced an outline of my feet and made detailed notes about them on a sheet of paper. He also drew a sketch of the type of shoe that I wanted - a simple punched captoe in brown. I spent over an hour with him, talking about the type of shoe I wanted. He listened intently, and raised questions about several details that I had not considered. I poured over his books of leather samples. One called "spearmint" caught my eye, but I decided to save an order for a monk strap in spearmint for next time. I settled on the mid-dark brown seen in the photos.
Nine months later, I was back to see Mr. Suzuki to have a trial shoe fitting. I walked, squatted, walked up and down stairs, stepped outside into the street, puttting the trial shoe through its paces. I have a banana shaped foot, and the pinky toe on my right foot gives me fitting troubles in most ready to wear shoes. Although the trial shoe fit relatively well overall, they did rub the outside of my foot in the pinky toe area. Mr. Suzuki had me remove the right shoe, cut a hole in the side with a razor, then had me try it on again to measure how much my foot protruded from the shoe. He made several notations, and went back to to his workshop to adjust my last.
I picked my shoes up in late 2007, but due to several household moves, have only now been able to post pictures. I will let them speak for themselves.
Bic
Mr. Suzuki took numerous measurements of my feet, and examined the well-worn pair of C&J Savilles that I wore to our meeting. He traced an outline of my feet and made detailed notes about them on a sheet of paper. He also drew a sketch of the type of shoe that I wanted - a simple punched captoe in brown. I spent over an hour with him, talking about the type of shoe I wanted. He listened intently, and raised questions about several details that I had not considered. I poured over his books of leather samples. One called "spearmint" caught my eye, but I decided to save an order for a monk strap in spearmint for next time. I settled on the mid-dark brown seen in the photos.
Nine months later, I was back to see Mr. Suzuki to have a trial shoe fitting. I walked, squatted, walked up and down stairs, stepped outside into the street, puttting the trial shoe through its paces. I have a banana shaped foot, and the pinky toe on my right foot gives me fitting troubles in most ready to wear shoes. Although the trial shoe fit relatively well overall, they did rub the outside of my foot in the pinky toe area. Mr. Suzuki had me remove the right shoe, cut a hole in the side with a razor, then had me try it on again to measure how much my foot protruded from the shoe. He made several notations, and went back to to his workshop to adjust my last.
I picked my shoes up in late 2007, but due to several household moves, have only now been able to post pictures. I will let them speak for themselves.
Bic
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