Zegna napoli couture shoes

They used to be made by Sutor Mantellassi, and they were extremely good shoes. That relationship dissolved a couple of years ago. I read and been told that the current crop of Zegna shoes, both regular line and Napoli, are produced by a joint venture between Zegna and Ferragamo. I don't know if they're made in the Ferragamo factory or in a separate factory. They're not bad, but they're not the equal of the old Sutor Mantellassi/Napoli Couture shoes.

Yes, the joint venture is under the name of Zefer (not terribly creative), and I agree, the new shoes aren't as nice as the Mantellassi ones.

LOL - if you note the maker of the towel and toilet paper dispensers in mensrooms (OK, seek help but aside from that) you will see the "Fort James" brand VERY often. In my former career they were a client and I remember being tickled to learn that they were formed by a merger of Fort Howard and the James River corporations (I think, may have the combination screwy). Zefer huh? Man, 3-4 drinks each and we could come up with some funny merger possibilities.

LOL.

I was looking at them today. I think they are indeed made by Ferragamo.

Andrew - got a review of whatchya thought??? Ferragamo fit me pretty well and I always thought I had nice shoes til you guys made me realize how out of my depth I am on shoe conversations :-)

Well, I'm not Andrew, but maybe my opinion would be of interest. I've seen a total of four different categories of the new Zegna/Ferragamo shoes (there may be others, but these are the ones that I've seen). First are the regular Zegna shoes. They're Blake-constructed, and they're decent mid-range shoes. Second is a line of Goodyear-welted shoes. I've only seen these at the Zegna store in NYC, but I very much liked the look of a number of them. As I recall, there was a wholecut model in three different colors that was particularly interesting. At the Zegna store, the Goodyear-welted models alone out of all the others were on sale. I don't know if that means that they're being discontinued or what. I think that they compare with the mid-range Santoni Goodyear-welted shoes in terms of construction quality, and the price was similar. Third are the Napoli Couture shoes. These have a lot of brass slugging on the soles of the shoes, as well as a half-black sole (actually half charcoal gray), but the construction quality doesn't appear to be that much higher than the regular Zegna shoes. Also Blake-constructed. Fourth are the limited edition shoes. These are Goodyear-welted, and they're beautiful. The model that I saw is a stunning antique mid-brown blucher. It was Goodyear-welted, and it had some of the most interesting soles I've ever seen. The shoe bags were suede and the box was leather. Unfortunately, the shoes were stitched aloft. I would have paid $500 or $600 for them. They cost $1095. Oh, well. They'll go on sale eventually. One thing that all of the Zegna shoes that I've seen share is an almost austere simplicity of design. They're certainly Italian shoes, but they're not flamboyant like a lot of what you see from Santoni or Lattanzi. They don't have the quality of the high-end Santoni or Lattanzi shoes, of course, but they are quality products that are worth picking up on sale.

Awesome description Jcusey :-) I understood most of it but my takeaway id to check these out - I tend to prefer simplicity in shoes rather than flamboyance. ...not the pink crocs that Andrew posted a link too :-) Good to here from you, hope it ain't flooding down there too much.

Nah. Three inches of rain is child's play. Just don't drive into standing water.

LOL - Jcusey you live in a city below sea level that cut a channel from the ocean into downtown - I'm thinking fins and a snorkel must be part of the family 'emergency kit' LOL. Just keep yer seven-folds on the second floor :-)

You take that back. New Orleans is below sea level. Houston, on the other hand, is at least 10 or 15 feet above in most places. And the freeways through downtown haven't been completely submerged in almost 3 years.