Quality Of Grenson Shoes - Page 4

People are discovering Grenson and other brands everyday. Naturally they will have questions about the quality, different collections etc. If you don't like what's being discussed on this thread don't subject yourself to it.

Just received an interesting reply from Grenson regarding the Christian Derby Boot. They confirmed they were made in India, but say they are part of the G1 collection, which to my understanding is on par with the Rose Collection.

 

Hi Clayton,

Unfortunately this style is no longer available we had cleared it. I do however have a pair of 9 and a pair of 11 available in the honey hi shine colour if you were interested to buy if these were your size? (they are not currently listed on the website)

This particular style was made in India and it was a part of our G1 range. There are no plans for this style to be put in production anymore.

The last pair I got (Sharp boots) has leather insoles. To be hones, I've never seen Grenson's with a fiberboard insole (Did see them on the Loake L1 range tho). The problem with current Grenson;s is that the overall leather quality is crappy and the level of finishing is sub par (botched stitching, paint spots etc).

Oh my, I would have expected the G1 range to be produced in England at that price point. Seems they have moved their entire production to India then. I hope the customer service rep made an error in her mail. Cant believe the Christians are part of the G1 range since other G1 shoes I saw were in the 400+ UK Pound range: http://www.mrporter.com/product/177008

when brands go down they will use the 'halo effect' for all it is worth.

 

Grenson are now being sold all over design-wear shops in England, with design wear quality for design wear prices for design wear loving people.

That is their proposition. It is your decision

 

 

^ Agree.

Glad I checked SF. I was checking out these on MrPorter: http://www.mrporter.com/product/177006.

Never thought it'd be this complex to find stylish brown dress shoes at around the $600-$850 price point.

Does anyone have any experience with the more recent Albam x Grenson shoes (at www.albamclothing.com)? They claim to be, somewhat pretentiously, "crafted" in England. (I have a pair of semi-brogues from them, equivalently to the Radley in the Rose collection from a few years ago. They are one of my favorite pairs.)

For who may be interested: I bought a pair of Grenson samples on Ebay last year and they still had the original tag attached from the factory in India (Kenmore Shoes, http://www.farida.co.in/group_companies.php#).



Back side:

OK, Gents . . . how about these Chelsea boots? Assuming that they are actually "Made in England" as the description says, then they'd seem to be a very good value at $139 (+ another $9.99 for delivery).

Agree or disagree?

Grenson Black Dress Chelsea Boot on Urban Daddy

Trying not to derail this into one of those pseudo-political threads about Chinese trade practices, but there is a necessary amount of work or added value required legally to say something is "made in" a country. Laws vary. But it's perfectly legal to say your shoes are "made in England" if the uppers and other parts are made elsewhere (India I believe for Grenson and others - Loake almost certainly in some ranges) and then assembled into shoes in the UK.

Even if they are made in England from kits of bits made elsewhere, they still could be nice shoes and a good buy. Or maybe they are rubbish. Try them and let us know?

I own a couple of newish Grensons, with which I am quite happy - the Tom semi-brogue in black, and the Smith chukka in brown, both 9.5F on single-leather soles. For the price, the stitching and leather seem good. I should point out that my comparisons are very low-end, I only started paying attention to shoes a couple of years ago. Before then it was the horrors of Clarks, Jones Bootmaker, Aldo (!) etc. So I suppose quality is relative. However, I can say that in comparison to the Barker and Loake shoes I now have in the ~£200 price area, the Grensons I own are probably slightly better on the leather, but slightly lower on the stitching and resilience, although acceptable on both fronts.

In terms of the lines they offer, it seems that the line-up is no longer Rushton/Rose etc. The £175-£200 shoes on their own website, with people-names (e.g. Fred, Tom, etc) and red rose linings, which I understand are the made-in-India lines are referred to as G2. These are widely carried in department stores and by other online shoe shops (including Mr Porter).

See: http://www.grenson.co.uk/en_gb/shop

Then there are the more expensive Grensons (~£450), which I can only find at Mr Porter. These are referred to as Gzero, and are specifically said to be made in their English factory. I can't see the lining colour from the online pictures.

See: http://www.mrporter.com/Shop/Designers/Grenson?resType=designer&keywords=grenson

I can't find any 'G1' grades.

To make things more confusing, some of the styles are very, very similar between G2 and Gzero ranges. Consider:

The £445 Gzero 001-01 Oxford
vs
The £175 G2 'Bert' Oxford -

To add to the fun, Tim Little, Grenson's owner, has his own line (and store in Chelsea). From the pricing I imagine these are more in line with the G2s, although there is no suggestion that they are 'Grensons'.

Incidentally, I am thinking about getting some of the 'James' loafers for flying.
Edited by rossjamesparker - 3/9/12 at 7:13am

Right on cue, I received this email from the Grenson mailing list today, which explains the G1 situation!


The styles are named after City streets, e.g. Cannon, Aldgate. They look nice.

Thanks for the heads up. Are there pics?

I think this is a link to the City Line:

 

 

http://www.grenson.co.uk/en_gb/catalogsearch/result/?q=G1

 

I would choose the Chancery out of that selection.