John Lobb (St. James's Street, London) vs. John Lobb (Hermès, Paris) - Page 2

I thought this may be a good place to pose a question about the construction of John Lobb's RTW shoes.  I am pasting a video below showing the cork bottom filling process of a pair of Lobbs.  Watch the video and you will see that they seem to put an enormous amount of cork in the shoe, leaving a mound  that is nowhere near flush with the welting as you see with all other goodyear welted shoes.  Am I missing something, or do Lobbs somehow have a thicker cork layer? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNqu1kQZ0Mc&feature=bf_prev&list=UUN1wOO2DFx9p_DC3VD2hviQ

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoneyWellSpent 

I thought this may be a good place to pose a question about the construction of John Lobb's RTW shoes.  I am pasting a video below showing the cork bottom filling process of a pair of Lobbs.  Watch the video and you will see that they seem to put an enormous amount of cork in the shoe, leaving a mound  that is nowhere near flush with the welting as you see with all other goodyear welted shoes.  Am I missing something, or do Lobbs somehow have a thicker cork layer? 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNqu1kQZ0Mc&feature=bf_prev&list=UUN1wOO2DFx9p_DC3VD2hviQ

No thoughts from anyone?

I don't own any John Lobbs (of either variety).  But I have noticed that some makers seem to use more cork than others.  I had some Church's a few months ago (I know, hardly venerated on SF these days, but I like this pair!), and one of the first things I noticed was that the sole seemed to be quite fully stuffed with cork - the insole seemed slightly convex to begin with.

The downside was that the shoes were tight to start with, especially across the forefoot.  The up side is that because there is more cork to mould to the shape of my foot, they have become some of the most comfortable and supporting shoes I own.  It's a small thing, but I'm all for a generous helping of cork: once you get it squashed into your shape, it makes the shoe feel a lot more luxurious, and a lot more "yours".

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimo 

I don't own any John Lobbs (of either variety).  But I have noticed that some makers seem to use more cork than others.  I had some Church's a few months ago (I know, hardly venerated on SF these days, but I like this pair!), and one of the first things I noticed was that the sole seemed to be quite fully stuffed with cork - the insole seemed slightly convex to begin with.

 

The downside was that the shoes were tight to start with, especially across the forefoot.  The up side is that because there is more cork to mould to the shape of my foot, they have become some of the most comfortable and supporting shoes I own.  It's a small thing, but I'm all for a generous helping of cork: once you get it squashed into your shape, it makes the shoe feel a lot more luxurious, and a lot more "yours".

I know what you are are talking about with the convex shape of the soles.  I may be mistaken, but I had attributed that to the rolling process that is used during manufactering (seen in most of the production videos for the different brands) where the shoes are turned upside down and the rolling press is used to flatten and curve the sole against the contours of the last.  You are definitely right that some makers use more cork than others, but I was under the impression that it was on the variance of a few millimeters at most.  Perhaps I am wrong, since the video we are referring to shows a serious amount of cork!