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There is no substantive difference between GY welted, RTW shoes...at any price. I'm not saying that there is no difference but it is mostly superficial.
All that glitters is not gold.
GY...there is very little, if any, difference in the materials, machines or techniques used to close a GY welted shoe. At any price point.
RTW: since customers fit themselves, fit cannot be laid at the feet of the manufacturer and cannot be charged for, or attributed as a reason for choosing one brand over the other.
Materials: insole quality can differ from leatherboard at the low end to vegetable tanned leather insoles of some substance at the high, but such difference do not account for the huge price discrepancies.
Similarly heel stiffeners and toe stiffeners...most RTW makers, at any price point, are using synthetics to one degree or another.
Heel stacks...at the low end, paper; at the high end, third party sourced leather heel blocks of indeterminate quality.
Uppers...some high end makers use more expensive, better finished leathers. But again this is often superficial...less dye more wax. Maybe younger animals. For some makers and for some customers, the leather used for uppers may be the raison d'etre for charging higher prices...and certainly it affects the look of the shoe in the longer term...but underneath it is still a fiber mat derived from animals. And much of what is gained by using better quality hides is lost in clicking--all manufactures cut shoes from hides for maximum yield and to maximize profit. And, as long as that is true, no one can be certain they're getting prime cuts. We've seen this over and over again in these discussions.
Linings...at the low end, half leather/half canvas. At the high end all leather...again clicked for maximum yield from a not very high end hide.
Outsoles, at the low end rubber, and crappy, flanky synthetic-veg tanned outsoles; at the high end dense pure organic bark tanned outsoles, often finished magnificently--glitter.
Closing techniques...virtually identical. Low end shoes may use slightly longer stitches...and perhaps a little less finesse... but people who admire the Austro-Hungarian makers pay extra for long stitches. Go figure.
In the end it comes down to whether antiquing and twenty coats of hand applied wax are worth an extra $1K.
--
All that glitters is not gold.
GY...there is very little, if any, difference in the materials, machines or techniques used to close a GY welted shoe. At any price point.
RTW: since customers fit themselves, fit cannot be laid at the feet of the manufacturer and cannot be charged for, or attributed as a reason for choosing one brand over the other.
Materials: insole quality can differ from leatherboard at the low end to vegetable tanned leather insoles of some substance at the high, but such difference do not account for the huge price discrepancies.
Similarly heel stiffeners and toe stiffeners...most RTW makers, at any price point, are using synthetics to one degree or another.
Heel stacks...at the low end, paper; at the high end, third party sourced leather heel blocks of indeterminate quality.
Uppers...some high end makers use more expensive, better finished leathers. But again this is often superficial...less dye more wax. Maybe younger animals. For some makers and for some customers, the leather used for uppers may be the raison d'etre for charging higher prices...and certainly it affects the look of the shoe in the longer term...but underneath it is still a fiber mat derived from animals. And much of what is gained by using better quality hides is lost in clicking--all manufactures cut shoes from hides for maximum yield and to maximize profit. And, as long as that is true, no one can be certain they're getting prime cuts. We've seen this over and over again in these discussions.
Linings...at the low end, half leather/half canvas. At the high end all leather...again clicked for maximum yield from a not very high end hide.
Outsoles, at the low end rubber, and crappy, flanky synthetic-veg tanned outsoles; at the high end dense pure organic bark tanned outsoles, often finished magnificently--glitter.
Closing techniques...virtually identical. Low end shoes may use slightly longer stitches...and perhaps a little less finesse... but people who admire the Austro-Hungarian makers pay extra for long stitches. Go figure.
In the end it comes down to whether antiquing and twenty coats of hand applied wax are worth an extra $1K.
--
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