Kickstarter welted shoe brands. Thoughts?

Hey guys,
I'm looking at a couple of dress shoe brands on kickstarter and wanted to know if anyone heard about them or if they're worth purchasing. Granted there's always a risk involved with kickstarter, but these two look legit.

Made tech x bespoke
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1833418877/m-a-d-e-tech-x-bespoke
They claim to create custom lasts for each customer, ship out fitting shoes, and have a 3D foot scanning app. Construction is hand welted and made in China. Apparently their leather is imported from Italy from the same tannery as berluti and hermes. plus they offer patina! Price is $380 USD.

Myrqvist Goodyear Welted
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/herrstil/myrqvist-goodyear-welted-affordable-high-quality-s
Goodyear welted from England, this company sells RTW shoes for $231 USD. They don't mention anything about the tannery that they use but they offer suede which is something Made is missing.

Both brands are direct to consumer hence the attractive price points. I'm kind of tempted to shell out an extra $150 for bespoke. But I'm not an expert in shoes so i'd like to wait until someone throws in their 2 cents.

carlpl320 said:

Made tech x bespoke
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1833418877/m-a-d-e-tech-x-bespoke
They claim to create custom lasts for each customer, ship out fitting shoes, and have a 3D foot scanning app. Construction is hand welted and made in China. Apparently their leather is imported from Italy from the same tannery as berluti and hermes. plus they offer patina! Price is $380 USD.

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This would be an interesting experiment. Personally, I would wait until the it gets off the ground. The price of waiting seems to be $50.

Potential drawbacks include non-leather insole and (?) outsole.

^ Happily, they've included a picture of the inseaming/welting process.


Hoping for knowledgeable shoemakers like @DWFII to comment on the quality of the stitching. To me it doesn't look like a high enough spi. Also not exactly sure what a "double lock stitch" is.



starro said:

Hoping for knowledgeable shoemakers like @DWFII
 to comment on the quality of the stitching. To me it doesn't look like a high enough spi. Also not exactly sure what a "double lock stitch" is.

Click to expand...

Hard to tell what is going on there. Almost looks like two inseams...one on top of the other.

Standard frequency is 3 SPI . Really good work will be closer to 4...or even 5...depending on the leather.

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The Myrqvist shoe is afaik using leather from a Russian tannery. I have no experience with the brand, except from what I've read online and in that pricerange I'd rather look at Meermin, Yanko or the likes.

@aneki agreed. IMO Myrqvist isn't doing anything new.

I pulled the trigger on made. It's ending in 16 hours and retail is $550 so might as well enjoy the discount while I can. Since I couldn't find anything about them online I'll post my experience here and let you guys know how it goes.

snug said:

@aneki agreed. IMO Myrqvist isn't doing anything new.

I pulled the trigger on made. It's ending in 16 hours and retail is $550 so might as well enjoy the discount while I can. Since I couldn't find anything about them online I'll post my experience here and let you guys know how it goes.

Click to expand...

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