Australian Members



nabilmust said:

Yessir, that's right. Yessir, I do have a pair of penny loafers. I got them for a song at the Edward Green factory store in Northampton (Go bananas: http://bit.ly/WQF9im). That city is worth a visit if you're in London - it's a nice, short(ish) drive from the city too. Here's a helpful link: http://www.northamptonshireleather.com/pdf/factory-shoe-shop-directory.pdf Remember to take note of the opening hours for the different factories. The Florence outlets are great for Car Shoe / Tod's driving shoes.

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Unfortunately, the Edward Green factory shop is only open by appointment at present, so if anyone is going to Northampton, make sure that you plan your visit well and make an appointment with EG in advance. Regarding Saphir, I've placed a couple of orders with Valmour. If you're only ordering a little bit, it's expensive, but if you are placing a group order so that you can share postage and can take advantage of their "degressive" pricing (the price of each item decreases as you order more of that item), it becomes very affordable. If, however, you only want one jar and you happen to be in Melbourne or Brisbane, then seeing if you can get it at Double Monk or the Cloakroom respectively makes sense. From memory, Waproo has the Australian distribution license for Saphir but you must order a dozen in any one colour for an order - you can't break the dozen up into different colours. I did enquire of them a while back, but I can't remember how much they were charging for a dozen jars of cream.

Prince of Paisley said:

I know it might be heresy to say this on SF but I actually found Mannina to be a bit pushy... lovely shoes but he and his wife looked like they were about to put the evil eye on me when I told them that the pairs I liked were painful on my feet. Who knows, maybe he thought I was just a tyre kicker but the truth was out of the 3 or 4 styles I really liked, all of them felt like I was wearing a moustrap on my feet (and didn't feel like they would stretch much either). Of course that is no reflection on the quality of the shoes, but their reaction to my revalation that their shoes were uncomfortable for me was received with annoyance, which rather puzzled me (that's the kind of attitude I expect from an Australian shoe shop!)

I ended up finding a similar pair in another shop in Florence to the ones I liked in Mannina, also made in the local area, that were far more comfortable for me so I bought them instead. Coincidentally I'm actually wearing them today:

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Interesting - I was served by the son - the father was in the workshop. They were very lovely to me, invited me out back, met his wife and the japanese girls learning the trade.

Either way I guess you will always get this sort of difference between customer experiences

Out of interest where are those shoes from"? lovely

UnnamedPlayer said:

$22 is correct.

Why pay that when even for a single jar the cost is $20 from overseas and more realistically people would be purchasing multiple jars to get all the colours they need and in that case the price comes down a little bit further from the online guys.

It's not about the $2, it's about the fact that I believe they don't need to charge that extra amount.

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Why dont they need to charge it? Do you know the gross margin % vs their cost of doing business %? I think when you are in there and buy a nice pair of shoes you have the opportunity to also grab some nice polish/creme and for $2 someone buying edward greens, john lobbs or cleverlys wouldnt really mind - the price is competitive and its the holistic service provided.



Romp said:

Interesting - I was served by the son - the father was in the workshop. They were very lovely to me, invited me out back, met his wife and the japanese girls learning the trade.

Either way I guess you will always get this sort of difference between customer experiences

Out of interest where are those shoes from"? lovely

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Yes, the language difference can also make it hard to read people.

I ended up buying a pair of Borgiolis on that trip; they were a special model for one of the shoe shops near the Duomo. I can't remember the name of the store, it was on the insole (all it says now is "fatto a mano per..." and the handwritten name of the shop has worn off).

Talking about Saphir, I am thinking of getting 2 jars of cream plus 1 Renovateur.

I am in Sydney, and happy to join in a bulk order.

Whilst I was in Paris, I bought a tin of Avel Baume Cuir Renovateur. It appears to be the working man version of the Gold Medal Renovateur. Works pretty well, but does not give as good a shine as Renovateur, even though realistically speaking, the difference is quite marginal. The price though- for Euro13, I get a 375mL tin, voila:



PoP, very nice shoes from Florence. The soles appear to be more solid and substantial than what I usually expect from Italian FAMs.



UnnamedPlayer said:

buy from this guy:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/260880331443#ht_1100wt_1180

**** the local ripoff merchants.

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Good advice, terrible sentiment. I have bought several tins of polish plus renovator from this shop over the last couple of years. Good prices, excellent service and fast delivery.

Would I use a local shop for a few dollars more? Of course. But being the slave to convenience that the interwebs have made me, ebay is hard to ignore. Plus I don't know anyone selling that stuff in Sydney.

Where are Sydneysiders (or Aussies generally) getting their shoe trees? Shoe repair places in the conservative business dress sell cedar for around $65, which is nuts.

I saw a bulk buy organised on this thread a month back, but was too slow to take advantage

I haven't checked, but I suspect that a largish order from Amazon.com Allen Edmonds trees may still be the way to go. Their shipping is reasonable, as I recall.



Petepan said:

Talking about Saphir, I am thinking of getting 2 jars of cream plus 1 Renovateur.

I am in Sydney, and happy to join in a bulk order.

Whilst I was in Paris, I bought a tin of Avel Baume Cuir Renovateur. It appears to be the working man version of the Gold Medal Renovateur.  Works pretty well, but does not give as good a shine as Renovateur, even though realistically speaking, the difference is quite marginal.  The price though- for Euro13, I get a 375mL tin, voila:

PoP, very nice shoes from Florence.  The soles appear to be more solid and substantial than what I usually expect from Italian FAMs.

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At the risk of popping open a I would suggest that anything based on mink oil is not going to give one much of a leg up in the shine stakes. I am a big fan of Renovator, but use it very occasionally, as I find it not that conducive to a good shine (I use Saphir's tinned polish for that).

I've not use the cream polish - anyone have an opinion on how well that buffs up?



boff said:

. I am a big fan of Renovator, but use it very occasionally, as I find it not that conducive to a good shine (I use Saphir's tinned polish for that).

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Correct. Renovateur is only meant as an occasional treatment. You still have to use polish/cream.

lachyzee said:

I haven't checked, but I suspect that a largish order from Amazon.com Allen Edmonds trees may still be the way to go. Their shipping is reasonable, as I recall.

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Any idea what price they would work out at per pair?

I have just come across these on ebay. Look to be a copy of woodlore epics for $30 shipped. Anyone purchased these?



wesos said:

Where are Sydneysiders (or Aussies generally) getting their shoe trees? Shoe repair places in the conservative business dress sell cedar for around $65, which is nuts.

I saw a bulk buy organised on this thread a month back, but was too slow to take advantage

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Argh! Wish you'd asked last week. I've been ignored by this guy on the SF market place for the last couple of weeks. Don't know why.

So I just placed an order on Amazon for 4 of these. I ordered a few books at the same time, so not too sure how much shipping would be for just the trees. I suspect you would land 4 for just under $100.

In regards to Saphir, thanks everyone for the suggestions. As I am in Brisbane, the store UnnamePlayer (thank you!) suggested sells Renovateur, and I think this is the way forward for me. In case anyone is interested, they charge $17.33 + $6.70 shipping, which takes the grand total to $24.03.

But if I head to Melbourne in the future, will be sure to checkout Double Monk, $22 sounds like fantastic value and always good to support local business.

I had a look at A fine Pair of Shoes, they stock a slightly less concentrated Renovateur, and their shipping prices were slightly higher than the ebay store UP suggested. However, they have some other items I want to buy, so if anyone in Brisbane wants to combine and do a group order, send me a PM. Hangar Project has a good range of shoe care accessories, but shipping prices are insanely high.

Cool interview with P Johnson from Giuseppe of Men in this Town.

Allen Edmonds owns Woodlore. They are the same thing. And, no offense Wesos, but I'm not going to do your research for you