A trip to Budapest shoemakers

[brax]

I travelled extensively through Eastern Europe in 2015. On our travels we spend two weeks in Budapest so I decided to visit a few of its shoemakers. First stop: Attila. It has no RTW or MTO. All shoes are bespoke built around a custom last. Because of the time commitment involved in making a custom last. I did not buy anything there. The saleswoman spoke English very well and was very knowledgable about shoe construction. The cost was 490Euro for the first pair in calf leather plus 30Euro for shoe trees and 80Euro for shipping to USA. Those prices are without VAT. Although I forgot to ask, I'm fairly certain that subsequent pairs would cost less as a new last is unnecessary for subsequent pairs. I thought that the quality of the workmanship and leather was quite high. If I were going the bespoke route, I would not hesitate in using Attila.

 

[brax]

My next visit was to Istvan Toth. He runs a completely different type of shop dealing mainly in boots. He does RTW, MTO, and bespoke. His workmanship and leather quality are not as good as the others. That's not to say bad or mediocre but rather simply not as good as the others. The price point is lower than Atilla but I forgot to write down exact prices. I did not order from Istvan but if I had an odd design in mind that I didn't want to commit to traditional bespoke prices, I'd give Istvan a try. Or if I were in the market for riding boots, I'd give him a try also.

 

[brax]

My third trip was to Buday. It is a very traditional, Budapest shoemaker. All shoes are hand-welted. They have RTW and MTO. I don't recall if they have bespoke. The craftsmanship and leather quality are excellent. RTW shoes are €440 plus €25 for trees. This price includes VAT which they will refund resulting in a €100 reduction. One of the saleswomen speaks English very well. Many of these pictures show what they can do. But they also do very traditional Budapester as well as English lasted shoes in more conventional colors.

 

[brax]

I purchased a pair of their modified Budapester lasted chukkas in great black leather. It is a calf leather that feels and looks much like cordovan. I really liked the 360 degree contrast stitched welt.

 

[Knowledge is King]

Cool thread, thanks for contributing some fresh content

 

[OzzyJones]



Cool thread, thanks for contributing some fresh content

+1, good stuff!
Did you visit Rozsnyai or Vass?

 

[clevesinho]

Subscribed. An excellent thread.

 

[brax]



+1, good stuff! Did you visit Rozsnyai or Vass?

My last stop was Rozsnyai. Their storefront is between Buday and Vass. The primary (sole?) saleswoman speaks English very well and is very knowledgable about shoe construction and Rozsnyai's style. She is the daughter-in-law to the owner. The shoes are hand welter in Debrecen, Hungary. They do RTW and MTO. I don't think that bespoke is available but I could be wrong. There is a price list available on their website.

 

[brax]

They allow a high degree of customization regarding style so I picked up a few pair of MTO and had them mail me the shoes. Those with a good eye may recognize a few of the models as I borrowed from designs of others. The last pair ("Eniko") was solely from the imagination of the saleswoman. Loved how they all turned out. The results:

 

[ThinkDerm]

black pair looks like st c's

 

[brax]



black pair looks like st c's

You are the man. I figured that you (or a few others) might recognize some of these. The black pair was, indeed, inspired by StC. I mixed two StC posts to come up with these. One was an Armoury post that showed a StC with the pebbled and plain leather mixed. The Armoury was a wingtip, however. The rest was a popular StC model.

 

[OzzyJones]

What's the leather on the black ones? Looks a bit like buffalo

 

[brax]



What's the leather on the black ones? Looks a bit like buffalo

Very good question. We went back and forth on this issue. I wanted buffalo because I wanted subtle contrast. Eniko thought that because they pull the leather fairly tight over the last, that buffalo would lose too much contrast. I trusted her judgment and she was right. Viewed live there is even less contrast. They turned out very well.

 

[OzzyJones]

So, is it buffalo?

 

[brax]



So, is it buffalo?

Didn't answer your question earlier, did I? It isn't buffalo. I wanted buffalo, she suggested ray and we compromised in the middle. But I don't remember what we chose. I'll check with Eniko and get back to you on that.