Antonio Meccariello Shoes

[europrep]

PCK1 is totally clueless....

PCK1 was extremely helpful to me when I reached out to him regarding Antonio and a few other makers. He went above and beyond in answering my questions and providing me information.

As he just mentioned....he may be most useful regarding general question and the Aurum line.


Oh and just received my test shoes today!

 

[nickrut]

Is there a catalog of all the models? His webpage doesn't seem to include them all.

 

[europrep]

@diadem do we need to pay extra for shoe trees if we order aurum?

Yes, bespoke shoe trees are not included in the price for Aurum MTO's.

Bison for the test shoes because Antonio had an impressive piece of dark brown bison in his showroom, and I thought the thick, grainy leather would help me gauge the feel of elephant. Elephant for the final pair because I thought it'd be awesome.
The shoe trees are amazing and well worth the money.

Shoe trees are included in the price of the Standard line. Obviously they are not custom like the Aurum trees, but I am assuming fit the original last of the shoe. Someone who actually has received may want to comment.

 

[mw313]



No, this doesn't sound right.  His standard line is handwelted, too.

Correct, only test shoes are goodyear welted. Others from both the main line and aurum are all handwelted.

That is what I thought but I just wanted to make sure. So what is better besides the lasts? Both are hand welted and of great materials.

 

[europrep]

Given the amount of questions and confusion, I thought it would be helpful if I posted the original email I received from Antonio regarding his process. I believe it is a standard email he sends to inquiring people, so I am not posting anything that should be kept private. I removed the pricing section because it was last year's pricing.

If one of his current customers or moderators think I should remove the post, please let me know.

-----

Thank you for your kind email and interest in my shoes.

I make two lines of shoes, my standard "Meccariello" line and my "Aurum" line.

All my shoes from the standard "Meccariello" line to the Aurum lines are fully handwelted. The difference is that for my Aurum shoes there is a lot of work involved in making the shoe. The insole is more finely carved to be as tight as possible to the waist and sole, the toe puffs and heel counters are skivvied very precisely as not to interrupt the flow of the last. Outside the shoe, I use the finest available leathers, the shaping of the soles, waist and heel is a lot finer and more precise than my normal shoes. In fact it takes almost twice as long to make as compared to my standard shoe. It is the closest to bespoke work outside of me personally taking your measurements and doing the fittings.

All my Aurum shoes are available in any last you wish, but the Aurum specific lasts (on my tumblr all the Aurum lasts are identified) are more sinuous and ergonomic in shape with tighter waists.

The last adjustment service is where I check the measurements of your foot against your chosen last and manually adjust it to make a personalised last for you.

Normally, a client will let me know what shoe they would like to order and on what last and type of leather. I will then give them a quote for the shoe. If the price is agreeable, I then send the client a file with measuring instructions and a few questions, which the client then sends back to me. With this information I can start to make the last or the shoe if they opt only for the shoe.

It takes approximately 2 months to make a last and a test shoe, and about another two months to make the final shoe after the client has worn the test shoe and given me feedback as to the fit and where further adjustments may be needed. I send the clients photos now and then to show the progress of their test shoes and final shoes. However, since this is December it can take up to 3 months to make a pair of shoes

Regarding payment, I require full payment upon ordering, and it can be paid via bank transfer to my company account, or if needed I also accept western union. I do not accept credit cards since I do not have a shop, and PayPal is not possible for me because they require proof of shipment within a short timespan which is not possible with made to measure shoes.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best regards,
Antonio Meccariello​

 

[mcl911]

This clear all things all! Thanks

 

[striker]

Does he answer emails personally or through an assistant? His English is excellent.

 

[Stone]



photos of the bison?

 

[mw313]

Given the amount of questions and confusion, I thought it would be helpful if I posted the original email I received from Antonio regarding his process. I believe it is a standard email he sends to inquiring people, so I am not posting anything that should be kept private. I removed the pricing section because it was last year's pricing.

If one of his current customers or moderators think I should remove the post, please let me know.

-----

Thank you for your kind email and interest in my shoes.

I make two lines of shoes, my standard "Meccariello" line and my "Aurum" line.

All my shoes from the standard "Meccariello" line to the Aurum lines are fully handwelted. The difference is that for my Aurum shoes there is a lot of work involved in making the shoe. The insole is more finely carved to be as tight as possible to the waist and sole, the toe puffs and heel counters are skivvied very precisely as not to interrupt the flow of the last. Outside the shoe, I use the finest available leathers, the shaping of the soles, waist and heel is a lot finer and more precise than my normal shoes. In fact it takes almost twice as long to make as compared to my standard shoe. It is the closest to bespoke work outside of me personally taking your measurements and doing the fittings.

All my Aurum shoes are available in any last you wish, but the Aurum specific lasts (on my tumblr all the Aurum lasts are identified) are more sinuous and ergonomic in shape with tighter waists.

The last adjustment service is where I check the measurements of your foot against your chosen last and manually adjust it to make a personalised last for you.

Normally, a client will let me know what shoe they would like to order and on what last and type of leather. I will then give them a quote for the shoe. If the price is agreeable, I then send the client a file with measuring instructions and a few questions, which the client then sends back to me. With this information I can start to make the last or the shoe if they opt only for the shoe.

It takes approximately 2 months to make a last and a test shoe, and about another two months to make the final shoe after the client has worn the test shoe and given me feedback as to the fit and where further adjustments may be needed. I send the clients photos now and then to show the progress of their test shoes and final shoes. However, since this is December it can take up to 3 months to make a pair of shoes

Regarding payment, I require full payment upon ordering, and it can be paid via bank transfer to my company account, or if needed I also accept western union. I do not accept credit cards since I do not have a shop, and PayPal is not possible for me because they require proof of shipment within a short timespan which is not possible with made to measure shoes.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me.​

Best regards,
Antonio Meccariello
​

Thanks for the clarification. So the Standard is like EG/GG in quality and the Aurum is the closed to true bespoke that you will get. You can get a custom last on either line.

I also wonder if one can get a custom last in the Aurum style but use it on an otherwise standard shoe, with just some premium. Any thoughts?
Then one would be able to first try a trial shoe to get the last down followed by a standard line shoe on that last. Then later that person could get a shoe done in the Aurum line to directly compare to two shoes in quality/details. That would be a great study to do!

 

[PCK1]

Antonio's english is excellent but he also has an assistant that is 100% fluent.

 

[ThinkDerm]



thanks - not what I expected

 

[MSchapiro]

Yes, he has a number of American customers, including myself. He doesn't take PayPal because PP requires proof of product shipment within a specific time frame, which is not feasible for him because he's hand-making everything from scratch. You have to pay by bank transfer, which introduces some minor issues of its own, but @MSchapiro seems to have some tricks up his sleeve regarding this, so shoot him a PM if interested. I know I was given a pretty terrible exchange rate by my bank when I did the transfer, so I'll probably try to find some other method of payment in the future.

You can start by sending him an email at [email protected]. You can discuss the details of the shoes/boots you want to order and then he'll send you an invoice with payment instructions for his bank.

I'll try to tackle the pricing question below.

Just an FYI I use transfer wise. They give you a rate within ~1% of spot rather than ~5% I paid, even with Chase Private Client rates.

If you use my URL the first transfer is free https://transferwise.com/u/b549a6

In full disclosure they give a financial incentive for something like each 6 people that sign up. I won't post this again because it would be advertising for them, but it has pushed down the extra costs when purchasing from Antonio a lot. I also hated nothing more than seeing how much my bank was ripping me off when I could view the mid market rates in real time.

 

[SoGent]

yowzer I can see why you chose that

 

[ThinkDerm]



Just an FYI I use transfer wise. They give you a rate within ~1% of spot rather than ~5% I paid, even with Chase Private Client rates.

If you use my URL the first transfer is free https://transferwise.com/u/b549a6

In full disclosure they give a financial incentive for something like each 6 people that sign up. I won't post this again because it would be advertising for them, but it has pushed down the extra costs when purchasing from Antonio a lot. I also hated nothing more than seeing how much my bank was ripping me off when I could view the mid market rates in real time.

@stevent

exactly. once you pay credit card, which is spot rate + 5% + 3% international fees for amex, that adds costs

 

[stevent]



@stevent

exactly. once you pay credit card, which is spot rate + 5% + 3% international fees for amex, that adds costs

Since you cannot drop this, maybe someone can help me here:

Background:
EG sale in London
Malford of London proxies a few pairs and offers them for sale
EG Boots sold by Malford of London for 402 pounds shipped to US
Thinkderm offers boots in EG thread for cost plus shipping. I pm to purchase but back out when costs don't add up for me

My breakdown of costs:
End of July 2013 exchange rate of 1 GBP to 1.517 - 1.538 USD
So cost in USD before fees: $618 range at top of exchange rate for the end of July. I assume some fees involved but surprised by the cost price.


Thinkderm describes cost to me as:
Boots + shipping from UK ~670
Bank fees for foreign currency ~25
Shipping cost to me with USPS large flat rate ~17

So cost of boots at $695 per this explanation.

With this new explanation of paying 5% fee and 3% cc fee (Amex charges 2.7% for me but I'll assume it's different) then you have $30.9 in your 5% fee and $18.54 in CC fees (assuming top of exchange rate cost of $618). So total cost at top of exchange rate: $618 + $30.9 + $18.54 = $667.44. Then you have $25 bank fees on top? But if you are using Amex where does the bank fee come from?