Bespoke Shoemaker Szuba - official affiliate thread

[othertravel]

How is the quality of your leather? Do you use the best skins, or somewhere in the middle?

 

[shoemaker_rafal]

How is the quality of your leather? Do you use the best skins, or somewhere in the middle?

I only use the highest quality leather. I know that other manufacturers/craftsmen often use these phrases, but in reality, the leather is not as perfect as they claim. The leather I use to create my shoes is one of the kind , the only one I trust to be suitable for seamless wholecut shoes. Why is this so important? Because the leather for making seamless wholecut shoes must be perfect. On one hand, it must be very durable, and on the other hand, incredibly flexible. Above all, in the vast majority of cases, I use vegetable-tanned leather, free of chemicals. The difference compared to chrome-tanned leather is enormous.

 

[shoemaker_rafal]

These are gorgeous, and the work is excellent. I have no idea how one would successfully do MTM over the internet, especially someone like myself with only a couple dress shoes to compare against (ie, effectively no real knowledge of how to get things done.) If I was visiting Poland, though, I'd stop by for sure

Contrary to popular belief, taking measurement is not that difficult, and I am preparing a precise instruction on how to do it. The key elements here are: cooperation with the customer and taking a lot of pictures illustrating the measurement process, as well as pictures of the feet themselves, from which I can read a lot. Users like you, who have several pairs of shoes, are often my best customers because they are usually the people who are looking for their 'holy grail' and are open to new products, and my shoes are drastically different from what can be found in stores or obtained from other shoemakers. As I mentioned in the welcome post, my shoes reflect almost 20 years of experience in servicing and repairing shoes from other manufacturers. If you are open to new experiences, I will prepare a unique, unbeatable offer for you I can send you the details in a private message.

 

[Dlubiniecki]

Dear Forum Members,

It is my great pleasure to join your community as a supporting member of Styleforum. I come from Poland and I am a self-taught shoemaker who has been exploring the secrets of the art of shoemaking for almost 20 years. I started my journey with shoes practically from scratch, gradually improving my qualifications over the years, which allowed me to work on more expensive shoes and perform very advanced repairs and modifications on brands that are regularly discussed on the forum. I know practically all shoe manufacturers, from various price ranges, such as Edward Green, Carmina, Vass, Santoni, Berluti, TLB, Loake, Carlos Santos, Meermin, Allen Edmonds, and many, many more.

Many years ago, with the enormous support of my clients, I made the decision to start making custom-made shoes under my own brand. The beginnings were difficult, as the process of creating bespoke shoes involves the expertise of many people, including a last maker, upper maker, shoemaker, and even a patina artist, creating unique colors of finished shoes. Due to a lack of appropriate professionals in the market, but mainly due to my personal desire for self-improvement, I mastered all of these professions, and to this day, every pair of shoes that I hand over to a client is 100% the result of my own work.

As a bespoke shoemaker, armed with the knowledge I gained from shoe servicing, I searched for optimal construction and material solutions to be able to offer my clients a top-of-the-line product. In many ways, my shoes are different from others. Key features include:

• shoes on lasts of a higher class than all others in the market, including TRUE BESPOKE created based on 3-D negative reflecting the anatomy of the foot
• excellent fit from the MTM standard (QUASI BESPOKE) based on foot parameters provided by the client
• shoe construction based on a seamless welt
• unprecedented quality of leather and softness of shoe uppers
• breathability
• durability with a lifetime service guarantee
• perfectly designed uppers
• smooth back of the shoe without any stitches
• and many more features, which I will be presenting in my subsequent posts.

Like every creator, I have my favorite type of shoes that bring me the greatest satisfaction at work. These are seamless wholecut shoes, which only a handful of people in the world can create.

I can say that I fell in love with this type of shoes. At the moment, I have dozens of pairs in the process of making, with varying degrees of sophistication.

The seamless wholecuts I offer are available "off-the-shelf" on MTM lasts. They are made in what I called QUASI BESPOKE standard on the basis of individual foot measurements - I have over 30 types of lasts to pair them properly with such measurements in order to produce and fine tune the shoes that are comfortable from the very first moment.

I also have a second option for the seamless wholecuts with zero compromise: they can be created in a very rare standard that I call TRUE BESPOKE: created as the first pair on the most advanced, fully individualized last, created completely from scratch, taking into account the 3-D negative of the foot and other anatomical features.

SPECIAL OFFER

I would like to share my passion for shoe making with you, which is why I have prepared a special offer!

Seamless wholecuts, prepared in what I called above a QUASI BESPOKE standard, that is:

- created on lasts selected on the basis of the individual foot outline and given measurements

- created from classic leather in the following colors: black, chocolate brown, dark brown, eggplant, cognac.

- made of crust leather dyed in any color

- made of crust leather dyed and patinated

And all this at an unbeatable price of $800 with shipping already included!

The quantity to produce is limited - I can only prepare 10 pairs under this offer.

View attachment 1897975

If you are interested, simply write under the post or send a private message. All details will be arranged with everyone individually. Feel invited to apply!

When will your promotional offer end?

 

[shoemaker_rafal]

Gentlemen,

Today we celebrate International Women's Day. On this occasion , I want to gift you a powerful argument to ensure that your women will never again complain about you buying yet another pair of shoes. There are several shoe makers around the world who can produce seamless wholecut shoes, but have you ever seen seamless high heels or boots for women? I have not, I must say. Therefore, I am probably the first shoemaker in the world to introduce seamless women's shoes into my collection, and you can tell your women that they can now wear something truly unique and one-of-a-kind. You can order seamless women's shoes from me in any color, style, and heel shape. Below are a few photos from the process of making the first pair. What do you say?

 

[Warrant_Buffet]

Just out of curiousity, is it possible to make shell cordovan wholecut boots? Are the shells even large enough for this?

Just came across this. No expert but I'd worry about lasting. Cordovan just isn't the best upper for wholecut / seamless it seems

 

[LA Guy]

Just came across this. No expert but I'd worry about lasting. Cordovan just isn't the best upper for wholecut / seamless it seems

I know, which is why I was curious whether it could even be done,

 

[shirtingfantasy]

I know, which is why I was curious whether it could even be done,

There are reports of pairs being made as display pieces (by an aspiring maker) in China. I will try to find the picture and post here.

 

[shirtingfantasy]

I only use the highest quality leather. I know that other manufacturers/craftsmen often use these phrases, but in reality, the leather is not as perfect as they claim. The leather I use to create my shoes is one of the kind , the only one I trust to be suitable for seamless wholecut shoes. Why is this so important? Because the leather for making seamless wholecut shoes must be perfect. On one hand, it must be very durable, and on the other hand, incredibly flexible. Above all, in the vast majority of cases, I use vegetable-tanned leather, free of chemicals. The difference compared to chrome-tanned leather is enormous.

This is very intriguing!

Most makers use chrome-tanned calf leather, say, from Bonaudo (purportedly the supplier of Berluti), Zonta (my Fukuda seamless was from Zonta boxcalf, my Lu Yang seamless was from Zonta museum calf).

How do you compare the properties of your veg tanned leather to these more well-known tanneries? How big / thick are the skins you use?

 

[shoemaker_rafal]

This is very intriguing!

Most makers use chrome-tanned calf leather, say, from Bonaudo (purportedly the supplier of Berluti), Zonta (my Fukuda seamless was from Zonta boxcalf, my Lu Yang seamless was from Zonta museum calf).

How do you compare the properties of your veg tanned leather to these more well-known tanneries? How big / thick are the skins you use?

No chrome-tanned leather can match the quality of vegetable-tanned leather. Where chrome-tanned leather approaches its limits, vegetable-tanned leather still has plenty left up its sleeve. For me personally, the name or brand of the tannery doesn't matter, I only care about the quality of the leather. Please see below how beautifully vegetable-tanned leather can work. The leather I use is usually about 1.4 mm thick. Can you share pictures of your seamless shoes?

 

[shirtingfantasy]

Can you share pictures of your seamless shoes?

Sure!

Yohei Fukuda (2022)

 

[shirtingfantasy]

Lu Yang (2019)

 

[bengal-stripe]

Can you share pictures of your seamless shoes?

Here are my seamless wholecuts which were made in 2009.

That's the way they looked back then, about a year ago I had them colour-refreshed by Samuel Norsworthy (a really talented guy):



They are the same ones which @j ingevaldsson in his comprehensive essay on seamless wholecuts identified as the ones that 'launched a thousand', not ships, but shoes:

History - The seamless wholecut - Shoegazing.com

The seamless wholecut is a model that spent decades in oblivion before a rather unknown British freelance bespoke shoemaker revived the model a bit over a

shoegazing.com

Whether these shoes actually started that wave might be open to discussion. I presume it was only because I posted some pictures in this forum that a somewhat larger audience took notice of a rather obscure shoemaking method (back then).

Further down the 'shoegazing' article you find a picture of a French brown suede blocked (crimped) over a last. That's a a Daniel Wegan ('Catella') shoe in production, which was commissioned by yours truly. It is not a wholecut, but a seamless never the less.

 

[LA Guy]

Hey @shoemaker_rafal - can you tell us a bit about the oxford that you intend to offer?