Church's Appreciation Thread

[Schweino]

Hi all,

I obtained a used pair of Church's today and noticed the leather has been torn. The leather is called "vintage calf" and looks to be paper thin.

Does anyone here have experience with this kind of leather and what the repair options are of the tear shown in the pictures?

The tear is al the way through the upper, you can see the leather lining below.

 

[shoefan57]

It looks to be the nature of the leather. Lovely shoes by the way!
Saphir do sell a product their either fills or bonds cut leather, can’t remember which but certainly worth a try.

 

[Schweino]

It looks to be the nature of the leather. Lovely shoes by the way!
Saphir do sell a product their either fills or bonds cut leather, can’t remember which but certainly worth a try.

Thanks. Online the shoes also, so it's a shame the leather is torn.

The leather overall looks to be pretty dry, so maybe the tear is caused by dry rot. Hopefully that is not a feature of the "vintage calf" .

I"ll try to moisturize it first with Bick4 to see if that helps and then check how I can fill/bond the tear.

 

[DorianGreen]

Hi all,

I obtained a used pair of Church's today and noticed the leather has been torn. The leather is called "vintage calf" and looks to be paper thin.

Does anyone here have experience with this kind of leather and what the repair options are of the tear shown in the pictures?

The tear is al the way through the upper, you can see the leather lining below.

View attachment 2314205


View attachment 2314207


View attachment 2314211

I would return them.

 

[florent]

Hi all,

I obtained a used pair of Church's today and noticed the leather has been torn. The leather is called "vintage calf" and looks to be paper thin.

Does anyone here have experience with this kind of leather and what the repair options are of the tear shown in the pictures?

The tear is al the way through the upper, you can see the leather lining below.

View attachment 2314205


View attachment 2314207


View attachment 2314211

The damage isn't in a bending area, should you want to keep them I'd suggest to glue it back on the lining with a (tiny) bit of superglue and hide the edges with color cream. I'd expect it to hold fine this way.

 

[35mmFan]

Looking at a pair of second hand Strattons on the 224 last, advert doesn't say what type of calf but looks like Appalosa.

Is Appalosa a corrected grain leather, I don't think its a leather Church's have used in quite a while.

 

[shoefan57]

Looking at a pair of second hand Strattons on the 224 last, advert doesn't say what type of calf but looks like Appalosa.

Is Appalosa a corrected grain leather, I don't think its a leather Church's have used in quite a while.

It’s a layer over the leather like C&J Cavalry Calf. It’s not as shiny as Polished Binder. These shoes maybe one of a run Church’s made more than ten years ago for Herrings and the factory shop.

 

[35mmFan]

It’s a layer over the leather like C&J Cavalry Calf. It’s not as shiny as Polished Binder. These shoes maybe one of a run Church’s made more than ten years ago for Herrings and the factory shop.

Yeah, it looks duller than their polished binder high shine.

The stratton is back but now on the 173 last so these are definitely older but not pre-prada as Milan is on the heel in sole. Marked as seconds so you are probably bang on the money regarding factory shop item

 

[Fenners81]

Mcpherson in ebony grain leather. These are the older version on the itshide.

 

[fatpauljackson]

I think this may be the thread to ask this, but what happened here???

I bought these Church's for my wife at >1200 GBP if I remember right... she wears it less then 10 times and the heel just straight up falls off in the street as she is walking. And even worse there's a hole there, which I guess they put something to hold the pieces together? The excuse the lady at the store told me was they hallow it out to make the shoe lighter (which I don't get because I'm pretty sure a circular object was there anyway which we could not find).

Can anyone explain how this happens? I'm chalking this up to Prada stripping out any quality in this once high-quality British brand, but please correct me if I'm wrong. The boots do have a 2 year warranty so Church's is fixing it, but I don't have high hopes from a quality standpoint and am really regretting this purchase. I obviously have a rule to never buy from fashion brands but had thought that maybe they hadn't gotten to Church's. It's a Blake-stiched shoe, which I should definitely have avoided anyway at that price point.

 

[Crafty Cumbrian]

I think this may be the thread to ask this, but what happened here???

View attachment 2326221

I bought these Church's for my wife at >1200 GBP if I remember right... she wears it less then 10 times and the heel just straight up falls off in the street as she is walking. And even worse there's a hole there, which I guess they put something to hold the pieces together? The excuse the lady at the store told me was they hallow it out to make the shoe lighter (which I don't get because I'm pretty sure a circular object was there anyway which we could not find).

Can anyone explain how this happens? I'm chalking this up to Prada stripping out any quality in this once high-quality British brand, but please correct me if I'm wrong. The boots do have a 2 year warranty so Church's is fixing it, but I don't have high hopes from a quality standpoint and am really regretting this purchase. I obviously have a rule to never buy from fashion brands but had thought that maybe they hadn't gotten to Church's. It's a Blake-stiched shoe, which I should definitely have avoided anyway at that price point.

Looks like reconstituted leather and card instead of a solid heel stack to me. Poor quality at the price paid.

 

[Fenners81]

Looks like reconstituted leather and card instead of a solid heel stack to me. Poor quality at the price paid.

Poor quality at half the price. Does nothing to dispel the feeling that Church’s quality has dropped. Strangely it only seems to be the case on certain lines, as all of my custom grade shoes are built very well - certainly not worth over a grand though.

 

[ha er]

I think this may be the thread to ask this, but what happened here???

View attachment 2326221

I bought these Church's for my wife at >1200 GBP if I remember right... she wears it less then 10 times and the heel just straight up falls off in the street as she is walking. And even worse there's a hole there, which I guess they put something to hold the pieces together? The excuse the lady at the store told me was they hallow it out to make the shoe lighter (which I don't get because I'm pretty sure a circular object was there anyway which we could not find).

unbelievable!

 

[fatpauljackson]

Looks like reconstituted leather and card instead of a solid heel stack to me. Poor quality at the price paid.

Thanks, exactly what I had thought. It makes me sick that I fell victim to this terrible fashion brand.

 

[Ypuh]

Thanks, exactly what I had thought. It makes me sick that I fell victim to this terrible fashion brand.

To ease your mind, it's a relatively easy fix for any cobbler. The bad thing here is that they use cardboard for their heel stacks, which is a cost (and weight) cutting measure that does not please the Styleforum-police.

To turn it into somewhat positive, I see the sole-unit as separate from the overall quality. They are like a set of tyres on your car, it sucks if your brand new A-brand car has cheap tyres on them, but you can somewhat easily replace them and it doesn't reflect the overall quality.

I would definitely return these and have Church's pay for a new heel though, potentially even a full resole (but doubt they'll offer you that). The price is indeed ridiculous, these should be no more than 500-600 gbp and then still the heel stack should be full leather.