Cobbler Union - Bespoke-Inspired, Small-Batch, Luxury Men's Shoes - Official Affiliate Thread

[Yoda_in_oxfords]

I have a feeling that they are removing that particular feature from their line moving forward as mentioned by Daniel in an interview with Stitchdown. You can read the full interview with Stitchdown here but this is what Daniel said regarding the beveled waist in the interview.


"Coming from a bespoke shoe, you always have a beveled waist. So as we developed our collection, we worked with a master shoemaker to come up with our own sole. And at the time, I was obsessed with that and I thought it was the key to our success. So we did the beveled waist, and came up with a different shank. And in a way we created a mess, because that’s a lot of handwork for $395. So from what I’ve learned, now a lot of the new shoes will not have that. Especially because also in the US, you will not find a lot of cobblers who can resole that whole thing. They can resole the shoes, but not recreate that beautiful waist. "

I'm not sure if i'm interpreting this correctly but I hope someone from the team can address this here.

Thanks for sharing the interview. I'm a bit saddend to hear that going forward, the beveled waists may eventually be phased out. Although I also hope someone from CU might be able to chime in.

It did occur to me that getting a resole with an OEM-like beveled waist would be next to impossible. As a result, I only wore the shoes in the house while deliberating whether or not to have sole guards installed. Ultimately I got sole guards and flush mount toe plates installed, and hopefully then will be able to keep the OE beveled soles indefinitely.

 

[bryanljs]

Does anyone know if the loafers are on a wide sole?

Hey, i'm not sure if anyone has helped address this question yet but you can try contacting BurzanBlog on Instagram. He has a pair of penny loafer in the Monaco last and he's quite responsive.

 

[Daniel__G]

@Cobbler Union any reason you decided against a fiddleback/beveled waist combo on the Robert? I thought that was standard for your leather sole options.

Hi all,

I had purchased a pair of William III oxford 2 months ago and wrote about them on reddit. My first impression was... mixed due to the flaws, particularly the misaligned crack at the outsole and misaligned broguing perforations. The broguing perforation was considered minor, for me at least... but the crack was bothering me. However, after owning the shoes for almost 2 months (and 5 wears), I must say that my initial annoyance has dissipated. The shoes are incredibly comfortable and the city last is generous across the toebox. Needless to say, I was never really bothered by the crack at all. Sure it looks.. unattractive but wearing the shoes means I never really look at the sole until I took the shoes off and put it at my shoe rack. The outsole finishing is without a doubt, beautiful and I really appreciate the slight beveled/fiddleback waist. The team have since address my concerns through emails and offered to "Compensate" me with a few different options. I love the shoe and have decided to keep them while paying for them at a lower cost.. taking the flaws into consideration. They really went above and beyond to address my concerns and I can't emphasis that enough. For anyone looking at Cobbler Union, don't be afraid to reach out to them regarding any of their products as i'm sure they will be more than happy to assist you. I'm a very happy customer and as you can tell from the post on top, I have purchased 2 more and they will be arriving soon. I will definitely be posting my pictures over here when they arrive.

I have a feeling that they are removing that particular feature from their line moving forward as mentioned by Daniel in an interview with Stitchdown. You can read the full interview with Stitchdown here but this is what Daniel said regarding the beveled waist in the interview.


"Coming from a bespoke shoe, you always have a beveled waist. So as we developed our collection, we worked with a master shoemaker to come up with our own sole. And at the time, I was obsessed with that and I thought it was the key to our success. So we did the beveled waist, and came up with a different shank. And in a way we created a mess, because that’s a lot of handwork for $395. So from what I’ve learned, now a lot of the new shoes will not have that. Especially because also in the US, you will not find a lot of cobblers who can resole that whole thing. They can resole the shoes, but not recreate that beautiful waist. "

I'm not sure if i'm interpreting this correctly but I hope someone from the team can address this here.

Thanks for sharing the interview. I'm a bit saddend to hear that going forward, the beveled waists may eventually be phased out. Although I also hope someone from CU might be able to chime in.

It did occur to me that getting a resole with an OEM-like beveled waist would be next to impossible. As a result, I only wore the shoes in the house while deliberating whether or not to have sole guards installed. Ultimately I got sole guards and flush mount toe plates installed, and hopefully then will be able to keep the OE beveled soles indefinitely.

Dear all,

Many thanks for your interest, for your questions and answers!!

Models on the new lasts 888 and 371 (that we will soon share on this threat) will not come with fiddleback/beveled waist.

We are increasing our collection with new models, lasts, leathers and sole options. You will see if you follow us on this threat ;-)

Till now, as @txm22 mentioned, most of our leather sole models came with it and we think it is time to propose more alternatives.

The reasons are those shared by Daniel (Porcelli) on the interview with Stitchdown (@bryanljs thanks for sharing!):

• that’s a lot of handwork for $395
• in the US, you will not find a lot of cobblers who can resole that whole thing

@Yoda_in_oxfords this does not mean we are phasing out fiddleback/beveled waist. For example, we are producing all our models based on Louvre Last with this feature by the time being. However, we might test the market proposing a Louvre Last model without and see how it goes in terms of sales. As you can imagine, increasing the price on the models including this feature is something we might have to do in the future.

Again, thanks to ALL for your interest on what we do and following us so closely!

Daniel (Gonzalez)

PS: I strongly recommend reading the interview with Stitchdown here.

 

[SimplyStylin]

I'm sure you guys have considered it already, but I'm guessing most of us would happily send our CU shoes back to Atlanta for a resole when the time comes if you offered a service in the US to replace a beveled waste sole. Id certainly rather that, than lose the feature on future models... which I feel is a big part of what sets your brand apart at current price points.

With that being said, they can't inexpensive to produce this way and it is quite impressive you have done it at $400 retail to begin with, so a slight increase to have the option remain should not be a deal breaker.

 

[Mercurio]

I'm sure you guys have considered it already, but I'm guessing most of us would happily send our CU shoes back to Atlanta for a resole when the time comes if you offered a service in the US to replace a beveled waste sole. Id certainly rather that, than lose the feature on future models... which I feel is a big part of what sets your brand apart at current price points.

With that being said, they can't inexpensive to produce this way and it is quite impressive you have done it at $400 retail to begin with, so a slight increase to have the option remain should not be a deal breaker.

I think that they would have to send them back to Spain where most pairs are originally made, with all the costs associated with this: their shop in Atlanta is just a distribution center, not their factory.

 

[SimplyStylin]

I think that they would have to send them back to Spain where most pairs are originally made, with all the costs associated with this: their shop in Atlanta is just a distribution center, not their factory.

I would think training and/or contracting a good cobbler to do this "in-house" for them (somewhere else in the US even) would make more sense than shipping back and forth to Spain... but maybe it's equally a matter of tooling.

 

[bryanljs]

I would think training and/or contracting a good cobbler to do this "in-house" for them (somewhere else in the US even) would make more sense than shipping back and forth to Spain... but maybe it's equally a matter of tooling.

It'll totally make sense to have a cobbler based in their shop that does repair/re-crafting services. But for someone like me living in Singapore, It wouldn't make any sense to send the shoes back. I think i'm going to have to add vibram rubber sole just to preserve the beveled waist soon.

Also, I think paying a premium for the beveled waist may be detrimental to their sales. They have been doing this for quite some time and customers love it. The only other maker that achieve this at a lower price point would be TLB with their Artista range and the price are exactly the same for a pair of cobbler union.

At 350 Euro/395 USD, this is as good as it gets for people like us who doesn't want to pay over 1000 dollars for a pair of shoes but still want something unique.

 

[ruscle298]

Likewise! I'd love to see an update from you. Do let us know the quality/first impression of both pairs when they arrive!
Cheers

Hi Bryan. I have not forgotten about you. I had a minor injury recently that has slowed me down and I am trying to get back up to full speed. I have been through quite an ordeal to find a black wholecut shoe that meets my standards. I have taken many pictures and documented my process in trying 5 different black wholecut shoes from 4 different shoe makers. I think my I may soon be receiving some black wholecuts that will fullfill my goal. I will update you when this process is completed.

Cheers,
Rus

 

[bryanljs]

Hi Bryan. I have not forgotten about you. I had a minor injury recently that has slowed me down and I am trying to get back up to full speed. I have been through quite an ordeal to find a black wholecut shoe that meets my standards. I have taken many pictures and documented my process in trying 5 different black wholecut shoes from 4 different shoe makers. I think my I may soon be receiving some black wholecuts that will fullfill my goal. I will update you when this process is completed.

Cheers,
Rus

Thank you for the update! Meanwhile, take it easy mate.

 

[bryanljs]

My Alex uR and Benjamin uR have finally arrived and they look better in person! The photos of the shoes taken on their website doesn't do the suede any justice. Here are some preliminary photos.


The Tobacco suede look more "orangey" under certain lighting condition but they are more of a snuff suede. It reminds me of the Snuff suede used on Alden shoes.

 

[bryanljs]

Casual Friday with Alex uR.


Extremely well built and feels very sturdy.
The broguing/perforations are a lot bigger than what you'll find from other maker but this is just an observation.
I'll be wearing this pair more often in the next few months when the wet weather kicks in.
Thank you Cobbler Union!

 

[mremil]

Hey guys!
Cobbler Union is a very attractive brand to me due to it's clean beautiful designs with small accents that really make the shoes stand out. For this reason I purchased the Guillaume IV in black calf and suede as my dress boot and it arrived two days ago. It has one QC issue which I would like to ask if you would consider as acceptable and within specs. The stitching on the toe cap veers significantly:

Also, where the welt meets the upper is different from my other Goodyear-welted shoes. I don't quite understand what is going on. It is consistent in appearance on both shoes so I guess it's a consequence of the construction. Hopefully the pictures show what I mean.

What is going on with the brown rand? Like I wrote, none of my other Goodyear-welted shoes look like this but maybe it's just my ignorance and this is totally normal?

Hoping for some feedback from Cobbler Union. I also wrote to customer support but as of yet no reply 36 hours later so I thought I'd reach out here as well.

Kind regards
Emil

 

[bryanljs]

Hey guys!
Cobbler Union is a very attractive brand to me due to it's clean beautiful designs with small accents that really make the shoes stand out. For this reason I purchased the Guillaume IV in black calf and suede as my dress boot and it arrived two days ago. It has one QC issue which I would like to ask if you would consider as acceptable and within specs. The stitching on the toe cap veers significantly:

View attachment 1240066
View attachment 1240067

Also, where the welt meets the upper is different from my other Goodyear-welted shoes. I don't quite understand what is going on. It is consistent in appearance on both shoes so I guess it's a consequence of the construction. Hopefully the pictures show what I mean.

View attachment 1240068

What is going on with the brown rand? Like I wrote, none of my other Goodyear-welted shoes look like this but maybe it's just my ignorance and this is totally normal?

Hoping for some feedback from Cobbler Union. I also wrote to customer support but as of yet no reply 36 hours later so I thought I'd reach out here as well.

Kind regards
Emil

That "brown rand" that you are referring to, looks like a "Storm-Welt" to me. Refer to the picture

The stitching is definitely off but I wouldn't consider that a huge problem. The storm welt is unusual as I don't remember Cobbler Union utilising storm welt on their dressier boot. I could be wrong and perhaps they may have added the storm welt on their newer batch. Nevertheless, If the storm-welt /stitching is bothering you... they might be able to provide an exchange. (Depending on where you live)


For me, If the product isn't advertise as such, I would actually request for a return. Their customer service has been quite responsive for me. They sent me photos before shipping out the shoes upon my approval as I was concerned about the colour on the suede.

 

[mremil]

That "brown rand" that you are referring to, looks like a "Storm-Welt" to me. Refer to the picture View attachment 1240070


The stitching is definitely off but I wouldn't consider that a huge problem. The storm welt is unusual as I don't remember Cobbler Union utilising storm welt on their dressier boot. I could be wrong and perhaps they may have added the storm welt on their newer batch. Nevertheless, If the storm-welt /stitching is bothering you... they might be able to provide an exchange. (Depending on where you live)

Thank you for the suggestion, however this is not a storm welt. It is located deep in the fold between welt and upper.

 

[Daniel__G]

Hey guys!
Cobbler Union is a very attractive brand to me due to it's clean beautiful designs with small accents that really make the shoes stand out. For this reason I purchased the Guillaume IV in black calf and suede as my dress boot and it arrived two days ago. It has one QC issue which I would like to ask if you would consider as acceptable and within specs. The stitching on the toe cap veers significantly:

View attachment 1240066
View attachment 1240067

Also, where the welt meets the upper is different from my other Goodyear-welted shoes. I don't quite understand what is going on. It is consistent in appearance on both shoes so I guess it's a consequence of the construction. Hopefully the pictures show what I mean.

View attachment 1240068

What is going on with the brown rand? Like I wrote, none of my other Goodyear-welted shoes look like this but maybe it's just my ignorance and this is totally normal?

Hoping for some feedback from Cobbler Union. I also wrote to customer support but as of yet no reply 36 hours later so I thought I'd reach out here as well.

Kind regards
Emil

Dear mremil,

We reviewed your e-mail yesterday regarding the stitching on the toe cap and agreed on the answer that were supposed to send yesterday. Basically we agree with you this should be considered a Factory Second and will try to propose you a solution that makes you happy.

I´ll check with the team as soon as they start 9am EST Time.

Regarding the brown rand I see what you mean, but I prefer to check couple of thinks before answering. We´ll include it in the email and after we can comment on this channel.

Thanks a lot!!

Daniel