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sforum1

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What? So your point basically boils down to you think luxury shoemakers should force their customers to buy their shoe trees? ...Ok I guess? You said earlier that EG trees are crappy and no better than Woodlore so why would you want EG forcing you to buy their "overpriced" trees?

Cleverley is bespoke and costs multiples of what EG/JL/GG is so not really a fair comparison. Especially since bespoke shoes have a potentially more unique shape and would benefit more from a lasted tree. Again, please enlighten me on why the standard for RTW makers around the $1k price point is to bundle shoe trees. I've listed the three brands I've had experience with that include shoe trees (Vass, Zonkey Boot, St. C), the list of shoemakers who don't bundle trees is much larger and includes makers who are more on the purist side compared to the business profit maximizing side (Bonafe, Scafora, AM).

Your car analogy is also really bad... when you're driving around in your car people can see your wheels. When you're walking around in your nice shoes nobody can see your shoe trees because they're at home, so where's the potential "damage" to the prestige of the shoe brand from using cheap shoe trees? Unless you've seriously mis-sized them and they've warped the shoe or something who cares enough to judge you?

If you want to go down that line of reasoning then shouldn't shoemakers also require their customers to take great care of their shoes too; seeing a scuffed dry / cracked shoe might turn potential customers away from the brand. So why not propose that if you buy a pair of nice shoes you have to bring them to be inspected by the maker every month to make sure you're not bringing shame to their work, if you don't pass their standards then they take away your shoes :-D
noone will force anyone to buy anything and for any price. Simple: EG should add trees 'for free', even though it will not be free but rather included in the price, not for an additional $160 but perhaps an extra $15 which is what the actual cost is. Or eat up the cost and really add them for free. And noone said the trees have to be crappy. They can actually be nice, don't you think?

Cleverley includes very nice trees with their semibespoke shoes for the same price as EG charges. What's so difficult to understand?

And let's be honest. The Anthony Cleverley shoes are better than EG in every respect. And cheaper and with trees so nice that EG would easily feel it's ok to charge you $350 for them.

In any case, if EG wants to continue to do what they do with their trees, they can go ahead and do that. I'm convinced that from a business point of view they could not have done worse.
 
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TokenMao

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noone will force anyone to buy anything and for any price. Simple: EG should add trees 'for free', even though it will not be free but rather included in the price, not for an additional $160 but perhaps an extra $15 which is what the actual cost is. Or eat up the cost and really add them for free. And noone said the trees have to be crappy. They can actually be nice, don't you think?

Cleverley includes very nice trees with their semibespoke shoes for the same price as EG charges. What's so difficult to understand?

And let's be honest. The Anthony Cleverley shoes are better than EG in every respect. And cheaper and with trees so nice that EG would easily feel it's ok to charge you $350 for them.

In any case, if EG wants to continue to do what they do with their trees, they can go ahead and do that. I'm convinced that from a business point of view they could not have done worse.

So what you're trying to say is you think EG should include trees with their shoes, for at cost $15 (because you clearly know exactly what the cost is), or for free because that's even better. Oh but also they should make the shoe trees way better while doing all of that too. I mean I don't disagree with you that if EG lowered their prices while maintaining or increasing quality I'd be happy as a direct beneficiary, but I'm sure your employer would be happy too if you worked more while taking a pay cut. I won't venture a guess at how feasible either of those things are.

If you think that most luxury RTW shoemakers suck and only Cleverley is worth your money then cool that's your opinion. There are a number of people on the opposite end of the spectrum who've done Cleverley bespoke and hated it, but either way I don't really care to discuss Cleverley on a thread dedicated to EG. If you don't like EG / their business model then cool don't buy their stuff but your armchair business consulting basically boils down to "make a better product and lower your prices because that'd make me happy" which could literally be applied to every single business in the world. Clearly you just enjoy going onto shoe brand threads and complaining because you're bored so I'm going to cut my losses and not spend any more time on this pointless conversation, have a good night.
 

earthdragon

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Ah the good old days.
remember when you could buy EG’s at Ralph’s Sales with lasted Trees for $500 or $600.......
Did Lobb stop supplying them with the Prestige line?
 

stephenaf2003

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When will folks talking trash about EG learn that, the EG customer is the quintessential example of: people will spend their money on whatever it is that pleases them to spend it on.

Attempting to make reasoned arguments when discussing their cost is folly.
 

sforum1

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When will folks talking trash about EG learn that, the EG customer is the quintessential example of: people will spend their money on whatever it is that pleases them to spend it on.

Attempting to make reasoned arguments when discussing their cost is folly.
We already established that. Namely, that we are all suckers (or we have way too much money and don't know what to do with it) and we'll pay any amount of premium EG adds on top of Meermin, simply because EG shoes are better. And we want the better pair so it doesn't matter what the price tag is. We are all clear on that. The problem is that EG is fully clear on that too and they decided to extrapolate from there and apply that same logic to their trees too. Why don't we sell them a $15 piece of wood for $160, they say. It says EG on it.

Say you are at the Ferrari dealership about to buy one of their cars for $500K. Is it overpriced? Who knows, but it doesn't matter because it's a Ferrari and it's unlike any other car, so you'll pay whatever it costs. But imagine you went to their kitchen to get a bottle of water and not only was it not free but it actually cost $50. The same water you get at Costco for 50c. You mean to tell me that would not bother you because what's $50 compared to half a million and because Ferrari's are better than Hondas? You really don't think that it would be a little dishonest for them to rip you off in broad daylight like that? At least with the car being half a million, it's not that obvious. And it's clearly not a money issue. You are paying half a million for a car, you are wearing a $20K watch, you live in a $5M house, you have a gazillion dollars in the bank, I'm sure you can afford to pay $50 for a bottle of water once in a while. I think it's a matter of principle.

And they didn't even bother at least getting some of the better waters. They got the cheapest they could get, the one that says Kirkland on it or something. If you tell me that would not bother you, then I guess you and I think very differently.
 
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Andy57

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What an absolutely pointless conversation.
 

Andy57

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Back to shoes. Here's another look at my custom Dovers:
IMG_5034.jpeg
 

stephenaf2003

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We already established that. Namely, that we are all suckers (or we have way too much money and don't know what to do with it) and we'll pay any amount of premium EG adds on top of Meermin, simply because EG shoes are better. And we want the better pair so it doesn't matter what the price tag is. We are all clear on that. The problem is that EG is fully clear on that too and they decided to extrapolate from there and apply that same logic to their trees too. Why don't we sell them a $15 piece of wood for $160, they say. It says EG on it.

Say you are at the Ferrari dealership about to buy one of their cars for $500K. Is it overpriced? Who knows, but it doesn't matter because it's a Ferrari and it's unlike any other car, so you'll pay whatever it costs. But imagine you went to their kitchen to get a bottle of water and not only was it not free but it actually cost $50. The same water you get at Costco for 50c. You mean to tell me that would not bother you because what's $50 compared to half a million and because Ferrari's are better than Hondas? You really don't think that it would be a little dishonest for them to rip you off in broad daylight like that? At least with the car being half a million, it's not that obvious. And it's clearly not a money issue. You are paying half a million for a car, you are wearing a $20K watch, you live in a $5M house, you have a gazillion dollars in the bank, I'm sure you can afford to pay $50 for a bottle of water once in a while. I think it's a matter of principle.

And they didn't even bother at least getting some of the better waters. They got the cheapest they could get, the one that says Kirkland on it or something. If you tell me that would not bother you, then I guess you and I think very differently.
Hey, I’m just pointing out, you’re howling at the moon man.
 

nmiller08

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Rotating out a couple lesser-worn pairs. Figured I'd post here to see if anyone is interested before hitting ebay. Message if interested and I'll send more pics. Trades for 7.5/8 EG oxfords in burnt pine antique considered.

7.5/8 DOAK antique Chelsea, 202 D
Lightly worn, develping some patchy patina, topys on the soles, trees included.
$575 shipped


IMG_6670.jpg



7.5/8 Newbury black, 888 E
Very light wear, topys on the soles, trees
$650 shipped

IMG_6662.jpg
 

flylikeneagle

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I find this discussion on price and loyalty to EG somewhat comical. We, the shoe aficionados on SF, are not rational people when it comes to our shoes. We're passionate shoe lovers, and majority of our purchases are not driven by price/value perception (or practical matters in general). If you think about it, does one really need more than a handful of shoes? My first pair of decent shoes was from AE, and almost all were factory 2nds. Back in 2015 I felt my six or seven pairs of AE made for a good collection. I would spend more time agonizing over an "unnecessary" $200 purchase than I did on my recent shell Galway MTO, which I felt I absolutely needed in my life.

There are folks on this forum who own 100+ pairs of AE alone, and in my opinion they are no more objective in their decision making than the folks who purchase EG. Heck, I would say even 20-25 pairs (across all makers) reflects lack of reasonable thinking (and IMO there's nothing wrong with this!)
 

Phileas Fogg

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I read between his lines that related to shoe matters, we all are not practical or rational people, and that we are borderline nuts.
Is this a fair observation?

try telling the average person the shoes you’re wearing cost $1600. See the reaction you get.

Maybe not nuts, but definitely a purchase choice very outside the norm.
 

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