Foster & Sons ready made shoes thread

[Son Of Saphir]

The Foster & Sons open most new Northampton shoe factory in England 2 year ago.
Crockett & Jones and others used to make the shoes but now the Foster & Son make them in their own factory.
The shoes are Edward Green quality according to a Foster worker who worked in bespoke department and help draw designs for the new ready made range.
Many E.G worker left to work at the Foster& Sons.
The designs based on bespoke samples.
The designs very very good.
The shoes very very good.
Good to see another new Northampton factory,
me like it very much.

Shoes come in two range.
High range have special bespoke feature with close cut waist and rounded waist that sit next to square heel that give the special `notch' only G&G deco and E.G top draw have.
It have more feature it cost more money.

More low range




More high range



Me like this the black derby.

 

[Proleet]

Love the dark brown wholecut!

 

[Cr1982]

Looks great. Does anyone have first-hand experience with them?
I'd be interested in how the Keble compares to the EG Dover.

 

[Texasmade]

The high range looks pretty nice. The low range looks really low range.

 

[SRV]

Ordered a pair of Foster & Son St. James online. Received the pair and the upper, welting, soles all look well made. But, the leather insoles seem to have been either peeled off or not placed in the first place in these shoes.

I am attaching the pictures and want to understand why this could have happened? You can see the glue that was left over for the sock leather insole to be potentially attached and I could feel the sticky glue on the insoles! When I sent an email with photos attached to Foster & Son's customer service, they claim that "The St James is made with a half sock as they are made with a high quality insole".

I have other pairs of Edward Greene's and C&J hand grade shoes that never had this issue. I wanted to poll the forum members who have other Foster & Son shoes to see if there is any truth to what the customer service is claiming or is it just a bunch of condescending BS from them!

Thanks in advance

 

[MoosicPa]

40% off all remaining shoes in stock... things are not looking too good F&S.

 

[JustPullHarder]

40% off all remaining shoes in stock... things are not looking too good F&S.

Seems like everything they have. Probably shutting down their RTW operation.

 

[TheShetlandSweater]

Or they need cash while they are looking for funding?

 

[sforum1]

Can anyone who bought recently comment on sizing?

 

[JustPullHarder]

Can anyone who bought recently comment on sizing?

Second. Particularly interested in the 18 last for loafers.

 

[ZRH1]

also, are the high end prices worth it after the rebate? ie. loafers for 850GBP. Thank you!

 

[Ich_Dien]

also, are the high end prices worth it after the rebate? ie. loafers for 850GBP. Thank you!

If re-crafting the shoes at the original factory means something to you then perhaps money better invested in another maker? The factory was closed recently and it doesn't seem like they'll be re-opening. One of the reasons I pay for premium for brands like EG & C&J etc is the knowledge that they can at some point down the line be re-crafted at the factory and given a new lease of life.

IIRC Foster & Son was recently acquired with help from a Japanese consortium (The Armoury?) who decided to pull out so maybe they are restructuring their operation.

 

[ZRH1]

If re-crafting the shoes at the original factory means something to you then perhaps money better invested in another maker? The factory was closed recently and it doesn't seem like they'll be re-opening. One of the reasons I pay for premium for brands like EG & C&J etc is the knowledge that they can at some point down the line be re-crafted at the factory and given a new lease of life.

IIRC Foster & Son was recently acquired with help from a Japanese consortium (The Armoury?) who decided to pull out so maybe they are restructuring their operation.

thanks for the feedback, a good point to think about.

 

[ZRH1]

EDIT: double

 

[classicalthunde]

IIRC Foster & Son was recently acquired with help from a Japanese consortium (The Armoury?) who decided to pull out so maybe they are restructuring their operation.

Isn't the Armoury out of HK and not Japan? I know they do a lot of stuff with Ring Jacket from Japan, but I think RJ is its own entity that has been around for quite some time...