Japanese Shoes: Bespoke & RTW Super Thread

[DWFII]

Yeah, 4 - 6 hours sounds about right DW It's a special kind of madness. Some of the hand out-soling done in Japan is very impressive. They have the potential to be stunning hand closers, if the right clientele were prepared to pay for it (which they should). And the right leather? Veg. kangaroo

Duncan,

I apologize--I wanted to "mention" you and your hand work but I couldn't remember your user name here (so simple now that i see it but...I'm old) and after spending an hour or so riffling through likely threads looking for your previous posts, I gave up and just deleted the sentence. But if it is any consolation I was thinking about you when I was writing that.

 

[duncanbootmaker]

Don't 'sweat it', DW. I'm, hopefully, not too stuck up to think I should be mentioned in reference to anything about hand sewing And this is, after all, a thread about Japanese Bespoke. I just piped up to let you know that your guesstimate of the time to hand sew a top line was very good. As I said, I'm very impressed with the hand welt sewing of some of these chaps, and I have a lot to live up to in this respect. Far fewer hours are spent sewing welts than in closing the uppers, so therefore less practice, *and* it's more difficult.
Cheers
P.S. ...thanks for the vote of confidence

 

[DWFII]

@duncanbootmaker,

Well, you're the only one I know who regularly does hand sewing on the upper at anything close to Traditional frequency and quality.

FWIW, while I too admire the welt stitching of these makers, I personally don't think even 18 spi is anywhere near as difficult as upper work at 30. Or even 25.

IMO...

 

[ThinkDerm]

Visited Fukuda-san’s atelier to pick up my RTW from his stock this week. Fukuda-san was extremely welcoming and spent an enormous amount of time helping me find my best fit - both using his bespoke sample shoes and his RTW.

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These are RTW? So fresh and clean! Pricing?

 

[jrb666]

Fukuda RTW are 240,000¥.

MTO 280,000¥.

Bespoke - I didn't dare ask.

 

[geeboo]

DWFII - I would guess piercing thr a thicker & harder leather would be more manageable than a thinner piece, why do you say the reverse is true ?

 

[DWFII]

DWFII - I would guess piercing thr a thicker & harder leather would be more manageable than a thinner piece, why do you say the reverse is true ?

This puzzles me...I don't think I did say that. Just the opposite.

 

[duncanbootmaker]

I definitely find hand sewing uppers (a couple of mm of Kangaroo) is easier than outsoles (5 or 6mm of welt and compressed sole leather), though I don't sew at those higher frequencies (uppers 14 - 20spi, soles around 12spi). Of course, hand sewing through a 4 layer stacked leather heel is the hardest by far .Hopefully, as time goes on, my stitch count will increase
I *really* would like to see some of the top Japanese guys take up hand rolling threads and hand sewing uppers.

 

[dawei94]

Black captoe oxfords by Shoji Kawaguchi at Marquess. First visited him in October of 2016, then again in late June of 2017 for the fitting after he mailed me the fitting shoes. He mailed these out to me right before Christmas. My feet are very wide and flat, so I have lots of issues finding RTW or even St Crispin's personal last that fit me well and don't look like a blob. These look great to me and the fit seems great so far (only had a chance to try them on briefly, no real wear yet). Overall, extremely satisfied, and look forward to future commissions. With shipping, these were 353k yen, and I think some portion of that is attributable to a one-time last fee.

 

[Stefan88]

Black captoe oxfords by Shoji Kawaguchi at Marquess. First visited him in October of 2016, then again in late June of 2017 for the fitting after he mailed me the fitting shoes. He mailed these out to me right before Christmas. My feet are very wide and flat, so I have lots of issues finding RTW or even St Crispin's personal last that fit me well and don't look like a blob. These look great to me and the fit seems great so far (only had a chance to try them on briefly, no real wear yet). Overall, extremely satisfied, and look forward to future commissions. With shipping, these were 353k yen, and I think some portion of that is attributable to a one-time last fee.

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Very nice!

Lovely and minimalistic pattern

 

[Kashiwa]

I'm wondering if there are any further thoughts, opinions, reviews on the Trading Post originals made by Central Shoes?

They were discussed on this thread a few years back but I didn't see anything recent. I live in Tokyo and find it very difficult to find shoes in my size but Trading Post does offer their shoes in an 11, which is basically a US 12.

Any owners out there?

 

[dawei94]

Very nice!

Lovely and minimalistic pattern

Thanks! I wanted to start with something that I could wear in a variety of settings, particularly for work. My first St. Crispin's personal last had almost the exact same pattern as well (black adelaide captoe oxford, but the heel counter didn't go as far forward). I also have a burgundy quarter brogue from YF and a dark brown double monk from Spigola coming in as well, so comparison pics will be coming when those arrive.

 

[brax]

Black captoe oxfords by Shoji Kawaguchi at Marquess. First visited him in October of 2016, then again in late June of 2017 for the fitting after he mailed me the fitting shoes. He mailed these out to me right before Christmas. My feet are very wide and flat, so I have lots of issues finding RTW or even St Crispin's personal last that fit me well and don't look like a blob. These look great to me and the fit seems great so far (only had a chance to try them on briefly, no real wear yet). Overall, extremely satisfied, and look forward to future commissions. With shipping, these were 353k yen, and I think some portion of that is attributable to a one-time last fee.

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Awesome. You showed great restraint and it paid off. A perfect rendition of a shoe that must be in every man's wardrobe.

 

[j ingevaldsson]

Received my fourth bespoke pair from Yohei Fukuda. An adelaide model he has made for previous bespoke customers which I really loved, and managed to find the perfect brown leather for it, IMO. Fit is really good, and think they look amazing. A bunch of pics (more can be found on my blog):

 

[clee1982]

How much is his bespoke again (roughly)?