JM Weston appreciation thread

[yunBW]

The price can maintain. Their problem isn't their price. Their problem is that they have failed to build any kind of brand image. For a brand that is as old as they are, they are barely known.

The new direction they are going in with their shoes seems to be an attempt to appeal to a "younger" crowd and follow the trend that other brands are following with putting their logo all over casual wear. However, I did see that JMW now has a pair of evening shoes that has their logo in large print on the top. Looks tacky.

I think the easiest way to to let retailers in “popular” city that don’t have their bountique to carry their stuff, so at least people who shop or want to buy to have somewhere to try in person or see the brand. I don’t understand why they have so have bountique and retailers in France and Japan (when it’s already popular and these countries are really not that big...). Also, their online presence is almost to non when you search JMW on YouTube or google there’s really few stuff about it. I really don’t understand the people who’s in charge of the brand is doing about brand.

 

[AunToni]

I think the easiest way to to let retailers in “popular” city that don’t have their bountique to carry their stuff, so at least people who shop or want to buy to have somewhere to try in person or see the brand. I don’t understand why they have so have bountique and retailers in France and Japan (when it’s already popular and these countries are really not that big...). Also, their online presence is almost to non when you search JMW on YouTube or google there’s really few stuff about it. I really don’t understand the people who’s in charge of the brand is doing about brand.

Exactly. I'm telling you, they are arrogant and poorly managed. Michel Perry left, for whatever reason, and they replaced him with a designer who has no design experience at all, and it shows in all of the shoes they have released under him.

They won't let you order online unless you live in certain countries. It's really quite ridiculous and doesn't serve them well at all. I've contacted them numerous times about these issues and they refuse to give any answer. They just simply try to redirect me to ordering from one of their stores in France by calling them. I was also told, since I live in a country where there is no JMW store anymore, that the NYC store could not ship to me internationally. Made no sense, but they refused to ship to me internationally, despite having bought shoes from them in person before. Anyways, it is a shame, but I will no longer be buying from JMW, unless they make some dramatic changes and I really don't see that happening anytime soon.

 

[AunToni]

Same. A lot of makers are offering sleek loafer which is pretty hard to dress casually, but 180 seems a good balance between casual and formal (maybe the reason why Japanese are into them).
Ordered one from MrP, hopefully they work for my feet.

My problem with MrP is that a) they don't offer much selection in terms of the JMW shoes and b) they mostly only offer D width, I wear an E because I have a wide foot. So, even if I wanted to buy from MRP, I can't. haha.

Do you recommend any places to buy Vass online? Although, that's a problem because I would need to try the shoes on, so wherever I buy them from, they would need to have hassle free returns. Any suggestions?

 

[AunToni]

@AunToni I tried them in the shop...
View attachment 1415815
Looking good, but yeah too expensive for what they are.

To be honest, I didn't like these simply because there is nothing unique about these and they were overpriced to me. They felt and looked kind of cheap to me. I think these shoes, ideally, would be good for guys who walk a lot during the day, or at least that is the impression I got from how they were marketing this model, but yeah, still not worth it.
JMW also has some issues with their rubber soles or at least the two pairs I've owned. Most of my shoes from them are leather soled, but both pairs of rubber soles developed large cracks in the rubber after only a years worth of wear. I have a lot of shoes and didn't wear these shoes anymore than a few times a month.

 

[AunToni]

Totally agree. Would only go for their classics. I recently got a Chelsea whole cut boot 705 for $1200 US and I think the quality is still far superior than JL for 1/3 less money. I don't know if the price can maintain at this level if they need to operate retail outlets around the world. I don't think they're spending excessive amount of money to do marketing..... which is a good thing.

I have this boot in brown. I wanted to get a pair in the new burgundy, but never got around to it. It's a beautiful boot. I was happy when they released this boot in some newer colors because JMW really lacks in color variety on many of their models. And if you want to have your own custom color, even if it's something as "basic" as burgundy, then you have to pay a **** ton extra for MTO, which is a rip off.

 

[yunBW]

My problem with MrP is that a) they don't offer much selection in terms of the JMW shoes and b) they mostly only offer D width, I wear an E because I have a wide foot. So, even if I wanted to buy from MRP, I can't. haha.

Do you recommend any places to buy Vass online? Although, that's a problem because I would need to try the shoes on, so wherever I buy them from, they would need to have hassle free returns. Any suggestions?

Yeah that’s true. I guess MrP is caution with what they stock from JMW and want to make sure it sells.
I think it’s best to email vass asking if they have any stock list at your location (China I assume). If I recall correctly FINE shoe/s HK stock some vass and they might offer free return.

 

[AunToni]

Yeah that’s true. I guess MrP is caution with what they stock from JMW and want to make sure it sells.
I think it’s best to email vass asking if they have any stock list at your location (China I assume). If I recall correctly FINE shoe/s HK stock some vass and they might offer free return.

Yeah. Thanks, I'll contact Vass first and see.

 

[MaE]

Well, Weston might not be the most known brand in the US or in other parts of the world, but I can guarantee you that they are well known and appreciated in France, Japan and some parts of Switzerland/Belgium... And while I don’t know why they chose to close their New York boutique, this can actually make sense if they didn’t want to spend tons of money on advertisement/social media and their existing customer base in the US wasn’t big enough to make that particular shop profitable. Regarding quality, like I already said on this same thread some months ago, if you stick with their “Les emblématiques” line, everything should be fine!

 

[AunToni]

Well, Weston might not be the most known brand in the US or in other parts of the world, but I can guarantee you that they are well known and appreciated in France, Japan and some parts of Switzerland/Belgium... And while I don’t know why they chose to close their New York boutique, this can actually make sense if they didn’t want to spend tons of money on advertisement/social media and their existing customer base in the US wasn’t big enough to make that particular shop profitable. Regarding quality, like I already said on this same thread some months ago, if you stick with their “Les emblématiques” line, everything should be fine!

Don't you think it's a bit odd that a shoe company that is 129 years old is barely known?
I can also guarantee you that they are not as well known and appreciated as people think they are in France, especially among younger generations. They are trying to appeal to the younger generation with their new models.

Their existing customer base in the US, among other places, isn't big BECAUSE they don't do advertising/social media well enough to attract customers.

 

[AunToni]

Well, Weston might not be the most known brand in the US or in other parts of the world, but I can guarantee you that they are well known and appreciated in France, Japan and some parts of Switzerland/Belgium... And while I don’t know why they chose to close their New York boutique, this can actually make sense if they didn’t want to spend tons of money on advertisement/social media and their existing customer base in the US wasn’t big enough to make that particular shop profitable. Regarding quality, like I already said on this same thread some months ago, if you stick with their “Les emblématiques” line, everything should be fine!

Also, if we want to talk about quality, I've had this happen on three pairs of shoes from them. All of the shoes still had plenty of life left on the sole, i.e. wasn't soft, the heels were not worn out and had never been replaced. I sent one pair back to them because the manager at the store in Shanghai said this should not have happened. However, the other two pairs, this one and another that I already had resoled, ended up like this after they closed their Shanghai store. Not to mention two rubber soled shoes having the rubber split in different spots on the sole. Maybe I just have bad luck or maybe it's the way I walk on the shoes, but I have a pair of shoes from EG and another pair from Santoni and never had this issue with either (both are goodyear)

 

[TN001]

A few comments on the criticisms, many of which I agree with. There is certainly an institutional hubris with Weston that is very French (at times charming, and at times maddening). I have waited 5 months for a resole with the Paris boutique going radio silent on me. When I received my resoles (along with a new pair I had ordered), they were thrown in loose to a massive shipping box; it was weird, just not what you would expect from a "premium" brand.

They do very well (or at least as well as they want to do) in the European market, so I think the North American market is a bit of an after thought. Frankly I think they look at the US as a perpetual pain in the a$$.

I think they owe their difficulty with an online platform (and to some extent with the North American market) to their odd sizing and diversity of lasts across relatively few models. I am a big 180 fan; I reliably take an 11.5 US (so usually 10.5 UK) across almost every better brand. Yet in Weston, I have taken everything from a 9 in one width to a 10.5 in another (all within two models; the 180 and the demi-chasse). Returns are the bane of the shoe companies' online existence. Carmina seems to have it down, but I wonder how long they will endure taking the hit they do.

I do think Weston is keen to control and improve the experience in their French boutiques better than they used to. It's too bad they couldn't sustain a NY store, because I think that NY store was great. Perhaps they will explore putting their shoes in bigger retailers now, since I understand their foray into French department stores has been very successful (which I find odd; people would rather buy their shoes at Galleries Lafayette than the Weston boutique down the street?).

I also think they are priced a bit tough for a lesser known shoe in the US. In my opinion, 180's are every bit as nice as the Lobb Lopez, but most Americans would opt for the Lopez (I think?), and the price difference isn't much last I checked. Now imagine paying $200 more for a Weston product over an excellent Crockett & Jones equivalent (also a brand that Americans know and like). It's tough.

 

[TN001]

Edit: I just went and priced Lopezes, $1400. I haven't bought a pair in 10 years, and for some reason thought they were around $1100. Makes me think that 180 pricing isn't half bad in retrospect.

 

[AunToni]

A few comments on the criticisms, many of which I agree with. There is certainly an institutional hubris with Weston that is very French (at times charming, and at times maddening). I have waited 5 months for a resole with the Paris boutique going radio silent on me. When I received my resoles (along with a new pair I had ordered), they were thrown in loose to a massive shipping box; it was weird, just not what you would expect from a "premium" brand.

They do very well (or at least as well as they want to do) in the European market, so I think the North American market is a bit of an after thought. Frankly I think they look at the US as a perpetual pain in the a$$.

I think they owe their difficulty with an online platform (and to some extent with the North American market) to their odd sizing and diversity of lasts across relatively few models. I am a big 180 fan; I reliably take an 11.5 US (so usually 10.5 UK) across almost every better brand. Yet in Weston, I have taken everything from a 9 in one width to a 10.5 in another (all within two models; the 180 and the demi-chasse). Returns are the bane of the shoe companies' online existence. Carmina seems to have it down, but I wonder how long they will endure taking the hit they do.

I do think Weston is keen to control and improve the experience in their French boutiques better than they used to. It's too bad they couldn't sustain a NY store, because I think that NY store was great. Perhaps they will explore putting their shoes in bigger retailers now, since I understand their foray into French department stores has been very successful (which I find odd; people would rather buy their shoes at Galleries Lafayette than the Weston boutique down the street?).

I also think they are priced a bit tough for a lesser known shoe in the US. In my opinion, 180's are every bit as nice as the Lobb Lopez, but most Americans would opt for the Lopez (I think?), and the price difference isn't much last I checked. Now imagine paying $200 more for a Weston product over an excellent Crockett & Jones equivalent (also a brand that Americans know and like). It's tough.

I agree with pretty much everything you said.

I just want to add one positive and the reason I was drawn to Weston in the first place, but this is predicated on living in a place where there was a Weston store for the reasons you listed related to sizing. That is, their store was stocked with various widths in nearly all their models. As someone who generally wears a Weston 8E-8.5E-and sometimes a 9E, depending on the model, it was nice. Lobb and EG didn't really offer this or if they did they only offered it in certain models, especially EG, and the only other solution was to go bespoke, at least where I was living (Shanghai).

Anyways, I get the general feeling the only place outside of Europe they will focus on now is Japan. They have opened so many stores in Japan recently and I almost feel like this is their way of advertising. That is, they are using the presence of the stores as advertising. They also started a FB page specifically for the Japanese market. In the 9 or so years they were in China, they didn't do anything of this sort. Does anyone have any insight as to why they might be focusing so much on Japan?

 

[JohnFM]

Sorry for the boring sizing question, but if I'm a 9D in the Golf, would you suggest the same for the 180 ... or drop down to 8.5D? These are questions I would have asked Daniel at the NY store, but no longer possible. Thanks.

 

[yunBW]

I agree with pretty much everything you said.

I just want to add one positive and the reason I was drawn to Weston in the first place, but this is predicated on living in a place where there was a Weston store for the reasons you listed related to sizing. That is, their store was stocked with various widths in nearly all their models. As someone who generally wears a Weston 8E-8.5E-and sometimes a 9E, depending on the model, it was nice. Lobb and EG didn't really offer this unless or if they did the yonly offered it in certain models, especially EG, the only other solution was to go bespoke, at least where I was living (Shanghai).

Anyways, I get the general feeling the only place outside of Europe they will focus on now is Japan. They have opened so many stores in Japan recently and I almost feel like this is their way of advertising. That is, they are using the presence of the stores as advertising. They also started a FB page specifically for the Japanese market. In the 9 or so years they were in China, they didn't do anything of this sort. Does anyone have any insight as to why they might be focusing so much on Japan?

Regarding to the market in Japan. JMW loafer have market for both young an older audience where older wear it with suit or slightly causal outfit and younger wear with loose trouser and oversized tee/shirt (scroll through Instagram tags)