Left Shoe Company

[kaizo]

Sorry if this is common knowledge but I walked into the Left Shoe Company shop in the Princes Arcade and they had an interesting feet scanning machine to make MTO shoes.



Apparently its a Finnish company and they have stores in London (the one I went to), Los Angeles, Copenhagen, Dubai and Helsinki. So I thought it might be another choice for our cousins across the pond to choose from.

I didn't have a chance to buy one as I just ordered a pair of C and J Connaught but the quality did look fairly good.

What was unique was that they did offer a derby that was made out of shagreen (ray skin) which was around £1000 and crocodile (which is more common).

I don't know much about shoes as much as other chaps on this forum but I do know a bit about ray skin as it is used on some kendo armours. The shoes uses the stingray heart (the big bead that you can only get one per ray) so 2 rays are being used per pair. I need to take a closer look next time but the surface seems to be lacquered and its not a shaved so it is not flat.

So not:



but more like this:



Anyway just thought I should share it with everyone. If you have shoes from them please let us know how you feel about them

 

[marcodalondra]

I popped in this past Saturday on my way to Jermyn Street, after being intrigued by an oxford galoshes in the window where the upper was made up of Loro Piana flannel. I was asking few questions and the knowledgeable guy asked me if I had few minutes so I could get my feet scanned. As I mentioned before, I always knew I had somehow regular size 9 with regards to the vamp/throat area with a narrow heel and very high insteps. This means that virtually all oxfords shoes will have a very visible V opening at the tongue/lacing although I will fit otherwise well in a UK 9E and slightly more comfy in a UK9F.

The scan was pretty quick, about 20 seconds per foot, with a bit of preparation before hand as you need to wear some sort of gridded socks and roll up your trouser cuffs to mid calf.

The results confirmed my perception (high insteps, with the right foot slightly higher still) but added some extra info e.g. Left foot is a bit longer and the vamp/throat area a bit wider then the right foot.

Unfortunately, the scope of the scan is only to see what existing last will best fit your feet, and the trying shoes was simply larger everywhere with only slightly addressing the V opening problem. The sales person did say that they are collecting those scan data to come up with additional lasts. As for me they could not offer a solution at this time.

I was told that the shoes are manufactured in Portugal with mostly Italian Calf Leather and the designer is Italian too (info that I later read on their website anyway).

I wish they could have supplied me with the 3d scan results to then commission very accurate lasts for my feet from an industrial maker (high durable plastic) I know in Italy but I understand why they would not.