State of men's dress shoes in Canada - revisisted

[MilanoStyle]

Shoes scene T.O. is pretty much dead. I see some guys wearing Kiton suits but even these guys wear hugo boss dress shoes and they feel pretty special...sigh ..

 

[Ed13]

Shoe sources for me are ordering from England during sales, ebay, sales forums or store sales such as Bennie's. I gave up buying shoes locally in TO.

 

[rkw5000]

Originally Posted by Roger

A couple of years ago, when Susie Jones was with EG and on a US trunk show tour, I was able to talk her into coming to Vancouver (since she was planning to end her trip in San Francisco, and returning to the UK via Vancouver made sense). So she committed to come to Vancouver, and I contacted Holt Renfrew, Harry Rosen, and Ingledew's to see whether they would be interested in hosting a trunk show. The cost would be negligible for them as Susie had already committed to come to Vancouver. All they had to do was let Susie bring in the shoes for a couple of hours, set up in their store, and take orders. Well...as you've probably already guessed, I got a collective yawn from them all--absolutely no interest, even though it would have cost them nothing. I spent some time with the Harry Rosen manager at the Oakridge store, and got him to call Larry Rosen in Toronto who proceeded to summarily blow me off. It was clear from this experience that none of the possible so-called high-end men's stores in Vancouver thought that there would be a market here, and they continued to be content to sell the mid-level (at best) shoes they have for a long time. I took this, incidentally, as evidence that Larry Rosen would not be the dynamic and more innovative CEO that his father had been, and would basically cater to the dominant market in Vancouver, which is extremely undiscerning. I was disappointed in this as it meant that there would be no risk-taking (minimal as it would be) with really high-end clothing and shoes here. That has, unfortunately, been the case, and I find that I seldom hit Harry Rosen any more when I'm at Oakridge or Pacific Centre. The one source that I know of for C&J in Vancouver is Sheppard's Direct. http://sheppardsdirect.com/ This is the aftermath of a once-thriving high-end shoe store in Vancouver. Now they operate by measuring your foot and then ordering in the shoe from England--something you can do yourself much more cheaply via PLal or Pediwear. Sheppard's Direct also bring in a. testoni and Alden. But the prices are very high ($975 Cdn. plus tax for C&J Handgrades; $1200 Cdn. and up for a. Testoni; $725 Cdn. plus tax for Alden shell cordovan), particularly when you realize that you can have a pair of C&J Handgrades delivered to your door from PLal for under $500 Cdn. or a pair of shell cordovan Aldens from one of several suppliers for something on the order of $575. It's particularly disappointing that both Holt Renfrew and Harry Rosen seem to think that the designer lines of shoes--Prada, Gucci, Hugo Boss--represent really high quality--and that they have not the slightest clue about welted vs. Blake construction vs. Blake/Rapid, etc. It's also really deplorable that British shoes are so hard to get in Canada. The various routes available to us to good shoes have been identified in earlier posts in this thread: eBay, PLal, direct from EG or G&G, B&S Forum. Pay attention to the experiences of others with the various lines, particularly wrt size and fit. PLal, for example, will allow returns if the fit is poor. I don't know of anyone who has had a bad experience with them; so that takes care pretty well of C&J. Oh, by the way, three of us on this forum did very well from Susie's visit to Vancouver. We got sized so that future purchases could be made directly, and each ended up with some terrific shoes. I got a pair of Ashbys in antique chestnut and a pair of Newburys with medallion in antique burgundy!
Thankfully (?) I was one of the lucky ones introduced to EG by Roger. I have since made direct purchases at sale time for prices comparable to Canali, Ferragamo, Testoni here in Canada. I spoke with Harry's Zegna/Brioni/Kiton buyer about shoes and don't hold out much hope. According to him, the market is way too thin in Canada, even Toronto. In fact, he mentioned they have discontinued purchasing Kiton suits etc. in order to concentrate on Brioni as there top end line. Borrelli shirts were stopped a year ago. Anyone wanting to pay-up is steered to a MTM program. The new Holt's store is nice but the same stuff in a bigger area. They have added Isaia and some other fashion forward lines. I have ordered an Isaia MTM suit but have waited 3 months due to an apparent screw up in Italy. I wish there was a bespoke option

 

[houserichichi]

I find shoes in Ottawa absolutely impossible to track down.

I assume I already know the answer, but there really isn't an option for French-inspired shoes as an option in this country, is there? I've hunted for eons on eBay for that Corthay-look all over the planet in hopes that I could try my luck but of course to no avail. Is there anything available anywhere in the country that resembles that look?