j ingevaldsson
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when you say video, you mean that one on bilibili (showing a captoe on gold museum if my memory recalls)?
they didn't tell you the spec (like you can't tell how many shoes per hide, SPI etc.), but you can see it's leather toe stiffener, hand last, hand stitch sole etc.
Yes that’s the video. Very informative, IMO.
TBF the “shoes per hide” spec doesn’t really say anything, bespoke makers laugh at how RTW brands use that in marketing. If you have an excellent hide and can get four pairs out from that with excellent quality pieces, you do that. If you have less good hide and can’t get a single decent pair out of that hide, you do that. Leather selection is of course very important, but you can’t translate it into “only one pair per hide” or things like that.
Upper leather and closing of the uppers are things that the real high-end RTW brands have similar specs too as bespoke, there’s the same high standards.
SPI you can quite easily estimate by pictures.
right, but I was under the impression that F&S is suppose to be all bespoke spec except
1. on standard last
2. GYW...
at least that was what was circulating around, not sure how true
though I suppose you can MTO F&S to HW which I assume would still be quite a bit cheaper than their bespoke
Nah that’s not correct. The RTW doesn’t really have anything to do with their bespoke in terms of construction and many aspects of material (insoles, toe stiffeners, heels etc). And you can’t MTO hand welted shoes. Not from those who have their own factories like Fosters or G&G, not from ones who use other factories for their RTW, like Cleverley. In England it’s always very distinct, bespoke is one thing, factory made RTW / MTO another thing (guess exception would be Tricker’s, who does a simple bespoke with factory made shoes).
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