The Styleforum x Archibald Hand-Welted Dress Shoes GMTO

[ArchibaldLondon]

Hi SF community,

We’re back with a new GMTO. The SF01 was a huge success and we’ve loved this evolution in the Archibald ethos that brings us closer to our consumers. Working with the StyleForum community has brought us more insights than we could have anticipated. Naturally, there’s only one appropriate response. We have to do it again!

At Archibald London we pride ourselves on our excellent quality and on our commitment to craftsmanship that’s rare to find elsewhere. Our favourite dress shoe is a testament to this approach. Wholecut, Oxford and like all our products, hand-welted, this both an exquisite and difficult shoe to create. And obviously, it’s always worth it.

So let’s do it again. Let’s co-create a dress shoe. Let’s see how we can best ourselves and deliver something you really want.

Wholecut, Oxford, hand-welted.

Everything else is on the table. Designed by all of you, crafted by the best of us. Are you excited? We’ve learned from our sneakers GMTO and as such we’ve tweaked the process. Fill in our short survey to share your thoughts on all aspects of the wholecut oxford dress shoe: material, design, laces - you name it. The survey will be open for 2 weeks.

We’ll then share the results in the forum for open discussion and feedback, which we’ll also take into account as part of the research and design phase.

Our trusted craftsmen in Italy will create 3-5 samples of the dress shoe, the samples take 25 working days to produce and we will share the results on the forum through photos and videos for any final thoughts and feedback.

Pre-orders will open for 3 weeks, for all 3-5 sample designs and take it from there!

 

[EgoCamisas]

How did I even miss this? I'm in!

EDIT: Commenting on the survey: I know from the sneakers GMTO that the survey only serves as grounds for the discussion, where things are tweaked, but I still think these questions are a bit too vague. Of course having thousands of questions would be even more confusing at the time of evaluating the responses but there is a lot of knowledge on dress shoes in this forum and maybe we could already start off giving more details.

For example: I clicked on Chelsea Boots because I am addicted to them and would like to see a cool pair with a bit of a change. The rest of the options were to choose whether I preferred a wide or a narrow last and whether I wanted broguing and/or a toe cap on the shoes and which broguing. In my humble opinion: most people will choose the narrow last and will want to see it in different widths, which is possible and elegant. On the other hand, I have no idea what kind of shoes most people will choose on the survey but for the very case of the Chelsea boots, I doubt anybody will choose any decoration and will keep the shoe simple. And... that's it?

What I want to say is, there is so much more one can make with Chelseas or for instance the other shoe types. I don't mean to criticise the survey for the sake of it and it's not I could do it any better but I would suggest to maybe have further surveys after the evaluation of this one that go deeper into the individual aspects of the chosen shoe type. Some different possibilities on the last would also be nice (round toe? chiseled toe?), or the sole (maybe an option to choose the sole for each individual pair of shoes, as in the sneaker MTOs, with options ranging between leather, double leather, Dainite/Vibram eton, leather type, number of eyelets/colour of the gussets... or whatever), maybe an option for a fiddle waist... and so on.

I hope this definitely works and more people get interested!

 

[renzokuken]

Regarding the leather choice, it would be great If you could source cordovan leather as an option, and vibram sole.

 

[OrlandoMo]

Regarding the leather choice, it would be great If you could source cordovan leather as an option, and vibram sole.

I was talking to our craftsman yesterday and he actually told me he found a great cordovan leather supplier; so yes, I think we’ll give it as an option!

 

[EgoCamisas]

I was talking to our craftsman yesterday and he actually told me he found a great cordovan leather supplier; so yes, I think we’ll give it as an option!

I suspect you are talking about italian cordovan, so probably Rocado? Cheers

 

[Spaghettimatt]

I’m in for a brown oxford or (pipe dream) a brown reverse NST derby.

 

[OrlandoMo]

I suspect you are talking about italian cordovan, so probably Rocado? Cheers

Need to ask him the details but we'll keep you posted here

 

[iluvgrlldchckn]

In addition to the cordovan, would it be possible we get options for other styles of boots, and also different sole options (e.g. dainite, ridgeway...)? It would also be nice if we could get broguing without a medallion and vice versa

 

[OrlandoMo]

In addition to the cordovan, would it be possible we get options for other styles of boots, and also different sole options (e.g. dainite, ridgeway...)? It would also be nice if we could get broguing without a medallion and vice versa

Sure, we'll probably give the options for Dainite or Ridgewy sole. For the broguing we'll work out a wider selection of options with our designers.

 

[ArchibaldRoh]

Hi All, I had actually meant to tell everyone to please avoid using the survey for the time-being as there seems to be an error in the typeform link that was connected to it. This might prove very annoying to anyone who already has but we will make up for it in some way!

We will put up the correct one next Monday, sorry about this!

 

[ArchibaldRoh]

In addition to the cordovan, would it be possible we get options for other styles of boots, and also different sole options (e.g. dainite, ridgeway...)? It would also be nice if we could get broguing without a medallion and vice versa

Absolutely, I don't understand how this one went up, it is fully incomplete

Please give us till the 10th and we will have it up and running!

 

[ArchibaldRoh]

How did I even miss this? I'm in!

EDIT: Commenting on the survey: I know from the sneakers GMTO that the survey only serves as grounds for the discussion, where things are tweaked, but I still think these questions are a bit too vague. Of course having thousands of questions would be even more confusing at the time of evaluating the responses but there is a lot of knowledge on dress shoes in this forum and maybe we could already start off giving more details.

For example: I clicked on Chelsea Boots because I am addicted to them and would like to see a cool pair with a bit of a change. The rest of the options were to choose whether I preferred a wide or a narrow last and whether I wanted broguing and/or a toe cap on the shoes and which broguing. In my humble opinion: most people will choose the narrow last and will want to see it in different widths, which is possible and elegant. On the other hand, I have no idea what kind of shoes most people will choose on the survey but for the very case of the Chelsea boots, I doubt anybody will choose any decoration and will keep the shoe simple. And... that's it?

What I want to say is, there is so much more one can make with Chelseas or for instance the other shoe types. I don't mean to criticise the survey for the sake of it and it's not I could do it any better but I would suggest to maybe have further surveys after the evaluation of this one that go deeper into the individual aspects of the chosen shoe type. Some different possibilities on the last would also be nice (round toe? chiseled toe?), or the sole (maybe an option to choose the sole for each individual pair of shoes, as in the sneaker MTOs, with options ranging between leather, double leather, Dainite/Vibram eton, leather type, number of eyelets/colour of the gussets... or whatever), maybe an option for a fiddle waist... and so on.

I hope this definitely works and more people get interested!

Absolutely right! We have to incorporate the learning from the sneakers survey and ensure that the questions are correclty branched.
I actually just realized it links to the wrong survey. Embarrassing!

 

[ArchibaldRoh]

Absolutely right! We have to incorporate the learning from the sneakers survey and ensure that the questions are correclty branched.
I actually just realized it links to the wrong survey. Embarrassing!

Hi all whilst updating links to this we decided to totally re-jig it. I'll announce when the links are updated. Apologies for the delay

 

[ArchibaldLondon]

Hi SF community,

We’re back with a new GMTO. The SF01 was a huge success and we’ve loved this evolution in the Archibald ethos that brings us closer to our consumers. Working with the StyleForum community has brought us more insights than we could have anticipated. Naturally, there’s only one appropriate response. We have to do it again!

At Archibald London we pride ourselves on our excellent quality and on our commitment to craftsmanship that’s rare to find elsewhere. Our favourite dress shoe is a testament to this approach. Wholecut, Oxford and like all our products, hand-welted, this both an exquisite and difficult shoe to create. And obviously, it’s always worth it.

So let’s do it again. Let’s co-create a dress shoe. Let’s see how we can best ourselves and deliver something you really want.

Wholecut, Oxford, hand-welted.

Everything else is on the table. Designed by all of you, crafted by the best of us. Are you excited? We’ve learned from our sneakers GMTO and as such we’ve tweaked the process. Fill in our short survey to share your thoughts on all aspects of the wholecut oxford dress shoe: material, design, laces - you name it. The survey will be open for 2 weeks.

We’ll then share the results in the forum for open discussion and feedback, which we’ll also take into account as part of the research and design phase.

Our trusted craftsmen in Italy will create 3-5 samples of the dress shoe, the samples take 25 working days to produce and we will share the results on the forum through photos and videos for any final thoughts and feedback.

Pre-orders will open for 3 weeks, for all 3-5 sample designs and take it from there!

Hi guys --

Just to let you all know: we’ve updated the survey.

You spoke, we listened.

So, instead of doing a general dress shoe, for the first hand-welted GTMO, we’re doing a hand-welted wholecut Oxford dress shoe, by popular request.

As you know we take co-creation seriously, so to those of you who came back to us with other requests and ideas, we’ll be responding in a couple of weeks with news about future products in development.

For now, fill in the survey and inform us below: what would make your ideal hand-welted wholecut Oxford dress shoe?

If you feel that the survey does not fully cover your needs, post comments, send images, let us know below what else you would like to include.

 

[Spideysense]

The link doesn’t work for me. When I click on “Start the survey”, I’m only thrown to the bottom of the page.