The Ultimate "HARDCORE" Shoe Appreciation Thread (Bespoke only)

[DWFII]



If this were done would new toe and heel stiffeners have to be made?

Not necessarily. I edited my above post and some of that is implicit in my edit.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

Interesting. Time to get my Hush Puppies relasted!

 

[DWFII]



Interesting. Time to get my Hush Puppies relasted!

Are you sure? If, as I suggested, the work of lasting and bottoming (and in this case, by hand) is over half the of the entire process (the bespoke process), are you sure you want to pay that much to relast a commercial shoe? Might be more cost effective just to have a good bespoke maker make a pair of "pseudo-Hush Puppies."

 

[patrickBOOTH]

But dat patina!

 

[mw313]

I can finally post the bespoke shoes I got from Maftei of Vienna Austria. These were full bespoke shoes and I met up with their US contact, Thomas Hansen who is a very knowledgeable German Professor at Wellesley College. He is a man of great taste, especially of shoes. ( [email protected] is his email address if you have interest in asking him questions about the shoes or to be measured. )

I met up with Thomas in NYC to be very thoroughly measured. Due to my background in podiatry and work with many shoe makers, we actually added quite a few measurements to the normal so we could get a closer fit around the entire foot. After all of this was finished, we had a long discussion about what I wanted, from the style of the shoe, to the toe shape of the last, to the leather, color, sole, and even which heel type I wanted. They also offer normal bespoke hand welted with a hand sewn sole or even a pegged sole, which I chose to give it a try.

I've worked with many foam boxes in my career but never seen ones so large like this to make my feet not look big. haha.




After some time, they made me trial shoes (a shoe and boot last with the same toe that I requested - a chiseled round toe). I then gave them my suggestions on the fit, which was already extremely good. Then we discussed a bit more and they started to work on my final shoes.

Trial shoes:









just for a bit of fun color!!!












After the shoes were completed, I was amazed at the detail and the fit, not to mention the price. I won't share the price but when you ask them for your quote, you will be very surprised at how reasonable they are, especially for bespoke shoes.


custom lasted shoe trees.




I asked for this Thomas Heel which adds some character as well as extra support on the inside of the shoe. This shoe was full pegged all around the sole. They pained the waste and added my initials while tapering down the waist even more. I love this sole.




The fine slim heel that fits well under the shoe.


To show a bit of the lift of the toe chisel.







Sorry, tried them on right after work. Still in scrubs.





I wanted a nice clean, light brown / golden brown that would show well with this elegant monk strap and I would be able to burnish and give a natural patina over time. Maftei got the shading just perfectly to what I wanted. In the future I will let them do some more color work on the pair to show what they can do, but for this color I'd prefer to do the work overtime.



After such a great experience, I will be getting many more pairs over time. If anyone is interested in Maftei, please contact Thomas and he will be glad to work with you for a measuring. He is up in the North East by Massachusetts area, but he does come down to NYC. He even plans on doing a trunk show / measurement event in the near future so I'm sure he'd love to meet many of the SF guys.

 

[jerrybrowne]



If anyone is interested in Maftei, please contact Thomas and he will be glad to work with you for a measuring. He is up in the North East by Massachusetts area, but he does come down to NYC. He even plans on doing a trunk show / measurement event in the near future so I'm sure he'd love to meet many of the SF guys. 

Thanks for the very informative post!!

 

[mw313]

Thanks for the very informative post!!

No problem and I hope that more people will try this great shoe family. they are a great price and even better quality focused on the fit as well as creativity.

any one interested in North America can contact Thomas Hansen at [email protected]

 

[Stefan88]



No problem and I hope that more people will try this great shoe family. they are a great price and even better quality focused on the fit as well as creativity. 

any one interested in North America can contact Thomas Hansen at [email protected]

Looks great. Interested to see how they crease!

 

[mw313]

Looks great. Interested to see how they crease!

thanks. i'll keep you posted over time but so far they are staying great!

 

[Stefan88]



thanks. i'll keep you posted over time but so far they are staying great! 

Cool! By the way, I didn't mean that in a negative way. Just interested in the kind of leather used. It looks buttery soft, but the shoes I've previously seen from Maftei has looked like a rather stiff crust leather.

 

[Texasmade]

X-post from the JL thread. I took the plunge into bespoke shoes.

 

[bengal-stripe]



I took the plunge into bespoke shoes.

Hope the finished product will exceed all your expectations.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

What's the standard idea for the heel length (from back of heel to arch)? On some vintage shoes not only does the heel look higher, but it sometimes looks shorter. Is there any particular reasoning for a "shorter" heel?

 

[DWFII]

It's hard to speak for another culture...and to some degree that's exactly what vintage shoes represent. Who knows why they were smaller. Maybe for "grace" or elegance. Eventually it became more accepted that the shoe needed to support the foot, and the weight of the body, more directly and that meant weight bearing substance under the ankle bone.

The standard length of the heel is...on a man's dress shoe...as I learned it, should be one quarter of the standard last length (SLL). And that's roughly the ratio that I adhere to.

On the other hand there are shoemakers who say that the heel should be as long as it is wide--square-ish rather than rectangular (although rectangular heels on higher heeled boots are probably more functional than square heels). For myself, I understand and "sympathize" with the preference for a square-ish heel on a man's dress shoe, but also I think if that's the only criteria a maker can end up with more than a fair share of awkward looking and out of proportion heels

There's also the little matter of heel height and how the weight is distributed and whether the os calcis is in position to carry any significant weight.

Beyond all that a lot of it is down to simple aesthetics and personal ( or cultural) sensibilities.

 

[bengal-stripe]

Here is a demonstration of the square(ish) approach to heel length:

Both shoes were made on the same last. The right one is a boot in Norwegian construction with two rows of stitching running all around the heel, the left one is a dress shoe welted breast to breast with narrow heel. Width of the heels are 84 and 70 mm; length, measured into the centre of the heel breast, are 81 and 68 mm respectively.

Using 25% of the Standard Last Length, in this case 292 mm (stick length 9½), would have given a heel length of 73 mm for either heel.