Blazing Wonder, BW Shoes, has been one of the main players in the new wave of Chinese makers of fine hand welted men’s shoes – yet very few have heard of them. They’ve had their focus on producing for various other brands and companies – but are also offering their shoes direct to customers as MTO, starting at only €450.
In recent years we’ve seen an increasing amount of sales in the section of quality welted footwear. Something that once was a rare sight is now the norm, and albeit retailers and brands obviously have their part, a lot comes down to customer behaviour and how people rather “make a steal” and buy a bunch of pairs on sale than get what they really want and need at full price. This new environment is putting many retailers and brands at serious strain, where some go under. If you really want to support a retailer or a brand – buy full price.
For those who enjoy themselves with polishing up a proper spit shine on their shoes, a problem often arises. Traditionally, the polishing equipment consists of a horsehair brush, but when you apply a spit shine to your shoes, and especially to the toe area, using a brush with horse hair bristles causes problems: tiny, tiny scratches form on the glass-like surface. The horsehair is simply too hard, and scratches the polish surface. However, there is an excellent solution to this: a super soft goat hair finishing brush.
Through history, few areas have had the same economical strengths as countries’ military, and with economical power comes the possibility to develop and produce things. That’s why the military greatly has affected development and innovation within the footwear industry through the centuries. Lots of classic shoe and boot models derive from the military, the military has played a vital role for many shoe factories through the years, some of the most effective shoe shining techniques were developed in the military, and so on. Learn more in this article.
Shoes crease, that’s a fact and everyone knows it, yet it’s likely the thing that dress shoe buyers obsess the most about. I’ve been writing several posts on the topic (links below) to give a better understanding on how and why shoes crease, and what’s healthy creases and what might not be. Shown on the photo here surely is an example of some very fine creasing on the Spanish leather.
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The formation of mould on leather shoes is a common problem especially in some parts of the world during some periods of the year, when humidity is high, but everyone can have mould issues appear on their shoes. Sometimes to a small degree but sometimes the whole shoes can become full of mould. Here I go through the reasons for why mould is formed, how you can avoid it, and how you remove it if you have footwear that gets affected.
The Swedish web store Pete & Harry are selling about 200 pairs of mainly Crockett & Jones and also some Loake shoes at heavily discounted prices, all at between 50-80% off, and plenty of regular sizes left. The C&J shoes are from Sweden’s largest retailer of the brand who went bankrupt a couple of weeks ago.
Hear Rezső Kuti of the Hungarian brand Vass Shoes about why the brand have succeeded so well internationally, about why they’ve run a bunch of sales during Covid, about the Hungarian quality shoe business in general and how bad streets resulted in iconic shoe styles.
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Today the British brand Gaziano & Girling introduced their new Optimum MTO range, it’s shoes made by their bespoke workshop to bespoke standards, but on their regular RTW lasts. The ambition is to make the absolute best craftsmanship available to more people. Shoegazing has had a look at a sample from the new range.
Using old deposited pantyhose from your girlfriend/wife to polish up the last shine on your shoes after they’ve had some coats of wax polish is a tried and tested method. What is less known is that the nylon stocking also is a brilliant tool for restoring shine and removing minor marks before use between polishing sessions.
