Sites like Mr. Porter has laid the foundation for a new kind of online stores where editorial content is an important component to inform about their products in an inspiring way, get people back to the site more often, and ultimately get visitors to buy more. There are several online stores that have quite good editorial texts, and here I’m highlighting some who quite often writes about shoes.
No Man Walks Alone
Suede is one thing they go through. Picture: No Man Walks Alone
This American web shop based in New York started a few years ago, and when it comes to shoes including Vass, Heschung, Barbanera and Viberg. No Man Walks Alone presents the brands in detail, which can be interesting just that, and then they have in connection to the brands’ pages links to related articles in their Newsroom section. This is like a regular blog, and is unfortunately not as good looking as much of the rest of the site, but the content is clearly ambitious. Among other things, you can read a large interview with one of the Barbanera brothers, they have a pretty concise guide to the different types of suede, and a walkthrough of what defines a handmade shoe.
Care of Carl
From their visit at the Crockett & Jones factory (the first pic above is from their visit at Cheaney). Picture: Care of Carl
The Swedish online store Care of Carl has a section on its website they call Carl Magazine, with reports interspersed with various inspirational pieces and stuff like that. They have visited many of the factories that manufacture the shoes they sell, like at Crockett & Jones and at Cheaney, which is summarized in lengthy reports with nice pictures. As is often the case in articles at online stores like these, it is a very positive tone, not that objective, but it can often be quite an interesting read nonetheless. They also have a nice shoe care guide with one of Sweden’s best cobblers.
GlenKaren
How to remove stains like this is something that GlenKaren write about. Picture: GlenKaren
This is a bit different than the others, but the shoe care brand GlenKaren has a really interesting blog which among other things goes deep into several shoe care questions. Often, of course, focusing on why their products are better than others, but regardless you can learn quite a lot here. They also have more “regular” blog posts like this about the distance bespoke shoe brand Adler Shoes.
