The French brand Orban’s is a very interesting newcomer on the quality shoe scene, offering Goodyear welted shoes for €150, and additionally the entire range is now on sale with 20%, which means that they are down to only €120.
Behind Orban’s is the renowned man Marcos Fernandez Cabezas. He has a background as a designer and in the management of Bowen and Emling, and has started both Markowski as Septieme Largeur, which makes it likely that this is a player to be reckoned with in the future.
Orban’s started as late as this fall, and only sell directly to customers via its own store in the eastern parts of central Paris and via its online shop. It is, however, so far only in French, but if you visit the site using Chrome as a browser or via Google and run translate you understand most of it, and even without those services, I think it is possible to understand the whole procedure of placing an order even with limited knowledge of the French language.
The store/showroom in Paris.
As usual with the Frenchman they don’t mention where the shoes are manufactured, but it’s in Europe and in considering the prices and how the shoes look it’s probably in Portugal or possibly Spain. All the shoes are as mentioned Goodyear welted with upper leather from the renowned French tanneries Du Puy and D’Annonay. They are made with leather sole or a little thicker rubber sole. Four lasts are offered, and as often is when Fernandez is involved, they look quite nice, and most people are likely to appreciate at least one of them. The model range is straight from the start big, with no less than 77 different variations if you count in the different leather choices. Most are interpretations of the usual classical models, with a few more special variants.
Nice looking wholecut in dark brown with a tint of red.
So we then have the price, which is truly competitive. The regular cost for shoes is €150 and boots €175. Already that is great, but at the moment like I said it’s a sale with 20% discount making the shoes cost just €120 and boots €140. They do seem to ship worldwide, and the price for shipping at least to Europe is fair.
Since the brand is so new, there is not very much information about how they are in sizing and how quality is perceived and so on, but, for example the French style blog Le Barboteur which tested a pair is satisfied with them. As long as you do not expect miracles at that price there is a good chance to be really pleased.
Leather sole. Picture (also the first one above): Le Barboteur
Derby in dark brown. Picture: Orban’s
I read your review of the Orbans and Crownhills with pleasure and interest; thanks for that. I do have a few Crockett & J’s, Church, and Loakes. I like to try price conscious online brands when I want to try new styles and colours.
Meermin sent me one shoe that had so much cork filling that my foot couldn’t enter and both shoes had a sole and heel and that felt like walking on a four angled ball. Shoepassion was much better finished but the type of leather made my feet feel damp, my bad maybe. This is just my experience and other people may have excellent experiences with these brands. For me, I just felt it probably wasn’t worth it to engage in an endless email exchange and sending shoes back and forth with Meermin and Shoepassion leather apparently wasn’t for me.
Duggers of London were and are actually nice and very durable because I used those in mud and rain when flyfishing and they are still going strong after a couple of years of hard use.
I tend to return to Loake 1880 in that price range; for eur 260,- or so a no risk buy. But it is still nice to try new brands.
Would you say that Orban is on the Meermin / Shoepassion level in terms of leather and built quality? Shame that the Orban shoes look so bad on the product pics while they look quite nice on other pictures. And do you think that Crownhills are a step above Loake 1880 with a JR sole and nice uppers?
Thanks again, Alwin