The Swedish online store Herrstil launches a new shoe brand called Myrqvist Goodyear welted. Three different models made in Vietnam, which will be sold for €215 (1999 SEK). If you take advantage of the Kickstarter campaign offer, which kicks off today, you can get away as cheap as €174 (1600 SEK).
Herrstil (“Men’s style”” in Swedish) sells scarves, ties and socks from different suppliers under their Private Label brand Myrqvist. Now it’s time to introduce shoes under the brand as well. The shoes are manufactured in a factory in Vietnam, where people from the British shoe center Northampton worked to build the business. They are, as the name makes clear, Goodyear-welted full-grain leather from a Russian tannery, has leather board heel stiffeners(compressed leather grinding dust and glue), and leather soles with open channels. The upper for the brown shoes are made of crust leather (uncolored leather) painted to its color which makes a nice depth of the shade.
Initially they offer three different models, a plain cap toe oxford (of course), an adelaide and a semi brogue , all available in black and dark brown leather and brown suede. All the shoes are made on the same last, with a soft square toe, which I think looks really nice at least on picture. This fall, they plan to expand the range with a few more models.’
The semi brogue Strömsö, one of three models initally offered.
To quickly get the production of the Myrqvist shoes rollings Herrstil has starts a Kickstarter campaign. There you can pre-book any of the three models in your size, and get them for €173 (1600 SEK). They are already in production, the campaign is thus more to get the finances for continuing to build the collection, and the shoes will in most cases be delivered in May, some in July.
It’s great that more players are embarking on the quality shoe scene. However, it’s a stiff competition also in the entry-level segment, not least when it comes to online offers, and always a threshold for new brands before people learn sizes and quality level etc. But hopefully people dare to give it a try, especially when the price is now down to almost Meermin Classic prices now in the initial stage.
The model Äppelviken.
Here the founder of Herrstil Sebastian Öhrn to the left, and the Vietnamese factory’s Production Manager Michael.
Quarter brogue adelaide variant called Skytteholm. All pictures: Herrstil
