Since the last post I wrote about sneakers of better quality, a lot of new options have arrived on the market, not least it has become more common for makers of classic Goodyear welted shoes to also start offering sneakers. Here’s a review of a bunch of good alternatives, and also about the fact that more and more cobblers nowadays can resole some of these types of sneakers.
Read the previous post on quality sneakers here, where I write more about the background of today’s wave of mainly minimalistic sneakers of better quality. Below a bunch of versions of these, with focus on new stuff.
British Loake launched their first sneaker model just now, with the name Sprint. They are made in India, where Loake since a long time have had part of their production. The shoe is available in white leather and a few suede options, like this navy one. Price is about €190. Picture: Loake
Spanish-made have become a strong player among the quality sneaker branch, offering loads of models. Here’s a slightly different variant with partly braided upper, in a lovely dark green colour. Price is €310. Picture: Magnanni
Cheaney has a sneaker model with a sole that is a combination of the regular Margom sole (named after the company that is the main player for this type of sneaker soles where you stitch the upper to it) and a Dainite sole (named after the company that is the main player of the studded rubber sole for classic welted shoes). Price about €220. Picture: Cheaney
Sneakers with a hand painted patina also grows in popularity. Here’s a great one from Magic Shoe Company, which Michael Håkansson of Magic Mike Patina has started. The shoes are made in Almansa in Spain, and offered in a patina of choice. Price €260. Picture: Magic Shoe Company
The tradtitional American brands do sneakers as well, here’s a more running inspired sneaker, priced at about €290. Picture: Allen Edmonds
Higher sneaker model made by the Italian brand Velasca that costs abour €200. Picture: Velasca
Sneakers made in England is not commong. Here’s an exception, with British Grenson’s top model made in their own factory in Northamoton. Price is still not more than €320. Picture: Grenson
At Skolyx we recently dropped this updated version of our own sneaker model, made for us by a factory in Turkey. Here with a more padded tongue and topline, fully leather lined, in a nice light grey suede. Price is only €100. Picture: Skolyx
More and more cobblers nowadays offers resoling of sneakers made with the Margom sole type. There’s a few potential issues, like depending on the original model the fit could change a bit, the resole can’t be done more than once usually (similar to Blake stitched you have to stitch through the upper, which gets sensitive with more holes in it), etc. But it’s possible to get your old loved sneakers with new soles, like these above from Buttero. Price is usually around €80, this resole is made by the Swedish cobbler Bäckmans Skoservice in Stockholm. Picture: Bäckmans
Nice article and examples Jesper. These types of sneakers are becoming increasingly popular as an alternative to running shoes. My critique of whats being sold by the traditional sartorial shoe makers is that everyone is really doing the exact same model with only some variety in the types of leather. I’d like to see some more variety similar to the Allen Edmonds example be done in more interesting materials and shapes. Another one to add to the list is Crown Northampton, I had a chance to visit the factory on my recent trip and their focus is almost exclusively sneakers.
Gaurav: Thanks! Yeah a lot look very similar to Common Projects Achilles model (as I wrote about in the previous sneaker article), and when using the stitched “Margom” sole it’s relatively natural things become similar (I’ve seen closed lacing versions, buckle versions etc, to be frank it doesn’t really look good), and these soles have the pro that they can be resoled, unlike the type of soles used on the AE shoe above.
Yeah Crown Northampton is a cool brand, didn’t really fit in this post since they are well-establshed, but for the first one could have been part.
Hi, Buttero’s website lists sneakers around 200-300 euros, not 800. Unless you mean the resole costs 80€? Glad to know that Margom soles can be replaced though, I had no idea.
Nice shoes holistically, be it dress, sneakers, trainer etc, one very much happy to connect with yoyourr company.