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Report – John Lobb Paris’ factory
It is one of Northampton's most reputable shoe factories, producing shoes for what's probably the strongest brand. Shoegazing visited John ...
Report – Berluti’s bespoke workshop
In the middle of Paris, a stone's throw from Champs Élysée one find not only Berluti's large flagship store, but ...
Report – Isetan Men’s shoe department
Isetan Men's shoe department is almost legendary among shoe interested men. It's for a good reason. Here you find the ...
Report – Main-d’Or / Eiji Murata
He has produced some of the world's finest shoes for over 12 years, he is highly praised by the bespoke shoemaking ...
Report – Nicholas Templeman
He had what many would call a dream job as lastmaker at John Lobb in London, but wanted more and left ...
Report – Stefano Bemer
Stefano Bemer has in recent years become an increasingly important player in the Italian classic shoe sphere, with a more ...
Report – Marquess Shoemaker
Marquess is one of the brightest stars on the growing Japanese bespoke shoe heaven. When I visited Tokyo the past fall ...
Report – Loake factory visit
In old industrial neighbourhoods in the slightly rough town of Kettering in eastern Northamptonshire, one of England's largest manufacturers of ...
Report – Micam 2020
Last week, the winter edition of the world's largest shoe fair, Micam, was held in Milan, Italy. Shoegazing was there, ...
Report – Alte Art
Alte Art is relatively unknown, even though one founder is one of the pioneers of the thriving Japanese bespoke shoe ...
Report – Bespoke shoemaker Janne Melkersson
He has been working with shoes since 1977, hosts shoemaking courses for people from all over the world, and he ...
Report – Saphir factory visit
Saphir is perhaps the world's most renowned manufacturer of shoe care products, with a history that goes back over 100 ...
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Review – Zonkey Boot 231 Marco in green shrunken bull
Zonkey Boot has been around for over a decade, yet still remains a bit of a hidden gem for many ...
Review – Meermin 101482 Tan Country Calf
The Spanish brand Meermin has been grown rapidly since they launched their brand in the European and US market a few ...
Review – Orban’s Oxford Soho Dark brown
The French brand Orban's is an interesting new actor with a some nice lasts and models and a low price tag ...
Review – Cheaney Imperial Holyrood Bronzed Espresso
Cheaney is one of the major manufacturers in Northampton, England, and a few years ago they launched a new top line ...
Review – Carlos Santos 7201 Braga Cognac
Portuguese Carlos Santos is a manufacturer which has buzzed a little under the surface for many years, but never really been ...
Review – Heschung Crocus Anilcalf café
Heschung is one of the classic French brands of quality shoes, with their own distinct style. Here's a substantial review of ...
Review – Crownhill Shoes The Stewart
Spanish Crownhill Shoes is one of many new players in the lower price segment of classic quality shoes. They compete ...
Review – Miyagi Kogyo Semi Brogue Derby Old Snuff
One of the Japanese RTW brands that are famous also outside their home country is Miyagi Kogyo. The first retailer ...
Review – Loake 1880 Export Grade Hanover Onyx Black
About 1.5 years ago, British Loake launched its new top range 1880 Export Grade. A range in the lower mid-range ...
Review – Boot Black shoe care products
Often when the Japanese do things they do it properly. That also goes for shoe care products, where ambitious Boot ...
Review – Master Shoemakers by Gary Tok
New books about classic men's style show up every now and then, but books solely on classic shoes are much ...
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Buyer’s guide – Low-priced quality shoes
Here's an updated version of one of the most popular articles on Shoegazing. A comprehensive list with quality shoes for ...
Buyer’s guide – Bespoke prices
For those who want to get an overview of the prices among different manufacturers of bespoke shoes, a lot of ...
Buyer’s guide – Acme Shoemaker
One of the most interesting new brands that's been introduced lately is Acme Shoemaker. Based in Beijing, they are a ...
Buyer’s guide – Hiro Yanagimachi
Hiro Yanagimachi is one of the pioneers of the new wave of Japanese bespoke shoemakers which established themselves in the ...
Buyer’s guide – Yohei Fukuda
Yohei Fukuda is one of the most acclaimed Japanese bespoke shoemakers today, and many shoe interested men have drooled over ...
Buyer’s guide – Main d’Or
Eiji Murata, the man behind the brand Main d'Or, is one of the highest rated bespoke shoe makers in the ...
Buyer’s guide – Stores in London
London is one of the best cities in the world for those interested in classic quality shoes. The capital of ...
Buyer’s guide – Indonesian quality shoes
There's many countries in the world who has a quite large production of quality welted footwear, yet still fly under ...
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Guide – Shoe care brands
The amount of good quality shoe care brands available are more than in a long time, and a lot of ...
Guide – Waist definitions
This is certainly a complicated topic. Few things in the shoe world are as confused as how the waist and ...
Guide – Shoe leather tanneries
Anyone interested in footwear will have come across a number of different tannery names in the marketing of the shoe ...
Guide – How to prevent and remove mould from leather shoes
The formation of mould on leather shoes is a common problem especially in some parts of the world during some ...
Shoe care and shoe shining – The complete guide
A detailed step by step shoe care guide with lots of information on how and why you should take care ...
Guide – Methods of shoe construction
There are of course several different methods of construction to put together a shoe. In this article all the most ...
Guide – Shoe sizes
Most people have a fairly decent know how about how shoe sizes works, the difference between for example the European scale and the ...
Guide – Base wardrobe with quality shoes
In addition to shoe care, the most common questions I get is about purchases for those who have just started ...
Guide – Resoling and re-heeling
Traditionally constructed shoes, not least stitched ones, are almost always marketed with emphasis on the possibilities of resoling and repairing ...
Guide – Simple corrections of fit
Due to the fact that a vast majority of the shoes sold are Ready to Wear, and many of them ...
Guide – Toe shapes
How the toe is designed is perhaps the most important aesthetic part on a shoe. With its position at the ...
Guide – Shoe brushes
One always talk about how much easier things are with good tools, and this also applies to shoe care and ...
Guide – Anatomy of the foot
Understanding foot structure and the various terms used helps a lot when you're truing to find the right fit on RTW ...
Guide – My shoe collection 6
Once again time for a review of my shoe collection at its current state - one of the most asked ...
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In-depth – Creases on the toe cap
It's one of the most common misconceptions in the world of quality footwear: that creases on the toe cap means ...
In-depth – All about sole and heel edges
Few things say so much about the actual quality of the making on a pair of welted shoes as the ...
In depth – Disassembly of shoes
Continuing on the theme of what distinguishes shoes in different price ranges, this time in a proper in-depth manner. Together ...
In-depth – How shoes crease
After once again receiving questions from readers about this subject this week, I felt it might be time to write ...
In-depth – RTW and fit
Good fit is the single most important feature of a shoe, even so, a lot of people wear shoes that fits quite ...
In-depth – The downside of shell cordovan
Shell cordovan is a loved material by many, with its special characteristics and durability. However, there's a few downsides of ...
In-depth – Leather quality vs leather properties
To judge leather quality is a science of its own, and many times people confuse leather quality with specific properties ...
In depth – Feet changes
I often talk about that fit is the single most important thing when it comes to shoes. An aggravating factor ...
In-depth – The tools’ importance
Just like the fact that good machines are extremely important for shoe factories are good tools of great importance for ...
In depth – What affects how shoes are stretched nr. 2
Some time ago I wrote a post about the different things that affect how shoes will stretch on the Swedish ...
In-depth – How the colour of leather vary
One difficulty that the growing online retailing of shoes poses for both stores and customers is the rendering of the ...
In-depth – Why shoes can be copied
Every manufacturer of quality shoes has their versions of the classic models - plain cap toe oxford, semi brogues, adelaides, ...
In-depth – Feet shapes around the world
Just as the way people look varies around the world, people's feet also are different depending on where you come ...
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Reflection – The actual time it takes to make welted shoes
The tougher the competition gets - the more doubtful the marketing gets. One of the things that brands tend to ...
Reflection – A golden age for quality shoes
People often talk about how things were better before, and about the many challenges around today for the quality shoe ...
Reflection – Don’t be fooled by the “no middlemen” marketing
An increasing amount of new brands are introduced which all market themselves as offering shoes comparable to much higher-priced shoes, ...
Reflection – Is biofabricated leather the future?
Imagine that the raw material for your future leather shoes is not from animals, but grown in large laboratories. Already ...
Reflection – Improve sustainability
The world of quality shoes is in general doing well in many regards when it comes to being sustainable and ...
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The tip – Reasons for heel slippage, and the solutions
Heel slippage when walking is one of the more common problems people experience with new shoes. It can be caused ...
The tip – Nylon stockings to regain the shine
Using old deposited pantyhose from your girlfriend/wife to polish up the last shine on your shoes after they've had some ...
The tip – Stretch shoes yourself
The subject of stretching shoes has been featured several times here on the blog, it's really the only way to make small shoes ...
The tip – Place the creases
This is a technique that works best on cordovan shoes, but which also can be used for normal calf leather. It's ...
The tip – How to avoid and fix stains from hand sanitisers
When hand sanitisers are used to a much larger extent than pre-covid, we now see an increasing amount of shoes ...
The tip – Space in front of the toes
Many misconceptions about what space you "should" have in front of your toes in shoes are spread and believed in ...
The tip – Fix loose loafers with tongue pads
Loafers are, as most know, always more difficult to get a good fit on, since you have no opportunity to ...
The tip – Flush rubber toe taps
The toe on the front of the sole always down faster than the rest of the sole, and for some ...
The tip – Use removable insoles of the correct material
A nice thing with quality of shoes is that they have insoles of leather that allows the feet to breathe ...
The tip – Let shoes dry laying down
I've written about this before in other shoe care articles, that it's good to let wet shoes dry lying on ...
The tip – Avoid pinched big toes
One of the most common unusual fit problems, to use a complicated expression, is that the shoes pinch on top ...
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