Tag
There’s branches of people within “the classic shoe world” who are skeptical against factory-made Goodyear welted shoes in general and all types of shortcuts from making “the best shoes possible”, which ideally would be fully handmade bespoke of absolute best quality. Thing is, this industry, all of it, needs to have those who take these shortcuts – here’s why.
An increasing amount of new brands are introduced which all market themselves as offering shoes comparable to much higher-priced shoes, since they “cut out the middlemen”. This, is more or less just false advertising. These brands themselves are the middleman, and the difference in actual margins compared to the traditional quality shoe brands are small. Here’s why.
It’s certainly a special spring that we all have been through. The impact that the coronavirus has had on the whole society is huge, and for an industry like the manufacturing of quality shoes, it’s meant a whole new reality. Here’s an overview of what has happened to this industry this far, and some thoughts on what might come next.
The world of quality shoes is in general doing well in many regards when it comes to being sustainable and environmentally friendly. There’s still several areas where things can be improved though, some thoughts around this in today’s article.
The big luxury fashion houses often get a lot of criticism from us in “menswear” and classic shoes. Sometimes well deserved, but they also do a lot of good. In fact, as things stand today, we probably would have had significantly fewer really good shoes in the world without them.
The past few years the demand for regular cowhides has dropped dramatically, and in some places one has started to burry the hides since no one wants them. The reason is that more people want so-called vegan leather, the interest in leather shoes decline in general, and more. So far, premium skins have been spared, but the question is whether this trend will reach here as well.
Denounced staff, factory workers who are sent home because of lack of job, concerns about the future. Parts of the shoe industry in Northampton is already affected by the uncertainty caused by Brexit and UK’s goodbye to the EU, combined with other factors.
An interesting thing about shoes that at least in my eyes is a fact for every shoe out there, even the most beautiful ones, is that they all have at least one angle that they don’t look good at. Below some thoughts on this and a bunch of picture examples.
How to combine the two strongest shoe trends in recent years, with traditionally constructed quality shoes on one side and casual sneakers on the other? Of course, by making sneakers made of higher quality and, in many cases, mixing methods from traditional footwear manufacturing.
Since 15-20 years, the trend for the classic quality shoe market has been steadily on the rise, and in the last few years factories have been on at full throttle, lots of new brands have appeared on the market, and the number of stores selling this type of shoes are more than for many decades. However, a lot is pointing towards the fact that tougher times await the industry.
