Reflection Archives - Page 2 of 3

Reflection – A golden age for quality shoes

2020-10-25

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People often talk about how things were better before, and about the many challenges around today for the quality shoe industry (I’m definitely one of them). But if we zoom out a bit, it’s a fact that today is a golden age to be interested in quality shoes, in all price ranges, from €150 Goodyear welted to €4,000 full bespoke, the options and quality-price ratio available is better than in a long, long time.

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Reflection – Why we need shoe brands that take shortcuts

2020-08-23

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Jesper Ingevaldsson

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.

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Reflection – Don’t be fooled by the “no middlemen” marketing

2020-07-12

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Jesper Ingevaldsson

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 – if any. Here’s why.

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Reflection – How corona affect the shoe industry

2020-06-14

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Jesper Ingevaldsson

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.

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Reflection – Improve sustainability

2020-05-29

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Jesper Ingevaldsson

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.

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Reflection – The fashion houses’ impact on the quality shoe industry

2019-11-22

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Jesper Ingevaldsson

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.

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Reflection – New turn for the leather industry

2019-08-28

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Jesper Ingevaldsson

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.

Reflection – Brexit’s effect on Northampton

2019-01-13

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Jesper Ingevaldsson

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.

Reflection – Shoes ugly side

2018-12-02

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Jesper Ingevaldsson

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.

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Reflection – Quality sneakers

2018-05-02

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Jesper Ingevaldsson

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.

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