Proper leather shoes

Both brands are nice, but probably too heavy/rugged for my relatively short journey.

Perhaps I'll just swap socks at work.

Stylmartin Indian fit the bill: https://the-cafe-racer.com/stylmartin-indian-motorcycle-boots-brown

I wear mine with either type of sock. The soles aren't super stiff or anything and they're incredibly hard wearing.

Haven't seen the brown irl, but the black is nice, so I assume the brown would be too.

I'd say any of the Aus-made brands like Redback or R. M. Williams would be superior to the Blundstones.

Prepare for a #csb

Yuketen held their annual sample sale yesterday at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Los Angeles and I just so happened to be there this weekend.

A few years ago they made a load of Cordovan stuff that they can no longer make because the factory that made them shut down and nobody (in Yuki’s words) ‘is skilled enough in the US to make these shoes how I want them made’.

They make a $1500 tassel loafer consisting of seven different colours of Cordovan for example.

Anyway, they had stock with minor imperfections and I’m talking really minor. Mine has a slight crease mark on the right shoe that is hardly visible.

I’ve met him a couple of times, have spent a fair bit on his brands previously at full price and also spent a fair chunk on Monitaly clothes yesterday (Yuki’s clothing line), so when I asked how much they’d be as I really had no idea, he said ‘for you, $300.’ And my jaw hit the floor. He was selling them to other people for $500 and on top of that, they’re a $1000 pair of shoes. So suffice to say, I’m on shoe cloud nine. Dark mahogany Horween Cordovan with Cordovan inner soles. He said they should last for ten years before maybe needing to be resoled. And perhaps a re-heel at the five year mark.

I also got a pair of Yuketen clogs and my fiancé got a pair of Yuketen trainers and some Chamula Huaraches (another of Yuki’s brands) that he gave her for free. That was a nice touch. He told us how he tried to pay the factory in Mexico that has been making the Huaraches for the Mexican market for decades more per shoe than they asked for because he wanted them to be perfect and they said no. But he kept having to return stock to them because they didn’t meet his QC standards. That was three years ago. He’s now paying them that $5 more per pair and they’re perfect every time...

Oh and they gave us a ten percent discount so the loafers were $270 in reality. All around a great day of buying stuff... $4100 worth of stuff and we gave them $725.

The first photo is the stand of Cordovan samples that Yuki was quite literally guarding. If people picked them up by touching the cordovan, he’d ask them to put them down and said ‘these are very expensive shoes, you have to hold them like this’. Was very entertaining...

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In this economy? Damn son.

Waiting for it to be reported to the green eyed bitching thread?

Post it wherever you want man, I’m just saying four large for some sheux is pretty wild.

Well nobody paid $1000 for a pair of shoes, did they.

I actually think people should be allowed to spend their money as they chose.

AFAIK JB works hard and is allowed to buy nice things for himself.

Yeah, and people should still be allowed to surprised. Don’t see what your problem is.

I was talking about the RRP. I apologise everyone, perhaps this is the norm. I’m humbled.

Having just reread your comment, I think you may be confused. The $4100 (that actually cost $725) worth of stuff consisted of a boat load of fantastic Made in LA clothing and four pairs of shoes, one of which retails at $1000.....

No need to apologise. The cost of clothing that is made by people who get paid a proper wage and are artisans in their craft, especially in the case of shoes, is something I’m more than happy to discuss!

Ballers ball away! I take umbrage at the fact I’m no longer allowed to be amazed though. DJ, that golf thread really has you salty mate.

Salty? Should see my block list thanks to shit like the XR thread.

Actually, that’s a great idea!

I was wondering about the cost from your previous post.

He was paying something like an extra $5 a pair to get the required qc so I can't imagine the cost there is that much. Is it the materials that cost that much? I have no idea how much leather costs and how that would contribute to a thousand dollar RRP.

Mm. Again. Not sure if I was very clear. I wrote that post very early this morning :-)

The extra $5 per pair of shoes was for the Chamula Huaraches which are made in Mexico and retail at $125. That’s obviously the end consumers retail price, not the wholesale price for retailers.

Yuketen shoes are obviously far more expensive to manufacture. The cost of Cordovan itself from Horween and the labour costs of workman and work women who have made shoes their entire lives in a small workshop in Maine. The loafers are made on handmade lasts that are developed specifically for each shoe of which not many pairs are made. The transportation of the different components of the shoe from around the US to get to the workshop... The actual heel, the hand cut leather sole. It all adds up... it’s a premium shoe and Yuketen don’t have the sale economies of scale as a large brand. I can’t find any Horween cordovan shoes for much less than $650. So it’s not just Yuketen charging that much. Even Allen Edmonds, which are pretty entry level in the world of Made in the USA, charge $650 retail for their cordovan shoes and the cordovan is imported.

I think it’s an interesting conversation to have anyway, when some people would spend $1500 on a resold pair of limited Nike’s, or several hundred dollars on a pair of Yeezy’s at retail, it makes me feel that $1000 on a pair of handcrafted cordovan loafers is a straight up bargain.

Good read on cordovan: https://www.gentlemansgazette.com/cordovan-leather-from-horween/

So cordovan doesn’t crease (or so Wikipedia tells me). Could they hold the key to everlasting Air Force 1s?

Nice cop, looks like mahogany or cigar cordovan so pretty rare. That’s crazy cheap for Horween cordovan, I paid a lot more for my boots from Enzo Bonafé .

Yep, dark mahogany says the stamp on the inside. And yeah, insanely good. He only sold one other pair. Very tempted to get a pair of tassel loafers he had.

Wish I had the dollar. Excellent value for craftsmanship.

Hi Carson. Might be interested in the Hyde's - can you post a pic or two?

Hi, will do when home this eve