Shoes that look better with age...

[dkatz]

Here are the promised pictures of my visit to Moto. I was impressed with the collection of shoes, belts, wallets and silver jewelry. The pieces all have a handmade quality and are exceptionally well crafted.

I had a hard time deciding which boots to buy, and by the time I made my purchase, I was late to meet my girlfriend and sister, so I only snapped a handful of quick pictures. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

An important point to note is that the shoes come in three sizes only: 1, 2 & 3. I typically wear a 9-9.5/42, and the size 2 fit me perfectly.

The uppers on the boots I bought are made out of one piece of leather, and have leather soles with vibram heels:[/Quote]

Mother of crap, those are beautifully plain boots. How much did they run you? Sorry if it's a dumb question... but where is this shop and do they ship to the US?

[Biff15]

...my boots:

l 2 r: Old Gringo, Santa Fe Harness, Sendra

...out of all my boots, these see the most light of day...

[Turntabloid]

did you check whether customer orders via online/email/phone are possible to outside japan locations?!

[nattomoto]

Christmas-

Yeah, only 3 sizes. I think the reason being is that all of the shoes are hand-made in small quantities that he picked the most common sizes to produce. As weird as it seems, the sizing seems to work for him.

I am not worried about stretching. I've got plenty of space between the laces.

And yes the flooring is leather tiles. How he did that is beyond me because they tiles were sturdy and had no give.

dkatz-

My boots were 55,000 Yen, which is the average price of the boots that I was looking at. The shop is in Aoyama, Tokyo and there is another one outside of Hiroshima. Some folks, myself included, had sent emails to the shop and have not gotten any responses. Sending an email in Japanese might help. I wasn't able to talk about shipping overseas, but I have seen a few models on rakuten and on titicaca-kato.com

Turnabloid-

Unfortunately, I didn't get to ask about overseas orders. I spoke to the cobbler/artisan/artist on the first day I went and told him about the interest here about his boots, and he was flattered. However, when I went back the following day to make my purchase, he wasn't there and the woman who helped me didn't speak much english.

I think using google translation or babelfish to translate a message into Japanese would help in getting a response.

[hurhur]

oh man. i need those chukka boots.

[fardin]

here is the lnk to the moto shop. it remebered seeing it on e workers site.

grant beautiful boots, cant rep you at the moment.

http://www.chukai.ne.jp/%7Emotos/index.htm

[nattomoto]

And a fit pic:

[pomata]

^very nice! and they will look even better in one year or two...

[vamks]

Where are those from, Zakurie? Very nice. I can't wait to see progress on them.

lol, check the previous page, and all the discussion on this one.

[grouse_allergy]

Thrift store Cole Haans

[js0930]

hey, white's boots fit question, to those of you that have them. i wear a 9D in allen edmonds and a 9D in sperry. Should I fit into a 9 in whites (getting a deal maybe so can't custom order) and is there any chance i would fit into a 9.5C?

thanks

also those moto boots are tempting me to blow off finals and head to japan.

[wmmk]

First of all, it's been a pleasure looking at a lot of the pictures in this thread.

Anyway, I was looking at these Loake boots (they're currently about 210 USD, factoring in conversions from GBP). I really like the profile & broguing, but the leather doesn't look especially nice, and I suppose I could do without the fake distressing. I've heard that these will age badly, since they're corrected grain, rather than full grain. Does this mean that they'll get worse over time, or just stay the same?

Here they are:

I'd love suggestions for something similarly priced that would age better.

[Whodinihimself]

^^^^ Pick up a pair of Tricker's brogue country boots....the "Stow" model i believe

[wmmk]

Hmm, thanks for the suggestion! The Trickers seem a bit more formal (still beautiful), but I suppose that'd go away with wear. Being a high school student who buys his own shit, I'd have a pretty tough time affording $350 boots. Maybe I'll lurk around ebay & supermarket...If I don't find anything in those places, might there be something nicer than the Loakes that's still cheaper than Tricker's?

Thanks again

-wmmk

[drapygo]

Anyone have the picture of someone wearing worn in Alden Indys? He was standing in a town or something. I think the model was asian? or white? haha.

[heinrich BCN]

Hmm, thanks for the suggestion! The Trickers seem a bit more formal (still beautiful), but I suppose that'd go away with wear. Being a high school student who buys his own shit, I'd have a pretty tough time affording $350 boots. Maybe I'll lurk around ebay & supermarket...If I don't find anything in those places, might there be something nicer than the Loakes that's still cheaper than Tricker's?

Thanks again

-wmmk

there is a trickers factory outlet on ebay.co.uk much cheaper and still very nice stuff to buy...

[fre-co]

Hmm, thanks for the suggestion! The Trickers seem a bit more formal (still beautiful), but I suppose that'd go away with wear. Being a high school student who buys his own shit, I'd have a pretty tough time affording $350 boots. Maybe I'll lurk around ebay & supermarket...If I don't find anything in those places, might there be something nicer than the Loakes that's still cheaper than Tricker's?

Thanks again

-wmmk

The simple fact is that Trickers are better quality than Loake. If you want better boots, you have to pay for them. You can look at Grenson, they too have a brogue boot and they often are listed on ebay.

The Trickers Stow is often listed in the ReTricker factory shop on ebay and have low starting prices but these are among the popular models and often fetch a good price in common sizes.

[heinrich BCN]

maybe you should have a look at the grenson sharp. english made, but I don't know how they compare to the Trickers

[wmmk]

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the colors that the Grensons, but the Trickers do look very nice, so I'll be checking the ReTricker page on ebay for them.

With that said, I rather like the appearance of the Loakes I originally posted. Over the years, will they look worse, or just stay the same (without the cool natural aging process that would take place with full grain leather boots)? If the latter, I'm perfectly fine with them...

[js0930]

this thread on styleforum might convince you against it.

hope it helps.

[Guest DCDenim]

holy shit those floresheim shoes are garbage!

[erk]

I called Bryan Schmidt at Giesche shoes to ask him a couple questions and he informed me that the kid black 86 boot is no longer being made by Alden. Pretty unfortunate seeing as how I wanted to order a pair.

also he is being forced to raise his price on the standard 405 (this may be old news to some people).

[heinrich BCN]

So, what is the new price?

[erk]

$300. thats up 30 from $270.

He told me Alden got mad at him when they found out he was selling them for so cheap, but that doesn't make any sense cause Alden gets the same amount of money no matter what the price is, Giesche is just dropping its overhead and its own profit. I guess its some kinda thing about status or it makes them mad that Giesche shoes is undercutting all their other retailers.

Its still the best price out there and I would recommend Bryan and Giesche shoes all day long to anyone who inquires.

[Happy Hooligan]

sherman brothers often have a sale on Alden

that's where I got mine. I think 300 delivered.... and they were sent direct from the Alden factory

[erk]

that does sound like a good deal but the service from bryan schmidt and giesche shoes is incredible. Bryan is very knowledgeable, helpful, and a real nice guy.

[mechanical pencil]

Does Gleiche have a website of the Aldens they stock?

[edmond]

link for the guy giesch?

[Guest DCDenim]

$300. thats up 30 from $270.

I guess its some kinda thing about status or it makes them mad that Giesche shoes is undercutting all their other retailers.

This.

No manufacturer wants to see their label on sale or discounted unless they authorize it. That's why a lot of these brands don't allow sales. If the retailers put them on sale it better be because they don't plan to restock. If the label found out they probably won't want to work with the merchant anymore or at least give them a warning first.

[erk]

Giesche Shoes of Geneva Inc.

(630) 232-2317

Ask for Bryan.

they don't have a website, but Bryan will answer any questions you have for him via telephone.

the store is a mom and pop shoe store that has been around forever and I cannot recommend them enough.

they can also get you anything made by Alden.