Made to measure

The case for a pair of your own.

A shoe cut to one person is a different proposition from a shoe cut to a population. Here is what that changes, what it asks of you in return, and exactly where the weeks go. Everything stated plainly, because a considered purchase deserves to be made with the facts in hand.

Side by side

Custom against the shelf.

Measured against a well made retail shoe at a comparable price, not against the cheapest thing on the shelf. Where retail holds the advantage, we say so and mark the row.

The measure Off the shelf Cut to you
Fit Graded from an averaged last. One size covers both feet, and width is offered in one or two coarse steps if at all. If your foot sits near the average, this works well and costs you nothing. A last per foot, cut from your measured length, width, girth, instep and heel volume. Asymmetry is kept rather than averaged out.
Price Retail holds this Volume production spreads tooling and labour across thousands of pairs, and a good retail shoe in comparable leather will cost less than ours. That is real, and it is the honest arithmetic of scale. Each pair is a run of one. A last, a pattern and a cutting table given over to a single customer, with nothing to spread the cost across. You are paying for a shoe that exists only in your shape.
Speed Retail holds this On the shelf today. If you need shoes for Saturday, this is not a close call. Four to six weeks, because that is how long it takes to build a pair properly by hand. Nothing ships from a shelf, because nothing waits on one.
Returns Retail holds this Try, decide, return. The convenience is genuine, and it is funded by a return rate that runs high precisely because fit is a guess. A shoe cut to your feet fits no one else, so there is no returns rack for it to go on. In place of that we stand behind the fit itself: two corrections per pair, sixty days, built again at our cost until it is right.
Trying before buying Retail holds this Thirty seconds in a shop tells you most of what you need to know. You will meet the shoe when it arrives. We ask for that trust, and we have built the entire process around deserving it: a human reads your file, a preview shows you the design, and the guarantee carries the risk rather than you.
Choice You choose from what was made. Colourways are decided a season ahead by someone forecasting demand, and the interesting combination is often the one that sold out or was never produced. You choose the upper material, colour, lining, midsole, outsole, stitching and welt, and see it rendered before you commit. Roughly the whole point.
Durability Ranges enormously. A cemented sole on corrected grain will not last. A welted shoe from a serious maker will last years and is a fair alternative to us. Vegetable tanned leather over a cork bed, an outsole cut to your own outline and bonded by hand, all built on a last that matches your foot so the shoe flexes where it was drawn to. Most footwear that fails early is a fit problem wearing a materials costume.
Repairability Depends entirely on construction, and the answer is rarely on the product page. Glued flat soles and foam midsoles are effectively disposable. Made to be resoled, and your last stays on file. A repair years from now, or a second pair in a different leather, begins from the same geometry rather than from nothing.
Sustainability Efficient per unit, wasteful in aggregate. Overproduction, unsold stock and destroyed inventory are structural rather than accidental. Nothing exists until someone asks for it, so there is no unsold stock and nothing to destroy. Materials chosen to age, be replaced, or return to the ground. The fair caveat is that a single pair still travels from Portugal to reach you.
Who you talk to A support queue, usually scripted, usually working from a returns policy rather than from your foot. A person who can see your measurement file and your build. Ask about suede against leather at eleven at night and a human answers.
Risk Retail holds this Low and immediate. The worst afternoon costs you a return label. You commit before you know, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can do is carry that risk with you: the guarantee, the corrections, and a person on the other end of it from the first message to the last.

Figures vary by model, material and destination, so treat these as the shape of the thing rather than a quotation. Ask before you order and we will give you the exact number for the pair you are configuring.

The making

Where the weeks are spent.

Ranges rather than a single number, because your pair moves through a workshop where people are working with their hands. The clock starts the moment your measurements arrive.

  1. 01 Measurements 1 to 3 days Your photos become a foot model, then a person reads it. Anything ambiguous is settled with you now rather than discovered later, because this is the cheapest place in the whole process to get something right.
  2. 02 Digital last 2 to 4 days A last is built for each foot, with fit allowances set by the material you chose. Asymmetry, instep height and every note you sent are designed in at this stage.
  3. 03 Pattern and cutting 3 to 6 days The pattern is drawn to your last, then hides are chosen and cut by hand. Vegetable tanned leather carries the marks of a life, and cutting around them to find the best of the hide takes the time it takes.
  4. 04 Closing 4 to 7 days The upper is stitched, lined and reinforced. This is the most skilled hand work in the shoe, done by people who have done it for a very long time.
  5. 05 Lasting and soling 5 to 9 days Your upper is pulled over your last and left to take the shape, the cork is laid, and the Vibram outsole is cut to your outline and cemented. The resting period is not negotiable. It is the difference between a shoe that holds its shape and one that does not.
  6. 06 Finishing 2 to 4 days Edges dressed, laces fitted, then a final measurement against your file before the box is closed.
  7. 07 Shipping 3 to 8 days From Portugal to your door. Quicker within Europe, longer beyond it.
Measurements to doorstep Four to six weeks

Said in advance

What asks for a little more time.

  • Workshop queue 1 to 3 weeks There are a finite number of hands, and autumn into December is the busiest stretch of the year. We will always give you the real date rather than the one you would prefer to hear.
  • A fit revision 2 to 4 weeks Should the first pair want adjusting, the second is built from a corrected last. Covered in full, and worth the wait to arrive at a shoe that is exactly right.
  • Measurements worth retaking 2 to 5 days Low light, socks, a foot cropped at the edge of frame. We would rather ask again than build on a guess.
  • Waiting for the right hide 1 to 2 weeks Leathers are batch dyed. If your combination falls between batches we wait for the hide that matches rather than sending you one that nearly does.
  • A special request Quoted individually Anything beyond the standard configuration is priced and scheduled before you commit to it.
  • Customs 3 to 10 days Beyond the EU, clearance runs on its own schedule. We will tell you what to expect for your country.

Buy off the shelf if

  • You need shoes this month.
  • Standard sizes have always sat well on your feet.
  • You would rather try a pair on before deciding.
  • You enjoy changing your shoes with the season.
  • You want the option of sending them back on a whim.

Have a pair made if

  • You have spent years adjusting to shoes instead of the other way around.
  • Your two feet differ, or your width and your length disagree.
  • You are on your feet all day and comfort is not a luxury.
  • You would rather own three pairs for a decade than ten for a year.
  • You would like to know what is in the shoe, and whose hands built it.

Begin with your own two feet.

Measuring is free and takes three minutes. See your own geometry first, then decide what you would like built on it.

Take measurements