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Archibald London Hand Welted Shoes - preorder issues, discussion,and resolution.

TheShetlandSweater

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I find this all both humorous and disheartening. Humorous because I think "shoe guys" can be the most insufferable people on here and I like to see them get a comeuppance, and disheartening for the obvious reasons.

Also, I just wanted to say that I find it tremendously unattractive when one seller bashes or talks negatively about another. If you are selling shoes, you should not be saying negative things in public about others who do, unless they have done anything to slight you in particular or unless you feel the need to apprise the public of shady stuff that people aren't already aware of.
 

tropics

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i am going to buy up all remaining pairs of these, scrawl on the side in tipp-ex "these are not hand welted" and sell them for $2000 a pair. styleforum legends, for the man who has everything including a pink cashmere attolini tie.
 

tropics

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Are mine hand welted? You will observe the bumps and stitching along the insoles.


8A324F31-1B27-4FB9-AF0A-C1846ECFD290.jpeg
 

shirtingfantasy

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It all comes down to if something is too good the be true, it ain't.

But honestly, if you look at the price of Enzo Bonafe and Vass (both have healthy or unhealthy discounts almost everywhere), I don’t know why AoL could be considered “too good (value for money)” in 2020 and 2021.

Whenever I see how they advertised their shoes as handwelted and “finger-stitched”, and accidentally ended up in this PR disaster, I feel bad for them...
 

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shirtingfantasy

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A particularly cocky shoemaker I know (@clee1982 you know who), after knowing the incident, said:

“sure their shoes are handwelted, yes, but then just hand-glued” ?‍♂️
 

JohnMRobie

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But honestly, if you look at the price of Enzo Bonafe and Vass (both have healthy or unhealthy discounts almost everywhere), I don’t know why AoL could be considered “too good (value for money)” in 2020 and 2021.

Whenever I see how they advertised their shoes as handwelted and “finger-stitched”, and accidentally ended up in this PR disaster, I feel bad for them...
The price was competitive with Vass and just a little less than EB and the new Asian HW makers at full price - the naked price brought it pretty close to in line with the 2020/21 Vass sales. Definitely wasn’t at the level so low of wondering “how is this so inexpensive - what a deal” and were still more than meermin’s linea maestro line I think?
 

taxgenius

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The price was competitive with Vass and just a little less than EB and the new Asian HW makers at full price - the naked price brought it pretty close to in line with the 2020/21 Vass sales. Definitely wasn’t at the level so low of wondering “how is this so inexpensive - what a deal” and were still more than meermin’s linea maestro line I think?

Hungary (Vass) and China have much cheaper labor than Italy.
 

JohnMRobie

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