By slot: shoes

A guide to shoes

Shoes split into two families that can cost the same and have little in common: shoes built to be rebuilt, and shoes that are statements. Knowing which one you’re looking at tells you what the money went on.

Built to be rebuilt: the Goodyear welt

The word to know is welt. In a Goodyear-welted shoe, as Tricker’s explains it, the outer sole is sewn to the welt, and the cavity between welt and insole is filled with cork, which moulds to the wearer’s foot. The whole thing is covered by a leather mid-sole.

The welt acts as a buffer between insole and outsole, which makes the shoe much easier to resole. Tricker’s says its repairs department regularly restores shoes more than 20 years old, attaching a new sole and welt as long as the upper is still in one piece. The method takes its name from Charles Goodyear Jr, who invented the machine for it.

So part of the price of a welted shoe is a claim about time: you’re paying for the possibility of a second and third sole.

Upper leather

The same grain vocabulary applies here as for bags. Full grain has kept its entire surface; corrected grain has been partly buffed and then finished, according to the Leather Working Group’s definitions. Look at how a shoe is described, and at how the surface looks up close: a heavily finished upper tends to look very even and a little plastic, though that’s our observation and not a rule.

Shoes as statements

The Tabi

Martin Margiela’s split-toe shoe, with the big toe separated from the others, draws on traditional Japanese tabi. The Irish Times listed the boots among his key innovations when the Palais Galliera in Paris gave him a retrospective in 2018. The price of a Tabi has little to do with welts: to our eye, you’re buying an idea more than a construction.

The platform boot

Platform boots are part of the signature look of Rick Owens, along with exaggerated shoulders and a palette mostly of black and grey, as FashionUnited described it when the Palais Galliera staged his first French retrospective. Here the shoe changes how the whole body reads, and that is the point. More in our guide to style tribes.

What we look at

Our own checklist, not sourced fact:

The sole seam. A visible line of stitching round the sole’s edge suggests a shoe that can be resoled. Check the description to be sure.
The lining. Leather lining all the way through costs more, and you can usually see it.
In the game: boots tend to sit above low shoes in the same line, simply because there’s more of them. Runway silhouettes often sit above classics, so don’t assume the plainest shoe is the costliest one, even at a heritage brand.

Next: A guide to outerwear