Things are better than l can ever remember them in Melbourne; the designer shoe options are worse than ever but the variety of stitched sole dress shoes is now really good. Even better is the fact that our prices are now becoming close to world competitive because our dollar is so strong. Only last year we had Church’s being sold for $1,200 and Edward Green rtw for $2,000 (MTO was $2,800), C&J were also $850 without trees. Today l noticed that the Church’s have reduced to a full time price of $650, Edward Green have gone down to about $1,300 at Henry Bucks and the C&J are now $550. From what l can gather from numerous conversations is that the higher end footwear business has picked up because prices have become so reasonable, but behind that pickup in higher end shoo business comes a great internet following from young men wanting to wear good shoos. Blokes know what E.G are and many have now heard of Lobb, so slowly but surely the shoe climate has changed in a way that has never happened previously.

Now the young cordwainer called James at Captains of Industry has left because he now lives a long way from Melbourne and never had his heart in making handmade footwear, but the real exciting news is that a nice young fellow called Theo has continued to progress in making handmade shoos and is doing a splendid job. I remember Theo not being able to even thread a bristle, but now he cuts a pattern and hand stitches/welts  the soles of the shoes easily. His shoos are about $1,500 and he is making no money doing it (takes two weeks to make a single pair), but his client list is long. I inspected his wood pegged and handstitched soles and they passed with flying colours, so l will use his services one day too….so much that can be done. lt is also rumoured that he has now bought a goodyear welting machine from overseas, this makes him the only person outside of R.M.Williams which has one in Australia. Theo does plan to make a goodyear welted rtw range as well.

Now l never thought that l would ever have the chance to own or see Edward Green and John Lobb in the flesh, but in recent years l have had rare glimpses of the Edward Green at Henry Bucks but never took it any further because of the extreme pricing. But unknown to me, Henry Bucks actually had a sale on all their best shoes (never has happened in all my years of knowledge) and E.G’s were flying at the door at $700 a pop. My goodness….that really stung me when l heard that because l had long given up on Henry Bucks as rude and evil because of their pricing. During the sale all types of blokes were snagging multiple pairs of  the E.G’s. After an hour of tears from learning about the E.G sale l then got the shock of my life when l came across another place that stocked some.EG models, my eyes lit up like dinner plates and l can’t think of anything else. Going to go back tomorrow and try on a pair.

But the incredible news is that many of the boys were talking about a crazy bloke who is taking a huge risk by importing 100 pairs of Edward Green and John Lobb and plans to sell them in trendy Smith Street. He has got guts for daring to dream, but l want him to succeed so l want to help this bloke sell them all and get Melbourne rocking with Edward Green and BIG boy Lobb. I am going to offer my services for free on weekends and sell the John Lobb for him because to sell these high priced shoes it needs a certain type of guy to be able to do it. It’s not just selling a shoe, it is selling a look, lifestyle and so much more. But even more important is trying to talk the fellow into doing special stalls and events in hotel lobbys for corporate functions and social events for the elite. lf we can draw these people over to the shoes and let me lose on them l know we can sell these bastards. I feel the strong need to create a need in men for John Lobb. The bloke starts selling in about one weeks time.

Hopefully tomorrow l come home with my first Edward Green. But soon my dream of dreams will hopefully come true with my first pair of John Lobb. As you can all probably imagine, exciting times are ahead and l can barely contain myself. We still have Carmina (all sizes are too big for me unfortunately)   and all the various English brands.

Another new shop to open selling good brands is Begger Man Thief in South Melbourne. They also have some type of business arrangement with Henry Bucks and may also do custom shoes made by some new fella. l may be doing a special photoshoot with the owner soon. l also suggested that we try to organise a men's shoo party for mid - highend shoo wearers and to let me give a speech on the importance of good shoos.
http://www.beggarmanthief.com.au/showroom.php

In conclusion:
The Melbourne shoo scene was once dead and overpriced, but now new life has been breathed into the scene with easy access to education, shoo-porn and good prices. Even buying online was non existant in Oz for years because our exchange rate made it too cost prohibitive; for eg, you could buy Trickers on ebay or C&J from the factory and still end up paying over 1k for them, or you could buy John Lobb on sale and still pay almost 3k for them. But with better prices the aussie men have now had their first opportunities to wear shoes and spread the word to other folks. lt used to be that shoes like Trickers and C&J were for both the very wealthy and/or crazy shoo addicts, but now it's becoming a shoe within a regular guy's reach.

Last edited by The_Shooman (2012-11-16 20:03:48)