Prince Charles Out and About at Lobbs

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5576341.ece

 

[Max Flash]

Well, he hardly has far to walk from St James's Palace!

 

[Edward]

Jinkies, over two grand sterling for a pair of shoes??

 

[H.Johnson]

Yes. And when I was in John Lobb's shop in Hong Kong last September it was crowded. I wonder whether it is now?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

SHOES AREN'T WORTH THAT MUCH

Yes, it's unfortunate that traditionally crafted shoes are so expensive.

This can hardly be considered "upholding traditional crafts". Fair price for honest labour? Methinks not. How long does it take a craftsman to make a pair of shoes? 3 days, maybe? A fair wage at £100 a day for a skilled craftsman. Materials: conservatively, another £100? Makes £400 for a pair of shoes that will last a lifetime. Add a bit more to have personal lasts made. but not too much. Plaster of paris mould of the foot and resin last.

You can bet your ass the cobblers working for Lobb aren't pulling down anything like £100 a day.

Bugger the markup for the scheming business owners. These things just shouldn't cost this much.

bk

 

[dhermann1]

Yes, it's unfortunate that traditionally crafted shoes are so expensive.

This can hardly be considered "upholding traditional crafts". Fair price for honest labour? Methinks not. How long does it take a craftsman to make a pair of shoes? 3 days, maybe? A fair wage at £100 a day for a skilled craftsman. Materials: conservatively, another £100? Makes £400 for a pair of shoes that will last a lifetime. Add a bit more to have personal lasts made. but not too much. Plaster of paris mould of the foot and resin last.

You can bet your ass the cobblers working for Lobb aren't pulling down anything like £100 a day.

Bugger the markup for the scheming business owners. These things just shouldn't cost this much.bk

Mmmmm . . . I would think an average craftsman might make that £100 you describe, but I would hope top level craftsmen are making close to twice that. And I would imagine the raw materials are more expensive than average raw materials, again maybe twice the standard cost. If you figure that an average retailer doubles the cost of production for his final price, then the scheming business owners are only moderately gouging their customers.

 

[Tomasso]

Materials: conservatively, another £100?

I think it may be quite a bit more than that for world class skins, those which are used for the uppers. In the last decade or so Hermès (which in addition to its leather goods biz also owns John Lobb Paris (bespoke) and John Lobb RTW) have purchased control of several of the top tanneries in the world in response to proliferating leather prices. Thus allowing Hermès to cherry pick the best stuff for its own needs while stabilizing its costs and then leaving the rest of the elite leather makers to fight over the scraps.

 

[H.Johnson]

This is like the argument over the 1000GBP raincoat that took place some time ago. But let me suggest a reason for these high prices.

I have an octogenarian friend who worked in a local shoe company for most of his working life. It closed down 10 years ago. The shoes that this company made were honest 'mid range' shoes as bought 'for best' by working men until relatively recently. They were therefore susceptible to being undercut by cheaper imports in a market where 'Made in England' lost its marketing appeal.

My friend is of the opinion that if his firm had improved their quality only slightly, plugged the 'hand made' thing more in advertising and charged a lot more for their shoes (and developed the mystique that goes along with that high price) they would still be in business, albeit on a smaller scale. As he knows the shoe market backwards (from clicker to closer to factory manager to marketing director in one working lifetime) I find it hard to find fault with his thesis.

As an analogy, universities in the UK can now set their own fees and their own entry requirements. My own university was struggling to recruit enough students, so it raised its fees and put up its entry requirements. The result? More applications, more students. People thought it now had superior quality.


As an aside, some time ago my friend dug out his last and tools and made me a pair of dealer boots. They are among the nicest boots I have ever handled. I asked him what I owed him. He said it was in exchange for me installing a new version of MS Windows and a wireless modem on his home computer. He valued it as about the same in terms of effort.

 

[Tomasso]

As an aside, some time ago my friend dug out his last and tools and made me a pair of dealer boots. They are among the nicest boots I have ever handled. I asked him what I owed him. He said it was in exchange for me installing a new version of MS Windows and a wireless modem on his home computer. He valued it as about the same in terms of effort.

What's his contact info, maybe I can do some bartering with him.

 

[H.Johnson]

Tomasso,

I don't think he's planning to come out of retirement - or that his wife would let him. It's a pleasure to know a genuine old-time craftsman, though.

 

[Tomasso]

Tomasso,

I don't think he's planning to come out of retirement .

I was just funnin'. I once had a neighbor who was a world class chef and as a single lady on the diminutive side she would sometimes require the help of a man around the house (shoveling walkways, heavy lifting, etc..). I would always lend a hand and as a reward would regularly find all sorts of gastronomical goodies left on my doorstep. I cried when she moved away.

She is known throughout the culinary world as the creator of the chocolate bag.

 

[Edward]

Bugger the markup for the scheming business owners. These things just shouldn't cost this much.

bk

Agreed wholeheartedly.... all too often, the mark-up that a product can command for such intangibles as "heritage", location of assembly, brand-name, and all other such hooey is not passed on to the worker whose skill creates the item, not the tiniest bit. Yay capitalism.

FWIW, the comfiest, most beautiful shoes i have ever owned are a hand-made to measure pair of correspondants / spectators I had made in Beijing for GBP110. Given more time there (it takes about two to three weeks for a pair to be done), I'd have a dozen pairs run up....

As a general rule, if I can afford it, I'm prepared to pay for quality, but I've never been daft enough to pay for brand or heritage or any of that other irrelevant nonsense!

 

[dhermann1]

I'm reminded of a New Yorker cartoon from the early 70's. There's a John Houseman-ish looking, 60-ish Yaley type guy talking to a shop girl, saying, "One supposes that if my parents wanted Yves Sainte Laurent's initials on my clothes, they would have named me Yves Sainte Laurent."

 

[Talbot]

I'm reminded of a New Yorker cartoon from the early 70's. There's a John Houseman-ish looking, 60-ish Yaley type guy talking to a shop girl, saying, "One supposes that if my parents wanted Yves Sainte Laurent's initials on my clothes, they would have named me Yves Sainte Laurent."

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

Not to hijack the thread but there used to be a time when if you were wearing a logo you were advertising it.

These days the wearer is being validated by it.