Looking back, it’s almost comical how men used to buy footwear. Ten years ago, if you wanted a pair of well-made shoes and couldn’t afford any of the better-known brands, you had three options. Scour eBay for something gently used; try one of the lesser-known labels from an overseas shop (and pray they fit); or call Allen Edmonds’ store in Wisconsin for discounted factory seconds (an industry term for shoes that didn’t pass quality controls). Back then, getting a pair of shoes fell into the old engineering line, “good, fast, cheap … pick two.” Whatever you’d save in money, you’d spend in time.
Today, the entry-level side of the market has exploded. It’s not terribly hard to get a pair of well-made shoes now for less than what you’d pay for something made in Northampton. And you don’t have to spend a lot of time doing it. Brands such as Meermin, Bow Tie, Cobbler Union, Carlos Santos, Paul Evans, Jack Erwin, Kent Wang, and Beckett Simonon sit in the same space previously occupied by only Allen Edmonds and some obscure names. Allen Edmonds also now has a dedicated online store for their factory seconds, so you don’t have to call their Wisconsin location and hunt for photos of the models online, like some kind of Senior Research Fellow on Frugality.
Yesterday saw a new entrant into this competitive market. The Swedish shoe store Skoaktiebolaget (a sponsor on this site, although this is not a sponsored post) debuted their in-house label, Löf & Tung. The name comes from the company’s two co-founders, Patrik Löf and Daniel Tung. “In Swedish, Tung means heavy and Löf means leaf,” says Patrik. “Daniel and I are very different in some ways, and the company’s name reflects this. Tung stands for stability and having a foundation, whereas Löf represents fickleness, unpredictability, and always being on motion.” If you look closely at their logo, you can see the ampersand has been cleverly modified to form the letters LT.
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