Shoe

Obligatory this happened before the ~situation~.

I'm going to be vague so no one guesses exactly what and where I'm talking about, but there is a brand of shoe that can only be purchased by physically travelling to a specific physical location and buying them in person from a shop. They're not sold online or exported. I have travelled to that location multiple times and already owned one pair of the shoes in question when this happened. I was travelling there again, and wanted another pair in another color, so I stopped by the store. (I was not wearing the pair I already owned at the time.)

I went to straight to the location in the store where the shoes are, immediately saw the color I wanted, and was in the process of lifting a pair in my size (7) off the shelf, when a sales associate came up to me and started asking me questions ie, have you had a pair of these before, do you know what size you need, let me help you pick out a color, you do realise your feet swell from travel and you'll need a smaller size, right?, etc. I tried to tell her I already have a pair and I know exactly what I'm after, but she ignored me, talked over me, and insisted I try them on in the store first. I did, and even though they fit me perfectly, she said, "oh no, you can't wear those, you need a smaller size since your feet will be swollen, let me get you a 6." I took them off and tried again to say I wanted the pair I'd picked out and she started interrogating me about where I was from and how long I had been there, because of how my feet might be swollen from travelling. I said "thank you anyway" in a firm voice, set down the shoes I wanted, and left the store. She called after me, "well, fine then!" in a scathing tone.

I went outside, grumbled to myself for a few minutes about it, and then went back in. I went straight to the shoes I wanted, picked them up, and started to go to the till. She approached again and started to say something, I cut her off and said, "This is the size I had before and I'm getting this size." I went to the till and paid. The girl at the counter seemed to be nervous, like she was worried I would complain or yell at her about it, but I was polite and pleasant to her, just bought the shoes and left.

Was I, at any point, an asshole to the sales associate? Or was she being overbearing and refusing to listen to me? I was with some other people and one of them said I was contributing to the problem by being rude to her, but I hope I was just

As in, times where you may be thinking, “this (experience, job, relationship, etc.) is going too well, I’m just bracing for something negative to happen”.

A lot of the stories I’ve read lately about anti-maskers include a comment about how no one ever complains about other things that are required to enter a business like shoes, clothes, etc. and it reminds me of this insane anti-shoe lady from my server years so I thought I’d share.

It was about 7 years ago and I was a server in a restaurant on the beach in Florida. There was this one lady who would come in every few weeks and try to get a table but she would never wear shoes. We were right on the beach so it wasn’t that uncommon for us to have to tell people to put shoes on and they’d go get them and come back. But THIS lady was “anti-shoe”, she was a rude pushy hippie looking white lady and she would throw a fit and tell us we were discriminating against her and explain that she was part of some movement for the “shoeless”. Most of the time she would be turned away at the door because the hostess knew who she was but eventually we got a new hostess who didn’t know about the anti-shoe lady and got scared when the lady yelled at her so she sat her shoeless ass in my section.

As I’m walking up to the table I realize who she is and immediately look at her feet. Of course there’s no shoes. So I’m like WTF now I have to deal with this crazy bitch. I’m like “ummm ma’am you need shoes on it’s dangerous there could be glass blablabla” and she’s tells me she will not wear shoes, she’s already seated, and I’m going to serve her and then she pulls out this paper and tells me to give it to my manager. It’s an official looking letter (I forget exactly where from) that says that this lady has filed something with somewhere to be allowed in public places with no shoes because it is against her beliefs. I show my manager and we all gather together in the kitchen and talk shit/laugh for a few minutes. My manager brings her note back and tells her she’s ridiculous and we still won’t be serving her if there’s not shoes on her feet no matter what note she brings in. She rants and raves about her rights and the “ridiculous” shoe rule we enforce. She tells my manager that since she never wears shoes her feet are harder and if she steps on something in our restaurant it will not hurt her and she will not sue but if we do not serve her we WILL hear from her lawyer.

My manager was kinda cool so he tells us to just ignore her and leave her there. So we all proceeded with our jobs and ignore her while she sits in my section for about an hour. Every time someone walks by she tr

I live in Hawaii and recently heard this one after killing one 😐

Edits - bumped Edward Green & John Lobb Main Range up a tier. Split Loake 1880 into separate entry. Added George Cleverley RTW. Shuffled Oliver Sweeney and Jeffery West down a tier. Bumped JL Main Range down a tier - sorry JL. Added a D Tier to differentiate at the low end

Most of my shoes come from British makers and thanks to the dubious political direction my country is going and ever increasing import fees, this trend looks likely to continue in future. This is intended as an overview of the major British makers who are primarily RTW focused, and will also pull out RTW collections from bespoke makers where viable. It won't talk about bespoke shoes, even if the maker in question does produce them.

This post is not an attempt to diminish or demean shoes from any of the "lower tier" brands, just to provide a bit of guidance to a selection of makers that can sometimes be impenetrable and a bit confusing.

This post is visible on my (very much non-monetised) blog.

"Methodology" (such as it is)

In instances where a RTW maker has ranges of significantly different quality I’ll attempt to highlight it, although ultimately many makers will have a smaller, high-end range made to a higher specification that may belong in a higher tier (such as Cheaney Imperial or Loake Export Grade), and the list might get a bit overwhelming with too much detail.

Obviously quality and value are tricky, subjective concepts so I’ve resorted to the time-honoured tradition:

• S Tier - Highest
• A Tier - High
• B Tier - Mid
• C Tier - Low

After feedback I'm also adding "D Tier - Lowest" to differentiate some of the brands at that end.

For quality I’ll be considering the consistency, choice and quality of leather used; fineness and consistency of finishing; how appealing the styling is (very subjective obviously) and the overall quality of the construction.

“C / Low” quality in this context doesn’t mean terrible by any means - it’s just relative to the quality of the other makers. Clearly, Clarks make a lower quality shoe than Gaziano & Girling - that doesn’t mean they are “bad” for the money, because you can buy 15 pairs of Clarks for the price of one pair of Gaziano & Girling.

For price the breakdown is as follows:

• ££££ for shoes £1,000+
• £££ for shoes £500 - £1,000
• ££ for shoes £200 - £500
• £ for shoes less than £200

Lastly the most difficult to assess notion, which is value. For this you need to balance the price