Welted Shoe News February 2020 | New Arrivals, GMTOs & Mr. Undandy

February Was A Busy Month!

Hello fellow shoe lovers! Incredibly, we are somehow already in March. Time flies so fast but it is also time to do the news! Specifically the latest Welted Shoe News I could find from February 2020.

To give you a quick overview, we will be taking a look at new releases, Carmina’s New Website, a brand new Shoe Company and the woes of Mr. Undandy. For me the News Articles are a great way to relax and do some journalistic work, or try to uncover something new I was not aware of.

So sit back and enjoy the read!

The Noble Shoe Expands The Line Up

These articles are a great way for me to showcase New Arrivals & Group Made to Orders at The Noble Shoe. For those unaware, The Noble Shoe is my life’s passion project and currently stocks Carlos Santos Shoes. During February 2020 I had a lot of amazing new developments which I want to share with you.

Vass Budapest & Antonio Meccariello

I am currently working hard to grow The Noble Shoe and part of it is incorporating new exciting brands in different price points.

When I think of handmade quality I consider Vass and Antonio Meccariello some of the best in the world. Which is exactly why I reached out to both of them and got approval to carry their shoes. The plan is to initially stock 5 models from Antonio Meccariello and 5-10 from Vass. However, you can already contact me and create some amazing custom MTO Designs with Vass.

It is something I am very excited about and I suggest you read why in my Best Brands Article.

Carlos Santos New Arrivals

This month marks a month of changes for the Patina Service. The Single Monk 6307 and the 3 Eyelet Derby are now discontinued but 6 New models are now available. Let’s take a look at them.

The Carlos Santos 1046 Longwing Derby in Mid-Brown Suede is an excellent casual shoe with a more country feel. It is on the New 437 Last which fits True To Size and has a Dainite Sole.

Another inspiration from Tricker’s and British Country Shoes is the Carlos Santos 9847 Wingtip Derby in Dark Brown Grain. Similar to the Longwing it sports a Storm Welt on the 437 Last with a Dainite Sole. An excellent more casual every day beater that requires low maintenance.

We then proceed to a very welcome addition. So far the 7902 Chelsea Boots were available only with a leather sole. Now however you can order them in Black Calf or Dark Brown Suede with a Dainite Sole. I am waiting for some samples in the following weeks so more pictures will come.

Last of the bunch is the upcoming arrival of the Carlos Santos 9617 Sneakers in Patina. Specifically, I will stock these wonderful minimalist sneakers in Norte (Navy) and Coimbra (Dark Brown). Arrival should be around the beginning of April but you can Pre-Order Here. They are super high quality and comfortable and I am excited about them.

New & Current GMTOs

See that gorgeous Single Monk up there? Look out for an upcoming GMTO in Wine Shadow, Norte, Guimaraes and Algarve. Maybe Black too!

Until that I can entertain you with two current GMTOs. First of all the Handgrade 9156 Field Boot in Dark Brown Grain/Calf is back as a GMTO. You can check Justin FitzPatrick’s Review here. Price is approximately 360$ and includes 10% off the live price.

There is also the exciting GMTO of the Carlos Santos 6942 Handgrade Double Monks going on. We need just a few more people to enter actually! The update is that you can now choose between Coimbra (Dark Brown), Guimaraes (Dark Brown with Chestnut Hues) and Algarve (Mid-Brown). Price is around 350$ and also includes 10% off the live price.

Carmina Launches New Website

One of the bigger Welted Shoe News in February 2020 is Carmina’s new Website Launch. It was in the works for the past year is finally live. A very famous Spanish brand with excellent quality, Carmina revamped their website to a new, responsive and clean design.

I really like the look and you can easily access things like their best sellers very fast. My pet peeve is that the filters are terrible. New website, same problems. Why can’t you not filter styles and why are the leather/sole filters so convoluted?

There are (at least) 44 different leathers to filter from. What on earth is Elbamat? Lagarto? Varik? Absolutely pointless in my opinion as a browser. Do you want to check out a brown Oxford? The only way is to go through the main page, select Men’s Shoes, then Oxfords (Not View All), and then select brown. Would you like to choose a model with no broguing? There is no filter.

This is my only pet peeve, as they spent a lot of resources on making a fantastic website and offering fantastic shoes.

Micam Expo Report

I initially planned to visit Milan for the Micam Expo and then the Shoegazing Trunk in Amsterdam but plans change.

A lot of exciting new stuff announced and it was the first public showing of the Carlos Santos 2020 Collection. I already showed some snippets in my factory visit article. If you want a really nice coverage please take a look at Jesper’s article on Shoegazing.

This weekend there is also the Amsterdam Trunk for those of you interested or living close by. I will see you in the London Edition in April!

New Brand – Thomas George Collection

Australia is notorious for the lack of high quality shoes available to the public. Barring R.M. Williams I could not think of any off the top of my head. My friend Ringo Mok on Facebook worked over the past year to change that. He works as a Business Strategist, while the CEO is James Seaford and Ben Atkinson the Operations Manager.

The new collection just came out on the 2nd of March but I wanted to include this here. The Brand’s name is Thomas George Collection. They curated and released their first collection of Goodyear Welted Shoes in collaboration with Fugashin Vietnam aiming at the sub 400$ bracket.

You can find a lot of Service Boots with Viberg inspiration, Penny Loafers and your classic Brogues and Oxfords. They use French Calf and even offer closed channel soles in what looks to be excellent for the Aussies!

Please note that right now shipping is limited only to Australia.

Mr. Undandy Having Serious Issues

I was never going to be a big fan of Mr. Undandy. A portuguese brand making MTO Blake Shoes for people online. I find their designs uninspiring and very often customers make some franken-shoes. Again, this is my opinion and as long as you are happy that’s all you need to know. Watch out however as their heel is glued and comes off easily and the leather quality is shoddy.

That’s not why we mention them however. If you head to their Instagram and Facebook and check the comments and visitor posts you will find out that some have not received their orders after 3-4 months. Clearly a problem since Undandy has a 2-3 week delivery pledge.

The mob is angry and brought pitchforks to the fight. Understandably so there are so many angry customers asking for refunds, updates on their orders and in some cases being rather nasty. Customer service was AWOL for a while and they sent a bunch of fake updates on orders during December and January.

It looks like they had issues with their sole provider, even though I think the problems run much deeper than that. Their business model seems quite unsustainable to me but this is just my hunch. Actually right now people seem to finally receive their shoes which is encouraging yet I feel the impact was very strong. I do feel a little bad for the poor people handling the social media and having to respond to everyone (mostly copy paste) as the abuse was severe at times.

Be careful and prepared if you plan to order from Mr. Undandy. I would advise you to spend your money on a Goodyear Welted Shoe with higher quality.

Myrqvist – Questionable Quality?

So this is more of a poll rather than news but I feel it is worth mentioning. Recently, a reader left a comment in my article of the Myrqvist Penny Loafers and talked about his horrible experience with them. I then went on an internet quest to find out more about the reviews.

As far as the actual shoes go, they were fine for the price, even though I won’t use them as they are too tight after all. If you wear a UK 7 you are welcome to take them off my hands for a small fee!

What I really want though is to hear your opinions and comments about your experience with Myrqvist. Please leave a comment or your thoughts.

Welted Shoe News February 2020 – Conclusion

And with this I think it is time to wrap things up! A lot of interesting news from the Welted Shoe World in February 2020 and I hope you enjoy reading them! Do you agree with the Carmina assessment? How about Mr. Undandy and what are your thoughts on the Thomas George Collection?

I look forward to reading your feedback! In the meantime, I will see you next week hopefully with something exciting! Have a good week everyone and don’t forget to Subscribe to support this little blog!

Thank you for reading,

Kostas Mandilaris,
Misiu Academy