Bottier · Fondée 1866
Carmina
Mallorcan Goodyear-welted shoes at a price that reset expectations for the category.
Carmina makes Goodyear-welted shoes in Inca, Mallorca, a Spanish shoemaking town with a long history. The house offers a wide range of lasts and leathers, including shell cordovan, at prices meaningfully below the English makers, and it has become the default recommendation for a first serious pair.
The value position
Carmina makes a properly welted, resoleable, well-lasted shoe for roughly half to two-thirds of what the Northampton makers charge. The differences are real but incremental: finishing is less refined, leathers vary more, the waist is less closely trimmed.
For most buyers the honest comparison is not Carmina against Edward Green but Carmina against a cemented-construction designer shoe at the same price, and there the argument is not close.
The range and the lasts
A broad catalogue across several lasts (the Rain, the Forest, the Simpson and others) in calf, suede, cordovan and country grains, with a made-to-order programme that allows combinations not held in stock.
The house is family-owned and has made shoes in Inca for generations, which is a longer history than its recent international profile suggests.
Honest comparison
Against Northampton at twice the price, Carmina gives up some finishing refinement, some consistency in leather selection and a little in the closeness of the waist. It does not give up construction: the welt, the leather sole and the resoleability are all there.
Against a cemented designer shoe at the same money, there is no comparison worth making. This is the point at which someone buying their first properly made shoe should start.
The price argument
Carmina reset what buyers expected to pay for a properly Goodyear-welted shoe on a decent last, and the effect on the market was immediate and lasting. A shoe at this price that is genuinely welted, on lasts with real shape, made by a family firm with its own factory, was not previously a normal thing to be able to buy.
The finishing does not reach the top English houses and does not claim to. What it does is remove the excuse that welted shoes are inaccessible.
La fiche
Ce que cela coûte
Les prix sur le site →Ce ne sont pas des devis. Les prix indiqués ci-dessous sont les chiffres les plus récents que nous ayons pu attribuer à une source, présentés dans la devise de leur publication.
| Quoi | Service | Prix | Observé |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ready-to-wear shoeAn indicative band, not a quotation. Bespoke entry prices normally exclude tax and cloth beyond the house bunch, and houses raise them without announcement. | Ready To Wear | €400–600 | September 2026 |
Maisons souvent considérées en parallèle
Regroupés parce qu'ils se disputent les mêmes commissions ou travaillent dans un idiome comparable : il ne s'agit ni d'un classement ni d'une équivalence.
Crédits photographiques 2
- Tienda carmina: Photograph · carmina shoemaker · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Crockett & Jones men's dress shoes, type Dalton, black calf leather 02: Photograph · OlafJanssen · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0