Schoenmaker · Paris

John Lobb (Paris)

John Lobb Paris is a Hermès-owned shoe brand selling high-end factory-made and made-to-order shoes, and is a separate company from the London John Lobb.

John Lobb Paris has been owned by Hermès since the 1970s and operates as an international ready-to-wear and made-to-order shoemaker, with production in Northampton. It also offers bespoke. It is a different company from John Lobb of St James's Street in London.

BespokeMade-to-measureConfectie

An illustration of a welted shoe of the kind the house makes. Not a photograph of the house's own work.

Huisstijl — schouder: niet gedocumenteerd

Borstomvang — selective handwork

Pasingen — 1–20 weken

Van $1,800 laagste gedocumenteerde, omgerekend

What it makes

Goodyear-welted ready-to-wear and made-to-order shoes, produced in Northampton, at the top of the factory-made price range. The lasts are the house's own and are the reason to buy: a John Lobb Paris shoe is recognisable by its shape rather than by any construction feature unique to it.

The bespoke service exists and is a separate proposition at a considerably higher price.

The ownership question

Hermès acquired the business in the 1970s, and the arrangement that allows two separate companies to use the same name in different markets dates from that period. The London firm remains independent and family-owned. Neither business is the imposter. They are both continuations of the same nineteenth-century name under a split that is now half a century old.

Which product you are looking at

The range runs from Prestige (the house's Northampton-made Goodyear-welted line) through made-to-order on existing lasts to full bespoke made in Paris. The three differ by an order of magnitude in price and by a great deal in what is actually done by hand.

As with every large shoemaker, the useful question is about the specific model: where it was made, on which last, and by what construction. The name at this house genuinely does cover several different objects.

What Hermès ownership actually produced

The Paris business makes ready-to-wear and made-to-order shoes to a high standard, with the resources of a large luxury group behind the leather selection and the retail. It is not a bespoke house and does not present itself as one.

Read alongside the St James's firm, the pair is the clearest case study on this site of a name being worth more than the thing it originally named.

Met de hand gerande

houdrand uitgesneden uit de binnenzool

de holdfast maakt deel uit van de binnenzool

Herbezoelbaar: herhaaldelijk

Goodyear-gerande

canvasrib gelijmd aan de binnenzool

gemming is gelijmd: het onderdeel dat het begeft

Herbezoelbaar: meerdere malen

Blake

één naad door alle lagen

de naad loopt door in de schoen

Herbezoelbaar: met een Blake-machine

Gelijmd

zool gelijmd aan het bovenwerk

uitsluitend gelijmd

Herbezoelbaar: doorgaans niet

bovenwerk binnenzool rand buitenzool

Hoe een zool wordt bevestigd, en of hij vervangen kan worden De welt in de twee linker constructies draagt het zoolstiksel, zodat de zool kan worden verwijderd zonder het bovenwerk te verstoren. Bij handwelting wordt de rand uit de binnenzool zelf gesneden; Goodyear lijmt een canvasrib aan, en die rib is het onderdeel dat uiteindelijk het begeeft. Diagram getekend voor Il Sartoriale.

Het dossier

Stad

Paris

Land

France

Service levels

Bespoke · Made-to-measure · Ready-to-wear

Schouder