Sapateiro · 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.

BespokeFeito por medidaPronto a vestir

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

Estilo da casa — ombro: não documentado

Peito — selective handwork

Provas — 1–20 semanas

De $1,800 mínimo documentado, convertido

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.

Welt costurado à mão

holdfast talhado na palmilha

o holdfast faz parte da palmilha

Ressoleável: repetidamente

Goodyear welted

nervura de entretela colada à palmilha

a gemming está colada: é a parte que falha

Ressoleável: várias vezes

Blake

uma costura por tudo

a costura penetra no sapato

Ressoleável: com uma máquina Blake

Cimentado

sola colada à gáspea

apenas adesivo

Ressoleável: geralmente não

gáspea palmilha welt sola

Como uma sola é fixada e se pode ser substituída O welt nas duas construções da esquerda suporta a costura da sola, pelo que a sola se separa sem perturbar o upper. A costura welt à mão recorta a sua crista da própria palmilha; a Goodyear cola uma nervura de canvas, e é essa nervura que acaba por ceder. Diagrama elaborado para Il Sartoriale.

O registo

Cidade

Paris

País

France

Service levels

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

Ombro