P: Okay, so next up is Meermin. This is another brand
that's fairly popular across the menswear space, I think I hear a lot of
talk about this one. R: Absolutely. I mean they're good value
and it was actually founded by third and fourth generation
shoemakers, right it's that Albaladejo family from Mallorca.
I've been to their Carmina plant and they have a long history; they make
really high-end shoes that are more expensive and so
just the younger people in the family got together and said well with the
globalization let's actually go to China where labor
costs are low, let's train people up so they can make
good shoes -- we know what we have to do in terms of last design so it looks good,
and overall their shoes look much more expensive than they are.
I think that's a big thing I mean
this model here is from their higher-end line called Linea Maestro
and I think it starts like 290 and goes up to maybe 320
so slightly above 300 but it's so close that we still included them.
Your shoe, how much was that? P: these were considerably less than that
line, These were about 175 dollars. R: exactly. P: over here
R: So huge, huge difference but both still very inexpensive and I think yours is
a Goodyear welted shoe. P: Right. R: This is unusual this is a
hand welted shoe which is something you would never find
in this price category. With a Goodyear welted shoe, you have like a gem band that
is glued onto the sole so the weld can hold; here it's actually
worked out of the sole the leather part and then hand stitched it's just it's
unheard of in this price category. It's something
you get with a bespoke shoe. P: Yeah.R: Not with a 300 shoe. P: pretty
impressive. R: So that's that's pretty unusual and even their
lower price shoes you know, the 175 even they are Goodyear welted
and stuffed with some attention details. So first
impressions, very high. P: Yeah, I would say the same.
I thought when I took these out of the box I
thought the color was great; you know very deep, rich
dark brown color. I liked the look of the last
overall and the length of the shoe and I also noticed too
that they had kind of a longer and more pronounced tongue than some other
loafers do but because they've got this long
profile overall, I think that helped to kind of balance
the look and I liked how it turned out. R: Got it. Yeah. I mean, in terms of the
leather, they used high-quality french calfskin leather
and they're very transparent about what leathers they use.
The sole is a Johan Rendenbach sole which is also high-quality; it's German
material, very renowned in the shoe world on that note though I went to the
Allen Edmonds factory once and they were selling it for their higher-end shoe
lines and they said when they did some testings
and compare it with their like, other Mexican tan leather,
the Mexican actually outperformed the German one.
P: really? R: But there's this quality perception of Rendenbach
being the best they put it in their cordovan shoes for example and stuff so
I thought it was funny that being said I mean Rendenbach is
good leather, I've had it on shoes it lasts for a very long time.
I thought generally the suede feels nice,
it's not you know terribly rough. I think pretty good softness here,
overall and as far as more generally the construction is concerned, I thought the
stitching was generally pretty good there were maybe i could see one or two
little ends of a thread here and there but not
a major deal by any means. Yeah I think they make their stuff in China but then
finish it in Spain, probably with different
lines to varying degrees. There's not a whole lot written about it
but overall I mean, yeah nice leather. I think compared to
all the Italian ones, they're not as soft, right, it's more like
an English sew in its stiffness. It's fairly flexible for
that but it just needs a little bit of break-in.
R: What about workmanship? P: Well, as I say I thought
generally, the stitching was pretty good. There were a few things that I did
notice, for example, on the saddle here.
There were some places were kind of the multiple
strips of leather didn't totally line up a hundred percent in the saddle here,
there were elements on the sole here where there might be kind of a
rough edge at points too, wasn't totally smooth
around the finishing. So yeah, Some of the finer points or
the smaller details were maybe not a hundred percent on
these, but not deal breakers by any means.
R: Yeah I mean in my shoes I think the workmanship was very spot-on--
they used kind of you know, the irons, they waxed everything,
you can see that the stitch density is different
like a clear sign of a hand welt, it's not like a machine
and then they also have like the little line of brass nails in the front
like hand hammered, hand nailed in, supposed to prevent
the wear on the tip of your shoe which they usually wear out first.
All leather heel you know, built up one by one with nails
with like the rubber edge. Stitching very neat, I mean, there was no broguing
but overall this Linea Maestro which translates to
like Masters Line is pretty impressive like if I would
not have seen the brand and not known it I would have not guessed this was a
310 dollar shoe. P: mm-hmm R: I think for 37.50 extra you can get
matching shoe trees, which is a pretty nice option.
I'd probably definitely get those, they'll just send them to us. P: Right
R: but definitely something I'd save the money for.
Color-wise otherwise, leathers' very nice. The other thing in the workmanship that
I think is particularly good with those is that they're
hand lasted which means the upper you know is sewn and then it's
put onto the last and then it's like a fix to the bottom with nails by hand
and that allows you to actually get it exactly where you want it to be
sometimes with a factory made shoe alignments you
know it's just slightly off so you can look at the seam in the back
and compare it with the shoe and one is a little off for example, compared to the
other. On those on both lines even the classic
line they do that by hand, it just shows like the medallion is
always going to be centered and it's just a little detail that
not many other factory shoes have. P: Right. R: Yeah so my last is called the
Dani last. It's kind of a sleek class it's a new last, I think, in their master
line. They have a lot of different lasts but you can contact them and see
if you have a wider foot or a narrow foot and what they recommend.
It's size 10 and a half, which fits me pretty well.
I have room, it's not too much room, it's very kind of
comfortable to wear. Again, slightly stiffer shoe but with a little bit of
break-in it's gonna be I think a great, great
companion. It has this kind of unique style where
there's no cap toe really in the Oxford, kind of that slightly rounded last -
timeless yet elegant. P: mine were a size
seven and a half, That's in UK sizing. It said they were on the Ron or R.O.N last.
R: Yeah otherwise I mean I've walked with them,
burgundy's super versatile colo,r I mean they're more classic.
They also have more like hand patinas that I think are a little more expensive
overall I'm really impressed by the shoe I think maybe they're a little stiff. If it
was slightly less stiff it would be a solid five out of five for
me, that way it's maybe like four and three quarters just yeah very
impressed that a shoe in this price range
can be that good. P: and obviously I ended up with
quite a few medium brown suede loafers from this exercise
so I'm glad that these are quite a bit darker, kind of different in style, so
they'll give me another different option to wear and
pair with my outfits. I thought they were fairly comfortable
but again given that they are a loafer there was a little bit of sliding with
my foot nothing that i don't think could be accommodated by a tongue pad so
I'll probably do that with these as well; and as I said because this is just the
standard line and not the higher-end line. There
were a few little construction things that were
less than perfect so I put these at about a
four out of five ultimately, I think.