I covered the English bespoke shoemaker Canons a while ago, explaining their evolution from the team that was Foster & Son on Jermyn Street, and promising to review the brown-suede oxfords they made for me.
Well they’re ready, I’ve been wearing them for a couple of months, and they are the most comfortable bespoke shoes I’ve ever had.
At first, I was a little worried they would be too big. My feet were being held well in the back of the shoe (the first key to good fit) and my toes weren’t swimming at the front, yet they almost felt impossibly roomy.
I think that first impression was due to two things: a well-executed fit in a soft suede, and 15 years of experience with bespoke shoes being made too tight.
In fact, when I took the shoes in recently to check the fit with Simon Bolzoni and the team – after two months and perhaps 15 wears – we could see this contrast because Simon had my old Foster’s shoes there. These were made 10 years ago, and they were very tight by comparison. My toes felt crunched against the sides when I walked, and the bottom of the heel was noticeably smaller.
Now your feet do tend to relax and spread a bit as you get older, but not to this extent. The shoes were just too tight – and interestingly, it’s something that happened with nearly all of the bespoke I had made back then, whether from Cleverley, Stefano Bemer or Gaziano & Girling.
“I think it was something of a trend, unfortunately,” says Simon. “When blogs and forums really focused on bespoke shoemaking again, there was this emphasis on making shoes close-fitting in the same way as there was emphasis on tiny points of making, such as stitches per inch.
“I suppose it might have happened because close-fitting shoes felt more bespoke – you could feel the difference from a ready-made shoe. And of course people wanted all the finely turned points of bespoke making that they were reading about – bevelled waists, pitched heels – and those tended to everything being slim and close too.”
It’s an interesting point, particularly given it mirrors the fashion for tight-fitting tailoring at the time as well. I always assumed the main reason my bespoke shoes were too tight was that I didn’t have enough bespoke experience (as well as courage) to say when I wanted something bigger. Then when in doubt, the shoemaker tended to a close fit in order to make the shoe look better. Perhaps it was a mixture.
“Close-fitting shoes like this can really damage your foot,” says Simon (above). “Not just in the obvious places like around your toes, but if the base of the heel is made too small, your heel basically sits on part of the upper leather, which is not supportive. Your nerves there will get numbed, deadened, and then after a while you’ll start to get shooting pains.”
My new Canons shoes have a wider heel base, but the heel itself still manages to be elegant – even if it’s not as pitched as I had initially suggested. My idea had been to add some dressy elements to a fairly conservative style and colour of shoe, but it proved to be the right decision not to do that – to keep everything simple and beautifully executed.
My one concession to refining the style was to switch the laces for flat, slim ones. I like this look, but unlike the other choices it’s something that can easily be reversed if I change my mind in the future.
Another area where Canons really nailed the fit was the foot bed. This is something that doesn’t get much attention compared to other parts of the shoe, but if the bottom of the last is shaped well to the bottom of the foot, you really sit more easily in the shoe.
“This might be the one area where bespoke has the biggest advantage over ready-made,” says Simon. “You just can’t shape the bottom of a last with ready-to-wear, so you can make a big difference with bespoke.”
I went for a suede oxford because an oxford is a nice thing to have bespoke – the make and the fit really elevate that type of smart shoe – and because I already have calf-leather shoes from Yohei Fukuda that I love in brown and black.
I’ve enjoyed wearing the Canons shoes so far with tailored trousers and sports jackets – a mid-grey high-twist trouser and light-brown jacket for example – as well as with tailored linen trousers and lightweight knits or polos. I generally wear loafers more with those combinations, certainly in summer, but the oxfords make the outfit a touch smarter. I’ll also default to them more when it’s colder.
Canons are one of the few bespoke shoemakers who are happy to make a loafer as a first shoe for a customer, by the way. I opted not to do that, but perhaps it’s what I’d go for in the future, given how much I wear them and my lack of luck with bespoke loafers in the past.
Returning to ideas of fit, I was interested in Simon’s historical perspective on the subject, as it’s not something I’d heard before:
“Right now, I think the shoemaking world is actually in a very good place when it comes to fit,” he said. “We know more, we have more informed and demanding clients, and we’re improving all the time.
“People tend to think that in the past, the first half of the twentieth century and before, fit was good because most shoes were made bespoke. But while the craft was certainly at a high level, the fit wasn’t necessarily. A lot of the time it was quite basic, not much different to sized shoes today. So that’s one area where I think we’re getting a lot better.”
It is nice to think that one area of bespoke is better than it was in the past, and perhaps still improving. Usually it’s the opposite – quality, style and skills all seem to be dwindling, and all we can do is try and arrest the decline. It’s something I’d like to believe, and my Canons shoes certainly bear some testament as to how good it can be.
