This pair is a special MTO which stubbornly implant my taste on J.FitzPatrick, and the same behavior happened to Carlos Santos as well. The merit is to make every pair of shoes rounder and rounder to counterattack the sharp and elongated mainstream taste. The original Cascade designed by Justin looks like this:
Sitting on LPB last, the square toe, not a bad creation, right?
Right, but not for me, I love round and fat toe forever.
Among lasts offered by J.FitzPatrick, I picked SES, the one targeted for roughest country boots, to host this pair “pond” oxford.
Again, a terrible mixture. However, the funny part is that failed Carlos Santos piqued my interest day by day, how can I say this pair wouldn’t do the same?
As this pair had an unboxing article already, we can have a deeper understanding of last in this one.
Last
When you see the shoes for the first sight, do you have a feeling of American shoes? Although the pattern is quite modern and similar to Vienna from John Lobb Paris, the only reason it speaks of American is the last. More specifically, the high rise and quite round toe shape.
But I don’t stop here, the biggest problem of this pair is its incongruity. Where does this incongruity come?
J.FitzPatrick has 5 lasts, and they all originate from the one Tony Gaziano developed for Justin, TMG last with a small round toe, the rest 4 are just modifications of toe shape without changing forefoot and waist till heel. And this easy job brings the issue that the transition from toe to forefoot does not look right. Even when the transition is smooth, the proportion is not optimal as well.
Last is the soul of shoes for a good reason.
From another angle to look at last, which is the profile of toe. In mainstream dress shoes defined by English and Italian shoes, this is seldom touched. Because you won’t find this feature on their shoes, but if you have a taste for work boots or you have more extensive knowledge and view of dress shoes, such as Austrian shoemaking, you will know this type of lasts exist. Many would argue that country boots/shoes from English shoemakers have super round toe, you are right, however if you look at the height, they are not prominent.
High rise toe makes the shoes rough and even stupid, to accentuate other elements such as length can harmonize both sides, however I don’t remember I have seen wonderful answers yet.
Leather
Leather quality is fantastic, very fine creases, the coating is visible but not annoying.
I have owned too many pairs of shoes and my take on leather quality is to accept the vibrant fluctuation and be prepared, if one pair is not lucky, litter it and buy another pair, if the second is bad still, move on and never come back to this brand.
Conclusion
Even as a round toe fan, this last is not my favorite, and the leather saves this pair. No idea whether there is a day that I love its stupid feeling.