Carlos Santos is the leading quality shoe brand from Portugal. There is not only one shoemaker in Portugal however Carlos Santos is the only one promoting its own brand.
The superb volume of the factory gives great advantage on its quality control and leather sourcing, and refinement of lasts, so the shoes are really good.
Recently, Carlos Santos finally put more resource on promoting the brand rather than developing more and more products which is a good thing.
Let us check out one of the iconic models, the wholecut oxford, Francis in Alentejo patina.
Pattern and last
Francis is wholecut oxford, and this pair is in Alentejo patina.
Since it’s a wholecut, there’s not much left to say about the upper design, and there are generally two points to check. One is how many eyelets there are, and the other is whether there is heel seam.
Francis has 5 eyelets, which is the most standard in Oxford. I’ve seen 3 eyelets version, which does catch the eye at first, and then they feel more masculine. I’ve also seen J.M. Weston’s 7 eyelets Oxford, and that one just gives a long, pointed French look.
The last of this pair is 397, when I first got them, I was afraid it is too blunt.
But from multiple angles, including on the foot, reveal that this last definitely has an extremely British aesthetic.
I love 397 last.
Craftsmanship
The workmanship of these shoes has given me a deeper understanding of factory production, in general.
Someone told me a concept before, he said if Moncler uses BOSIDEN as the manufacturer, how do you think? I said, this is too low. He said your thinking is wrong, the brand only cares about, just the ability of your production equipment and quality control can be achieved.
So for the OEM, it’s likely that the manufacturing capability is so strong that the products it sells on the market don’t represent the highest level of its own production capability. It’s simply a matter of brand positioning.
Let’s take a look at the workmanship on these shoes.
First of all, it’s a pair of open channel Goodyear welted shoes. Many people must have thought, on first hearing, that this won’t work. In the current arms race situation, many people feel that close channel is the bare minimum, and fiddleback is slightly up.
I don’t think that’s a wrong idea, but other details, as well, determine the working hours.
Chamfered welt
This is one of the points that was pointed out yesterday when someone else mentioned the Japanese brand, Sanyo Yamanaga, promoting his shoes.
The name “Yawao” was given by Sanyo-sancho, which means that the vertical angle of welt was inverted to 45 degrees, and a line was created, which is like the line of an arrow. It is an extremely subtle place, but when it is described in this way, it suddenly has a sense of beauty.
What is the benefit of chamfering welt? It is to make the welt appear narrower and the shoe more exquisite. A negative example is the Alden super wide welt.
Incidentally, the density and neatness of stitches are better than Loake or even Crockett & Jones.
Fudging on heel
The last time a shoe guy told me, he would look at this area first. It’s not a difficult process, but if you don’t think of it, it’s just a sign of a shallow understanding of the product, and Carlos Santos doesn’t disappoint.
Of course, the same rolled prints are also available in finer densities, and that requires even more hand stabilization.
Connection of welt ends
I don’t think there’s really any faults to pick with the workmanship of the Carlos Santos shoes when it’s obvious that Goodyear is just as a low profile.
The transition from the aforementioned chamfer to the heel is clean and coordinated, and then the seams along the strip are also completely unnoticeable.
This all counts as details that will have an impact on the aesthetics, so it’s not exactly a self-importance. Of course, it’s still something to look at only between people who know what they’re doing anymore.
Leather
The condition of the leather on this pair was also encountered on French brand Septieme Largeur, an inevitable problem with mass production at this price point.
The leather for Carlos Santos uses a lot of crust leather from French tanneries Annonay and Du Puy, and then the shoes are hand painted.
Right foot, what do you all think of the leather quality? I put my Gaziano & Girling together and Carlos Santos didn’t lose.
With the left foot, the gap is wide.
I explained why it’s inevitable, because of maximizing leather utilization and then not having symmetrical parts of the leather, or even a single hide, for the same shoe. As Justin FitzPatrick says, it’s not that it can’t be done, it’s that brand positioning dictates whether or not they will do it.
On another note, I think crust leather like this is worse than Boxcalf and also the Museum, for that matter. I’m not that happy with either Gaziano & Girling’s Milton leather.
It’s true that it’s not very cool to have such a big difference between the left and right foot.
Fit
I’ve written about pairing burgundy shoes, which are actually quite versatile. This time I paired it with Navy’s suit because the color contrast would be a bit more visible compared to the more common light grey suit pants. And then the experience was that it would make the whole thing eyecatching, which is still sort of in the acceptable range.
Normally, when I wear a Navy suit, I like to wear black shoes, or shoes that are a very, very dark brown.
In terms of fit, if I wear thin socks, they are a bit wide for me, thick socks, they are about right, so I think the width would be somewhere between E and EE.
Then the instep is very high, and you can see the lace up area can be closed without wearing the shoe a couple times!
Discussion
Justin FitzPatrick posted an article about not conditioning new shoes. But the article didn’t specifically say why. I observed this pair and understood. It’s mainly because there is wax.
There seems to be a layer of mist on the creases, which is the wax.
Where the leather bends, the wax can be better absorbed into it, so it is then cared for.
Summary
The main thing about these shoes is that the last is very much in line with my aesthetic, and then some of the details of the workmanship are in the style of a major manufacturer.