This is the pair I fell in love with J.FitzPatrick, and the reason I made friends and partners with Justin FitzPatrick, the founder. I unboxed this pair and this piece talks my experience and feeling of this pair of Sunnyside from J.FitzPatrick.
Last
The first feeling I put Sunnyside on was that it is too temporary.
What does “too temporary” mean? The toe shape becomes smaller and smaller, sharper and sharper, in a more understandable word, more and more indecent. Gigolo’s love.
Gaziano & Girling is a great example who set the tone, even the traditional John Lobb and Crockett & Jones both followed suit.
Look at the toe shape of last TMG, it is a very good and classic round toe, however, it is small which most current customers prefer.
Fit is quite impressive as the snugging is so pronounced at forefoot.
Both sides of forefoot are roundly hugged by the upper and midsole, and the feeling is quite new.
Pattern
Adelaide oxford, by definition it is the U shape at the quarter. Most well established brands have this classic model.
The design point of this pair is the Adelaide pattern is imitation. Normally this area is where two pieces of upper connect, but the stitches on this pair is only decorative. The other more subtle design of this Adelaide is the quarter lines stop at opening rather than go further to the heel as most Adelaides do.
Leather
Firstly, the right foot has better leather than the left one. More precisely, the creases are finer. I saw this situation on many brands such as Mattina, Carlos Santos and Septieme Largeur. This happens naturally as factories cut leather by machine for efficiency and higher percentage of usage. So the same area of the shoes cannot be guaranteed from the symmetrical locations from the leather, not even the same piece of hide.
The other thing is the coating seems slightly detached from the substrate leather. This is a trick that it makes the creases less obvious however the fineness of the leather is not good.
From distance, everyone would think the leather is wonderful..
Colour
Golden Museum from Italian tannery Ilcea. Museum calf was very popular in last 3 to 5 years, and John Lobb introduced this leather maybe 10 years ago. Today, textured leathers are more sought after and maybe they are more fun.
J.FitzPatrick is very fond of museum calf from the establishment till now, and the colour options are far more than other brands.
This golden museum is reddish.
The gold tone only shows under strong sunshine. This is also the feature of museum calf, different feelings from different angles and under different circumstances.
Many people love this model but are wary about the colour, my take is it is more understated than burgundy and works better with light and unsaturated colours.
Conclusion
Last, pattern and colour, you really cannot pick any fault from this pair. J.FitzPatrick never lets down.