Last is the mold where leather forms on it and shape into shoes.
Every well received shoemaker has its iconic lasts, as I always say, last is the soul of shoes.
Shoe tree is to keep the shape of shoes, mainstream is made of wood, cheap option is plastic.
Lasted shoe tree means the shoe tree is made to align with the last.
I recommend using lasted shoe tree against genenral shoe tree as the latter one is always chunky and with spring to over-stretch upper.
Maybe you don’t feel over-stretch is a problem, however the shoe tree could extrude the leather and form undesirable crease on the shoes.
Take my pair of Oxford from Gaziano & Girling as an example, you can tell the inner arch is badly shaped.
Another bad aspect of general shoe tree is the heel is always big, maybe most shoes in the market are in this shape, but for some exquisite and elegant shoes, this is disastrous.
For Amercian shoes such as Alden, general shoe tree is not a problem.
Some careful readers post a question, why general shoe tree can stretch all the crease on vamp, while lasted cannot. Does it mean general shoe tree is better?
My answer is still that Lasted shoe tree is better.
General shoe tree stretches all the creases indeed, but you can think it in another way, it stretches the upper leather too much. For an extensive duration, upper leather would become loose, when you put them on, you will find the creases are more prominent.
Then, I feel most people mistake the purpose of shoe tree. Is shoe tree for remove the creases? No, it is to keep the shape of shoes, more specifically, keep the toe straight rather than curved up. Toe curving up formed unnecessary creases on vamp.
Biggest disadvantage of Lasted shoe trees is that they are not universal and can only serve one pair of shoes.
I put one Maftei Lasted shoe tree in anther Maftei shoes with different last, the result is too bad.
Conclusion
Lasted shoe tree is not cheap at all, but it worths.