Saint Crispin's

Saint Crispin's is a small workshop in Brașov, Romania, that makes men's footwear by hand, and women's footwear by special order. The company was founded in 1992 in Austria by shoemaker Michael Rolling. The idea was to make footwear using a unique last for each customer, but at a lower price than others. Hence the headquarters in Vienna, manufacturing in Romania. It was not until 2002 that Saint Crispin's moved into ready-made footwear when founder Rolling's cousin Phillip Carr joined. In 2008, Carr bought all the shares in the company and has been running the company since. Cripin's ready-made pairs are created in the same way as the custom products, which it makes some dozens per year.

SC has trained 24 shoemakers who produce around 1,500 pairs a year using old-fashioned methods: machines are only used to sew the upper and attach the outsole. This also enables special features. For example, SC uses longer and thicker reinforcements inside the shoes than most manufacturers. This results in particularly sturdy, shape-retaining pairs, but at the same time they feel stiffer new. Walking them in can take weeks, but it pays off in the long run. Most factories also use glue to attach the welt according to the Goodyear welt construction, while SC sews the welt by hand under the insole.

Oddly enough, SC attaches the outsole with wooden nails – a construction that has become rare even among custom shoe manufacturers. The advantage of nailing is that the outsole is very narrow around the waist, which makes the footwear look more slender and refined. The company's shoe trees are hollowed out and sanded by hand, making the end result more reminiscent of wood carvings mere molds. The hollowing out allows moisture to evaporate from the soles faster and sweat to be absorbed into the wood more effectively when its surface is not varnished. Crispin's favors so-called crust leathers, which are dyed only after the leather is cut. This allows for completely free mixing of colors in the workshop.

The majority of orders are more or less customized. Most shoe factories only allow the customer to choose a specific last, size and color in a special order, but SC also offers size customization. This way, for example, strongly protruding toes get additional space, even if the last is otherwise the same. Most factories have a basic width and a wide last, Crispin's has three widths. There are a limited number of ready-made pairs for retailers, and pairs ordered separately arrive within 8-10 weeks. SC makes its own extremely simple cardboard shoe boxes.

Crispin's spends 20-40 hours on a pair, including an hour of finishing with polishing. The fine European leathers and special constructions bring their own bonus. That's why Saint Crispin's charges some €1,350 for a pair, including shoe trees and the most common options. This is less than half the price that British custom shoe manufacturers charge on average, and thanks to its price level, SC has gained popularity over the past decade. Although the idea seems strange, even in the high price bracket it is possible to compete on price-quality ratio.