The London Lounge

Likely, most loungers employ shoe trees to protect all their shoes. For bespoke or made to order shoes,is it important to use trees that are uniquely sized and lasted for that particular shoe?

All of my bespoke shoes have bespoke lasts though that is little more than an aesthetic choice. Recently, one of the Foster lastmakers told me that their own venerable Terry Moore thinks bespoke trees are unnecessary and that decent fitting plastic sprung trees do the job just as well.

On a similar note I will give an example of why on RTW/MTO standard lasts, correct sized lasted shoe trees might make a difference.

I had a 2 MTO monks made up recently, on the same RTW last, by the same shoe maker (one is a wing tip, the other has a semi-brogue apron)

The first shoe which arrived, and I have worn comfortably for the past few months, had lasted shoe tree.

The second shoe, which just arrived today, is the same size as the first tree...yet came with a lasted shoe tree which was 1 size smaller

Out of the box, the first shoe with the correct sized shoe tree fits me much better...as the 2nd pair, on both feet, feels narrower. I have put both shoes together through numerous comparisons...and the length and width sizing appear almost identical

Since the second pair just arrived with the smaller/incorrect size shoe tree...I have placed the correct size shoe trees from the first pair and will update this thread in a couple of weeks for a progress report to see if having the correct sized shoe trees makes a difference...or if the shoemaker got the 2nd order wrong and used a narrower last

2 week update: After a few wearings and keeping the correct sized shoe trees...my shoes feel and fit great

rodes wrote:Likely, most loungers employ shoe trees to protect all their shoes. For bespoke or made to order shoes,is it important to use trees that are uniquely sized and lasted for that particular shoe?

Dear Rodes,

on all my bespoke and MTO shoes from different manufacturers, I always got the perfectly sized shoe trees from the manufacturer. I would consider this pretty much standard and part of the game. In the case of RTW shoes, I would go to my shoe repair shop who carries different types of cedar wood lasts, choose the best fitting one, and occasionally have it adjusted in the shop. It is important in my experience that your shoe trees fit the shoe nicely.

Best regards, David