Sparrods & Co, mens footwear brand based in Canberra, is currently offering everyone $20 off the full price of all mens dress leather shoes and boots with free express shipping statewide and easy returns.
Use coupon code: SWEET20
All products are made in Portugal using the finest leather materials and constructed in the old ways.
Hello, they are blake rapid stitched constuction which is a construction method that uses both Goodyear welted and Blake stitched construction. There is a big difference between blake stitched and blake rapid stitched construction. The sole is easily resoleable by any Cobbler.
I stick to my original point.
Thanks for your comments. Kindly find the below statement
Blake rapid stitching uses a combination of Goodyear welting and Blake stitching. With this method, the upper calf skin leather is sewn directly to the mid sole, while the out sole is stitched to the mid sole with strong stitching, thus making the shoes flexible, and water-resistant. We use blake rapid stitched construction for our shoes and boots because they can easily be resoled by an experienced Cobbler and the midsole is loaded with steel shanks and natural cork to provide you with comfort, mould to the shape of your feet, and resist odour.
@bensue: And it is much less waterproof and durable than Goodyear welt & relies on the cobbler having a Blake machine (not guaranteed).
You state on your website they are made in Portugal, so I suspect your making a price not deliberate decision about convenience of resoling.
By the same token (& more likely available) any cobbler worth their salt will resole a Goodyear welt for many more years of durability & superior waterproofing.
@opposablethumbs: Our blake rapid stitched construction are water proof. We use storm welt around the shoes and boots to prevent water from entering them. You can easily use them in wet season. The sole are easily resoleable by any cobler without a blake stitched machine. We have sold shoes and boots to customers and the sole have been resoled.
@opposablethumbs: All our products are made in Portugal. We have so many behind the screen images of the construction processes we constantly post on our social media handles. We are very transparent with where we source our leather, construction methods and factory
I stick to all the points I have made. Other OzBers can easily search themselves to determine the veracity of sales speak vs the points I have made.
Thank you. If you are interested to know more about us. Kindly reach out to us and we will share information with you.
Thanks, but no thanks.
As part of my shoe collection, I already have a few pairs of finely crafted Goodyear welted shoes, made in Portugal, sourced from overseas for less than your price point.
I do not understand why you would skimp on the superior Goodyear welting method, when you could likely source for a very small additional cost, which makes me question if there are other quality compromises made in the interest of profit.
At this end of the market, quality trumps marketing to the discerning shoe purchaser. When there are many UK & European offerings and also locally crafted Goodyear welted brands that sometimes go on sale for a similar price to your offerings, IMHO this doesn't pass the OzB quality or value tests after holding it up to the light.
Super informative posts. Really enjoyed your insight.
I have no idea why I just spent my lunchbreak searching, but I did.
A couple of quotes for you @opposablethumbs
Ultimately, both types of construction are well worthy additions to your shoe wardrobe, both having unique advantages against the other. In all honesty, it’s an impossible choice.
https://www.undandy.com/uk/undandy-world/style-guides/blake-…
Helm uses the Blake Rapid stitch in all their boots, but when asked, Day confirmed: “There aren’t really any drawbacks vs. the Goodyear welt. Both are very good construction methods and people have been arguing over them for longer than I’ve been around.”
https://stridewise.com/goodyear-welt-vs-blake-rapid/
Hmmmm. Can't say that my research supports your view.
But I don't really have any clue.
You're right. Blake rapid is just as good and it's debatable which is better.
I prefer the idea of blake rapid (all parts are leather and joined by stitching) to goodyear welt (one of the joins is a glued piece of canvas). In the real world it wont make much difference.
Bensue is correct - resoling wont be any different, and blake rapid is just as waterproof.
Agree to disagree.
Blake rapid is waterproof to a point, but certainly not as waterproof as Goodyear welt. Advantage of Blake & Blake rapid is can be lighter & quicker to break in.
My money is still on Goodyear welt for superior waterproof performance & durability (real world experience, few decades of wearing hand-crafted footwear & welt choice of finest quality shoemakers).
IMHO, for this money there are better value options in Goodyear welt.
YMMV.
Worth searching more than a few blogs.
Blake rapid is often used by some of the more "fashion forward" shoemakers.
My own experience with a few of these from some decent European brands that I've tried over the years is that although they feel lighter & easier to break in, they are inferior to Goodyear welt WRT durability & keeping feet dry when truly challenged.
My question remains, for the quite traditional styles offered by them, why this seller would not choose to at least offer Goodyear, even if at a slightly higher price point?
What you are saying as fashion forward shoemakers is totally wrong and very misleading. Majority of the fashion forward shoemakers are all cemented construction with fake stitching and fake welt to make it look like real. Their shoes have no natural cork nor steel shank at the midsole.
There is a huge difference between blake stitched and blake rapid(welted) construction. Blake rapid is more durable, resistant to water and will last you decades if you take very good care of it same as Goodyear welted. Our shoes and boots have storm welt, natural cork at the midsole and steel shank. We have spent years sampling products with different construction methods from Italy, Mexico, Spain and Portugal. We have visited numerous factories in Europe before settling with the current workshop in Portugal.
As I said earlier, we have sold alot of shoes and boots which the sole have been replaced. I used blake rapid boot since late 2018 with a leather sole, the whole sole was replaced by a Cobbler here in Canberra.
Please visit the FAQ page of our website (https://sparrods.com/pages/faq) and we have called out the difference there.
@bensue: I've had both Blake & Blake rapid from fashion forward European makers.
I stand by my personal experience (pun intended) with Blake rapid vs GYW, as outlined above.
You still have not outlined why you do not offer any Goodyear welt options for any of your styles, as I'm sure many European manufacturers would offer it, but at a certain price point.
@opposablethumbs: Can you please advise the European brands you have purchased?
Those fashion forward makers produce their products in large volumes with questionable leather materials and construction. As I pointed out before, most are cemented construction with fake stitching and fake welt pretending to be welted shoes which are not.
We have strong pipeline of products to be released to the Australia and New Zealand market next year. We have blend of products with both construction methods. Sure we have many shoes and boots made with different construction methods (Goodyear welted, Blake Rapid(welt), Norwegian Welt, Sidewall stitching, Cupsole, Handwelted, Bench Grade and Stitchdown) in our warehouse
Follow us on social media to see new products as we continuously release them to the Aussie market.
@bensue: Not cemented or fake. Mostly Italian, who are well know for using Blake and Blake Rapid. Two Blake Rapid brands that I remember paying a decent amount for are a bespoke pair of Guarotti's and R Martegani Oxfords.
My personal experience, is that I prefer my North England, Portugese, Spanish, Romanian and even Australian made GYW shoes for waterproofing and durability.
There are two points you continue to side-step:
1) Blake Rapid, whilst decent, is not superior or equivalent to GYW in terms of waterproofing and durability.
2) Blake Rapid choice has a strong profit margin consideration.
If you indeed wish to break into the market with other higher quality offerings next year, a little honesty will go a long way for discerning shoe purchasers.
IMHO, there are better GYW offerings at this price point.
No interest in social media.
@seanbaussie: Not really, as just restating what's been asserted already and one link doesn't even mention Blake rapid.
Simply reinforcing the points that:
-GYW is more expensive to produce with superior durability and performance in wet conditions.
-Blake stitched is lighter, more comfortable for some, cheaper to produce, but less sturdy or waterproof.
-Blake rapid is somewhere between GYW and Blake stitched in durability, flexibility, waterproofness, cost.
We provide quality over anything else. We educate our customers and open to hear from them.
This forum does not allow the uploading of behind the screen images, we will have uploaded them for all to see.
You re entitled to your own opinion, however, we re happy to provide our customers with detailed information about our products before making any paying decision.
You could link to a specific page on your website, or hosted image collection?
We re working on our blog which will display all our manufacturing processes. We just launch our website last week and working actively on the blog.
Follow us on Facebook or Instagram for more images
Having reviewed the veracity of both parties claims, putting aside the circumlocution and tautological reprise, I'm left to wonder, do you sell Goodyear thongs?
hahahaha this made by day. Thank you.
bensue is correct. Goodyear welt uses a "rapid outsole stitcher" to attach the sole. So does blake rapid. The outer parts of the shoe are essentially the same, the differences are further inside the shoe, far away from areas that affect water resistance or normal repair.
Shoe nerds, cobblers or footwear manufacturers can have an academic debate about this, but in the real world there will be no difference in water resistance, durability or reparability to the end consumer.
Blake rapid isn't cheaper or easier to manufacture. These factories are likely to be doing blake rapid because that's what they've always done and there is no reason to change to goodyear.
Real world experience (not academic debate) is that I disagree that Blake Rapid is equivalent to GYW in durability or waterproofing.
The blake rapid shoes you've experienced were probably just lower quality in general. The quality/type of materials used and manufacturing quality will have the most impact on durability and waterproofing. Blake rapid vs goodyear will have little, if any, impact.
If you bought 2 pairs of exactly the same shoe, except one was blake rapid and the other was goodyear, I don't think there would be any real noticeable difference.
@devilbabies: Which you continue to assert, but I disagree.
Have had GYW and Blake Rapid from same quality level, and my real world experience is that when really challenged, waterproofing is superior on GYW and although frequently harder work breaking in, GYW is definitely superior for durability.
There are many decent Portugese shoemakers that choose GYW. Profit margin is undoubtedly a consideration for choice of welt in this offering.
@opposablethumbs: I thought the cost of manufacture/profit margin would be pretty close, but I'm not exactly sure. I have an amateur interest in sole design and manufacturing, but I never worked for a footwear company, so I have no idea what gemming costs or anything like that.
Can you explain why you think blake rapid would have a higher profit margin than goodyear welt?
@devilbabies: Discussions with shoemakers when contemplating/ordering bespoke shoes.
GYW>Blake Rapid cost.
@opposablethumbs: Thanks. It's interesting that they would charge more. My guess is that there would be very little difference in the actual cost to manufacture. (if I had to guess, I'd say blake rapid would be more, since the blake rapid midsole requires much more leather than the welt on a goodyear welt)
Are you sure that you were being charged more for a GYW (done on machine) and not a hand welt? A hand welt is obviously going to be better and more expensive than anything else.
It's an interesting topic anyway.
@devilbabies: How about you ask @bensue to be upfront about GYW vs Blake Rapid cost as they continue to side-step addressing the point the multiple times I've directly put it.
If Sparrods & Co will indeed have GYW offerings next year, will the price point be the same as the Blake Rapid offering in this post, for a similar shoe style/level of quality/manufacturer?
Looked okay value until I found they are Blake stitched not Goodyear welt.