The Process: Making a Modern Shoe

You've heard it before: When it comes to shoes, you have to pay for quality. But just what should it cost you? That's a question the founders of Beckett Simonon have often asked themselves. The brand made a name for itself over the last few years with their wallet-friendly styles. And now they're taking on another cost—comfort—with a fresh lineup of styles that were literally built from the ground up.

"We're tired of dress shoes that are so heavy and stiff that they give you blisters and hurt your feet," says co-founder Andres Niño, who noticed that while the design and comfort of sneakers have improved drastically, dress shoes have remained virtually unchanged for decades. "Why focus solely on construction while neglecting comfort?"

Hand-stitched at a family owned and operated leather goods factory in the brand's native Colombia, these new shoes are constructed with the Blake method (used by many high-end Italian brands), but with a few ingenious tweaks. For example, Beckett Simonon added a cork filling (like the one used on Goodyear Welt shoes) between the insole and the outsole. The result is a comfortable shoe that molds to your foot for a personalized fit. It's very sturdy and easy to re-sole but is considerably lighter and more flexible than a traditional Goodyear welted shoe (meaning no breaking-in period).

What's more, the refreshed lineup of four styles (all with premium leathers and those comfy hybrid soles) are being crowdfunded to keep prices down. "Keeping inventory is an expensive endeavor that increases the risk for e-commerce brands and those costs are often passed onto customers," says Niño. "By avoiding these extra costs we're able to give you the best quality at an unparalleled price."