Luxe Brand Shoes – Luxe Brands Using Lower Quality Materials

As we detailed in a previous blog post it is worth your time to understand the different parts of a shoe and the materials used in construction. Luxury shoe brands are synonymous with style AND quality. Most of the luxury brands we love maintain high standards for materials and craftmanship.

As costs rise for luxury brands, some are looking for ways to maintain profit margins without raising prices too significantly. That means looking to reduce costs by using lower cost materials, which means lower quality too. Another method is to move production to lower cost countries. Italy is the gold standard for high quality shoes. Other countries including Spain and Brazil make quality shoes but offer lower production costs. Moving to countries like Vietnam and China can reduce costs even further but also comes with the risk of brand dilution.

To us here at Luxe Brand Deals going this route can be the kiss of death as once the decision is made it is next to impossible to reverse it. While it might boost short term profits, it can lead to long-term decline for a brand. There’s a long history of brands that used to make all leather shoes. Ann Taylor, Cole Haan, J. Crew just to name a few. Those days are gone and while those brands never achieved luxe status, their brand cache is not what it once was.

Recently some higher-end brands have made this same decision and have started to sneak in lower quality materials into their footwear while generally keeping their prices high. We shall see what happens to these brands long-term, but as a shopper you should be in the know as you want to avoid paying high prices for lower quality shoes.

Brands Making Production Changes

Here are a few brands that we’ve noticed along with some suggestions.

Kate Spade

Much of the brand’s footwear has transitioned to using synthetic materials for the soles and moving production to Vietnam. Pay special attention to products sold via their outlet stores. Outlet store products are often, but not always, made specifically for the outlet stores and may feature simpler designs and construction, and potentially use less expensive materials compared to retail items. Retail items sold through Kate Spade stores and luxury department stores have higher quality leather and better craftsmanship.

Stuart Weitzman

Similar to Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman has been replacing leather with synthetic soles on many of their shoes and transitioning production to less costly origins. Historically, Stuart Weitzman has manufactured its shoes in Spain which produces some of the highest quality leather in the world. These shoes are still featured in their retail stores and through luxury department stores. The Stuart Weitzman outlet stores feature shoes made in Asia using less expensive materials compared to retail items.

Tory Burch

Tory Burch has always had some shoes with rubber soles, but these have generally been limited to the tremendously popular flip flops (the Miller sandal). However, we’ve recently noticed that some of the pumps come with rubber soles. Previously all Tory Burch pumps had real leather soles.

Jimmy Choo

We’ve even noticed that the venerable Jimmy Choo (say it isn't so Jimmy!) has moved production for some of its shoes to Spain from Italy. To be clear, Jimmy Choo is still using leather for its uppers, lining and outsoles for the shoes made in Spain. Spain is still a quality footwear producer but does not have the same high quality reputation for craftsmanship as Italy.

Even though brands like Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman and Tory Burch still use leather soles in many of their shoes we are much more careful when making purchases and no longer buy shoes from these brands unless we are certain the soles are leather, and the discounts are significant.

Happy Shopping!