Artista, from TLB Mallorca’s new top range I was involved with developing through Skolyx retailer. It aims to bring some features found on custom made shoes into midrange price segment of Goodyear welted shoes while remaining accessible with its €425 cost tag. Here’s my report about this project that’s now near launch date.
As an introduction, I thought I’d briefly describe TLB Mallorca Artista. At Goodyear welted shoes, our aim has been to raise the standards for midrange price segments by learning from both some of the highest-end ready-to-wear shoe brands and custom shoemakers in England and Japan.
As a result, shoes were created featuring extremely tight waists, genuine leather heel stiffeners and close-cut heels made exclusively with first grade leather from Annonay and Charles F. Stead Tanneries. Artista shoes feature two brand-new lasts designed specifically for this range: the softly chiseled Picasso last and Goya last with classic round toe. Both continue the acclaimed fit of regular TLB lasts while boasting more refined forms in line with Artista’s more delicate manufacturing processes.
All features which are either uncommon or unique for this price range:
- Extremely narrow bevelled waists designed to highlight the shape of shoes. Created using stitching that goes all the way back to the heel so that this waist is not solely cemented or Blake stitched as is commonly done when creating narrower waists.
- Bevelling of the waist continues under the heel, creating a stronger waist and looking more natural.
- Real leather heel stiffeners (not leather boards) conform best to feet, being living material that can be reshaped as needed.
- Close-cut heels that follow the natural lines of shoes. Sole and heel edges sanded to perfection are rarely seen, additionally, waist edges have also been polished smooth for ease of polishing and maintenance of edges in good condition. Not only do these styles look fantastic, it makes polishing them easier as well
- Tight sole stitch of 8 stitches per inch combined with an attractive and well-balanced fudge wheel setting.
Original goal was to keep it under €400, unfortunately, that proved unachievable due to unexpected additions we never planned for. With TLB Mallorca Artista now costing €425 with VAT (€340/$385 excl VAT), I believe we achieved our mission: one of the best bang-for-buck shoes out there mission accomplished somewhat, nevertheless it has been quite an undertaking to reach this point with many challenges encountered along the way, here’s more info about that journey.
TLB Mallorca, launched last year, takes its name from founder Toni Llobera Barcelo, his father runs a leather accessory factory where belts, bags and other products are created, Toni eventually moved into shoe production instead. He used to work as Factory Manager at Yanko before leaving in order to develop his own brand with its own factory in Inca. This classic shoe city of Mallorca still today houses numerous shoe brands, such as Yanko and Carmina (including Camper and Meermin offices), TLB Toni has formed partnerships with women’s shoe factories and created an entirely new department specializing in producing Goodyear welted men’s shoes. Together they purchased new machines, hired experienced workers with extensive prior knowledge in this area and jointly (Toni can handle most steps himself) trained their existing personnel so they could achieve the results they desired.
TLB first made an appearance at London Super Trunk Show last year (covered it here) where it introduced an extensive variety of models and lasts from day one, at an accessible price point of €365 for Goodyear welted shoes. Customers responded favorably both in terms of quality and fit of lasts, yet Toni Llobera desired to create something truly exceptional, taking inspiration from what other top premium RTW shoemakers such as Gaziano & Girling and Yohei Fukuda had accomplished with their top premium RTW shoes (Yohei used more similar techniques that cost even more), by adding features found only in custom-made shoes into factory-made ones, such as using features from custom made shoes with factory made quality.
Toni knew I had plenty of knowledge when he brought up working for TLB retailer Skolyx last summer, I knew how many of the finest shoes are manufactured, as well as having extensive industry contacts. So when Emil Jansson, founder of Skolyx introduced his plans to me and I discussed possibilities with both of us, among these was advice from both an English bespoke shoemaker as well as one in Japan whom I later interacted with on various matters related to shoemaking and retailing.
Beginning our work was to achieve a tight waist while still doing machine-made sole stitching up to the heel. A lot of steps must be completed successfully for it to turn out successfully and efficiently be manufactured. One of the primary goals was making heels extremely close-cut. Although employees at TLB factory possess extensive skills and often decades of experience, several elements that we introduced into Artista were unfamiliar to them, necessitating trial-and-error during development. I was thoroughly impressed by their dedication in approaching each challenge as an opportunity rather than dwelling on obstacles, many improvements on shoes came directly from employees themselves.
Emil Jansson and I traveled down to Mallorca in September to create the initial Artista samples.
My first time visiting Inca, its shoe factories remind me a bit of those in Asakusa of Tokyo or Marche in Italy, often city buildings with relatively small factories compared to Almansa or Northampton which feature larger, more industrial buildings (though in both cases those buildings tend to be much older).
Toni Llobera had us enter his dark office. For some unknown reason, his curtains are always drawn, giving an appearance of walking into an office of a mafia boss like Toni Montana. All this did was create the impression of coming upon a mafia boss, however upon closer examination Toni proved himself as being warm and friendly as we felt welcome in his factory environment. Overall it seems well organized and neater than most shoe factories I’ve visited and there was strong team spirit among staff members as everyone not just came in and did their shift but actually contributed to shaping it and developing itself and product developments by participating actively and taking part in creating processes and developments of both employees as a part of their role in developing both factory itself and product developments by staff themselves taking part in decision making processes while also taking part in development processes of creating products.
The initial samples showed some promising aspects, but still required considerable work which was understandable. Here, they had overemphasized narrowness of waist, while cutting heels close. Because TLB makes their heels with full Goodyear stitching going all around (unlike British which uses separate heel bases and separate 270deg welts), the heel looked disconnected from its surrounding shoe and too small in comparison with what you would hope to achieve with tight-cut heels. Furthermore, the waist had an unbalanced shape, with stitching showing from under closed channels giving further cause for concern.
While I do appreciate a good story, it would be an overstatement to suggest I don’t enjoy hearing them out there on stage. Toni made sure we covered various aspects of shoemaking, her tendency was always wanting to speak directly with factory personnel about any changes or questions that arose immediately, so often found herself calling out (it being on three floors, it was faster for her) so employees from various stations could come into the factory quickly to note various points. Often they brought back half finished samples with them to show us, returned later having tested what had been discussed, we reviewed, and either sent them out again to test further or we declared their job complete. All of this occurred out in the factory at different stations. Within our initial days in Mallorca we reached consensus on most aspects of how we wanted our shoes made, now it was a matter of solving this in the factory efficiently, and creating new lasts. To start off we started off with a soft chiseled last, as it tends to be easier later to switch into round toe last development from this.
I won’t go into too much depth here, but over fall and winter a number of sample lasts and shoes were created it was quite a daunting process. Toni had to travel regularly from Mallorca to Alicante for last development sessions with her lastmaker, then once completed she would bring the shoe samples back home for assembly (Improve areas that had been highlighted on prior samples), and finally send them off for us in Sweden where we gave feedback and began another round. As we worked through five or six versions of lasts in Alicante, adjusting details that needed further work, the lastmaker became slightly frustrated, but all his effort paid off. At the end, we feel we achieved everything we wanted: the look is elegant yet not too pointy, while retaining the excellent fit of regular TLB lasts. Even though their shapes may differ somewhat from regular TLB models, their proportional measurements remain consistent across each area of the shoe meaning most would wear similar size shoes in Crockett & Jones or Carmina shoes.
For our soft chiseled last Picasso, we were inspired by Yohei Fukuda’s and Gaziano & Girling’s chiseled lasts as well as Gaziano & Girling’s MH71 lasts. Goya was designed after John Lobb Paris’ 7000 last and Hiro Yanagimachi’s round last designs both feature relatively large slopes over the vamp and toe, without adhering to typical Mallorcan aesthetic. Furthermore, its toe spring is lower than usual.
Before, I spoke briefly about waist and heel details that people usually notice. We wanted to add even more subtle yet significant touches such as subtle but important details which might not be immediately obvious but are nonetheless still important. Real leather heel stiffeners are an integral component to providing more exclusive and superior products, being alive materials capable of molding to fit the feet as you wear shoes over time and being reshaped as necessary, usually found only on shoes more costly. The factory placed special attention on edge treatment. A smoothly polished sole edge can make an enormous difference to appearance and makes shining edges much simpler. Following machine sanding, an additional stage with hand sanding with regular sandpaper was added for hand-sanding the waist edge smooth, as well as hand sanding to achieve an exceptional finish. When viewing Artista in person, run your finger along its sole edge and compare to other shoes, this is when you will understand exactly what I mean.
TLB have also experimented with various ways of finishing an upper welt with fudging. Here, factory produced RTW shoes feature 8 stitch per inch stitching density with fudging carefully decorated around their entire edge without creating any ridges etc.
Bevelled waist: the factory initially experimented with an overly-large build-up, however, this didn’t look very pleasing and proved hard to balance with a slim waist. What I am proud to note, however, is that they managed to create a city rubber sole version of Artista with waist sides as slim as its leather sole counterpart and nicely rounded corners something truly impressive considering they’re rubber sole shoes.
One key detail was overlooked at first by the factory: we wanted the waist to extend beneath the heel, however, it proved extremely complicated with factory-made shoes (including premium brands that use pre-built heels). Last week, however, the factory came up with an elegant solution. It makes the waist stronger the whole point of having bevelled waists or fiddle backs in the first place. Building heels piecemeal makes it much simpler to adjust for waist expansion under the heel, while factory-made shoes typically only bevel their waists slightly back before flattening out towards the heel and losing much of their strengthening effect. Therefore, having more of a “real deal” experience here would be greatly advantageous.
TLB Artista shoes were created with this in mind, any time we find ways to improve them further we will act. And TLB have pledged not to reduce quality while keeping prices unchanged something which unfortunately happens frequently with brands which use lower grades of leather or switch from leather board stiffeners to plastic heel stiffeners but keep prices unchanged. With TLB however, customers should know exactly what they are getting, changes would only ever serve to enhance rather than decrease performance, therefore we invite those of you who purchase Artista shoes to provide feedback as this can make their shoes even better, please give feedback on things which could make TLB even better so TLB can develop them further for all.
Artista has prioritized elegant models when selecting its initial lineup of models to launch, in order to highlight its fine craftsmanship and sleek lasts in an attractive manner. Me, Emil and Toni tend to share similar tastes, one model I own from Yohei Fukuda which Toni particularly liked inspired us all and became part of its launch list:
Special Adelaide is available in Vegano dark brown and Vegano burgundy and features the Picasso last (soft chiseled). In the Wholecut Black style with tapered heel. Punched Cap Toe Balmoral in Black features this same Picasso Last, Plain Cap Toe Balmorals can also be made in Vegano Dark Brown for use with this last.
Faux Full Brogue Oxfords in Vegano Brown and Burgundy from Picasso Last are offered here with either light brown, or dark brown reverse calf suede (with city rubber sole), on either Vegano brown or Burgundy leather and featuring their Austerity or Austerity Brogues with either light brown reverse calf suede (both featuring city rubber sole) for comfort, as well as their Punched Cap Toe Oxford in Dark Brown Reverse Calf Suede from Goya Last (classic Round). Finally they offer Balmoral semi Brogues available with Vegano brown reverse Calf Suede soles, Goya Last (classic Round).
Personally I am really proud of how Artista turned out. Hopefully the pictures in this post have given you an idea of why, and that those who see them in person and potentially purchase one will be impressed with what you get for such a low price point. Below are pictures of most models in my starting line-up.