The Rivista: How to 'Break In' Your Loafers
Ciao from Firenze,
Today we're going to have a painful conversation...literally. Let's talk about how to break in your loafers.
There. Is. Nothing. Worse.
Right?
Blisters, cuts, that awkward strut. No thank you. Lucky for us, this blog isn't terribly difficult to write when it comes to breaking in your Del Toro footwear. This problem isn't as persistent with our products as it is with other brands'.
It comes down to to three things primarily:
- The construction of the loafer
- The quality of the materials and make of the loafer
- Your individual foot shape and fit preference
Let's talk about each of those points, then provide a little guidance on how to get your Del Toros to mold comfortably to your foot on the off-chance you need it.
The Construction of the Loafer
Some loafers are more structured than others. For the sake of this conversation, When we use the term 'structure', we are really just referring to the 'stiffness' of the loafer. Some loafers are designed to be more structured than others, primarily for use case and aesthetic purposes.
We make loafers with two types of primary structures - 'lined' and 'half-lined'.
The lining you see on the interior of the shoe provides a layer of support that helps the loafer keep its shape. This will create a 'stiffer' feeling when worn. Again, this isn't a bad thing, and it can come down to personal preference. This used to be more true than it is today, but the shortcut is that more formal shoes tend to be more structured than more informal footwear.
A 'half-lined' (or 'unlined' in some instances) loafer forgoes the bulk of the interior lining, making the shoe more supple and malleable with wear. These tend to require less 'breaking in', but may create a slight wrinkle effect without the liner in place.
Our Velvet Slippers and Milano Loafers have slightly more structure than our Penny Loafers and Travel Loafers. We do this primarily for the reasons above - our Velvet Slippers and Milano Loafers tend to be worn both casually and formally by our customers, whereas our Penny Loafers and Travel Loafers tend to be worn in more informal settings. That said, in today's day and age, most of these old 'style rules' have morphed into 'guidelines' and you can get away with wearing any of our shoes in any situation, formal or otherwise. Still, we like to give you options.
However, our version of 'structured' is very different than the average loafer brand. And the sole can play a role in this. Let's talk about this next.
The Quality of the Materials and Make of the Loafer
This matters. Big time.
Shoes made with low-quality materials and poor manufacturing methods will hurt your feet. There is no doubt about that. It's funny when folks explain the non-DT loafers they wear to us - "I paid so much money and they cut up my feet!" or "Yeah, they were cheap, and they hurt my feet so I'm not surprised." Neither of those situations sound enjoyable.
Our loafers are handmade by our family of generational artisans throughout Italy. So these guys are physically touching and feeling the shoe throughout every single step of the process. This ensures critical quality and comfort checks aren't missed throughout the process while adding that human-to-human touchpoint that answers 'our customers expect the highest degree of quality and comfort - would I put this shoe on my own foot?'
The vast majority of brands use robotic machinery to produce their footwear. Machines do not care about these things. You'd like to think that the technology is such that machines can make a better loafer than humans these days, but in our experience that is not the case. As globalization has led to production shifts throughout the world, most loafer manufacturers are solving for volume and efficiency, and will often sacrifice both quality and comfort to save a buck here and there.
And yes, inflation has certainly played a role in this recently. We read about how cereal brands, for example, will sneakily shrink the size of their boxes to give you less product for the same price. This happens in the footwear and garment world as well - maybe a less expensive and lower quality suede or leather will be used to help offset the rising costs. Ultimately this really only impacts you, the customer, in a negative manner.
And this happens more than you'd think: we will be touring a new or existing factory and run across another brand's shoe being made. Sometimes we even run into employees of those brands conducting their own factory visits. It is surprising to see how uninspiring the make and quality of some of these products from these 'high end' brands. Especially when you consider what they charge you for their products. You often pay a premium for a name, and the quality just is not what they make it out to be or what you would expect given the price they are making you pay. It's hard to write this without sounding like it's intentionally placed to degrade a competitor - it's not. Just know this happens frequently and it is a fact of life.
We've seen incredibly popular brands do all sorts of crazy things - some paint most of their leathers, some bulk-buy low quality material, and some even stage closeup shots of shoemakers 'handcrafting' footwear before sticking them right back into the machine. We see this regularly with our own eyes. They do have beautiful product photography and high-budget marketing campaigns - that's how they get ya.
Now we need to plug because this is true: we have actually increased the quality and sourcing of our materials throughout the last several years. As our own brand grew, we were able to competitively access these new sources of material in a way that started to make sense from a volume perspective.
Look, we're all for operational and financial efficiency. But only to a point. We refuse to compromise on quality and comfort, no matter the cost. What's the point? The truth of the matter is, we pay a premium for this, and believe it or not, we actually do not pass these costs along to you (have you noticed we don't increase our prices at anywhere near the rates or frequencies of our competitors?).
Your Individual Foot Shape and Preferences
We all have different feet. Some of us have wide feet, some narrow, some flat, some arched. We don't even know what qualifies as a 'normal' foot, frankly.
And believe it or not, we all prefer our loafers to fit differently, however nuanced that may be. We see this all the time in our DMs. Just know that the only consistency is 'we want it to be comfortable.' If you want to learn more about how your loafers should fit, check out this blog as we cover the topic in digestible detail.
Some people also have a strong preferences or views on other things, such as sole type and construction. 'Goodyear Welt' gets tossed around a lot as an example. It was an English shoemaking method used to apply a sole back in the day, and over time people started to associate this method with quality. That isn't always true, for what it's worth. Italians usually think about this differently, but that's a conversation for a different day. A Goodyear Welt was primarily used to make re-soling a shoe 'easier'. That goal was (and is) certainly achieved, particularly given the technology available to cobblers at the time, but it does mean your loafer will be more stiff and less malleable to your foot.
Some folks may prefer rubber soles, which have become more common over time and are certainly 'in' right now. Rubber soles, as you might imagine, tend to have more flexibility and can often be more comfortable than a leather or harder-soled shoe. And society today is more open to the aesthetic. We believe there is a time and place for each, depending the situation.
So...How Do I Break Them In?
For real: you will not need to do much 'breaking in' of a Del Toro loafer. They are designed this way using premium velvets, leathers, and suedes throughout a hands-on shoemaking process.
But, we get it, you may be as maniacal over a millimeter as we are, and we love you for that. But really all you need to do is wear them a couple times. I am sorry you came all this way just to hear that, but it's true for our loafers.
Our loafers are designed to be slightly snug in the midfoot for security, and a touch structured in the toe box to prevent creasing. So if you prefer a loafer that is a bit more 'fitted' to your foot, just know that our shoes will stretch a bit and mold to your foot after only a few wears.
Suede tends to stretch more easily and quickly than calf leather. Our suede is incredibly soft and high-quality, so we rarely get customers reaching out about breaking in our suede loafers. From time to time we do get a few folks who will ask about breaking in our leather loafers. Just to say it - we use premium quality leathers on our loafers, and we do not fully polish or give them a shine treatment during production (which can dry out and stiffen leather; also folks have their own preferences on the amount of 'shine' they like on their loafer), which makes our leather loafers extremely soft and malleable. Slightly less so than our suede loafers, so if you do need to 'break' them in, just give them a couple wears and you should be just fine.
So, that's that. Our loafers won't require much 'breaking in'. We won't speak for other brands, but in our experience, the price-per-blister may not be worth it.
Ciao for now,
DT
