I went to 3.3 yesterday to find a place that makes shoes. The only one I found was on the 3rd floor (Dragon something...) and the shoes seemed decent, but they wanted 1300 for a pair.

Has anyone else had shoes made? Is this the going price? I am looking for nice shoes to wear to work, and am willing to pay that price IF the quality is good, but I have no idea how long these shoes that are made here last. I've had good and bad experiences with tailors, so any input would be great...

I must check out Billy's as I have heard much about it.

Good shoes are extremely expensive everywhere, and particularly in China. Why? Good leather, full-grained, is expensive and the processes are time-consuming. This means a leather sole that is sewn on rather than a PVC sole that is pasted (as you find in all the garbage produced and sold here). If you go to Zara, the shoes are rubbish quality-wise, though the styles are cool.

Let me speak more of the difficulty of finding good shoes in Beijing. There are literally no, non custom-made shoes, of decent quality for under 1,500-2,000. Some might recommend that you go to that shop in the back of the Nali market - the Nirvana shoeland for foreigners now also next to Saddle Cantina, on Dongsi and in the top floor of 3.3. There is not one decent dress shoe in the place. It is all corrected grain leather and pasted on soles.

Is 1,300 a fair price? There are two shops in 3.3. One appears to have very good leather and the other is not as good. I thought the good leather place was asking more than 1,300, so I'm not sure which place you mean.

I suspect Watson, for example, is a man who wants some fashion and not just a traditional shoe. I believe that if you want style and quality, the Lane Crawford shoes are the best you will find in Beijing. They have styles specially commissioned for them and made in Italy and Spain, two of the best leather-crafting countries.

BTW, I am giving away or selling some parts of my shoe collection if you are a 10.5/11 (44). I won't be needing as many dress shoes in the near future. Please contact me if you are interested.

In general, one get away with a crappy suit, but not crappy shoes. Interestingly, most people emphasize the suit, neglecting the shoes.

I know it's a bit more costly, but I recommend you check out Lane Crawford right now - if you need a pair soon. You can get okay shoes, made in Italy or Spain, for 1,800. The leather quality is better than any of the custom-made places. It's a matter of economies of scale and the absence of good produced in China. Their top size is 44 for most styles though.

As of recently I have been on the hunt for a simple pair of women's black heels - nothing fancy, just a plain black heeled shoe without any crap that sparkles or makes noise.

I am shocked at what kind of task this has turned out to be. I have been into at least 40 different stores and struck out every time! I cannot believe some of the crap I have seen - some of it rivalling hooker shoes - and folks want over 650RMB for it! I even braved the waters of HongQiao, Silk and Yashow markets - still nothing!

On a whim I walked into a shop near my apartment just to see what they had. Lo and behold, there is a nice lady who does custom shoes for men & women tucked in the back. I immediately fell in love with many of her styles and color choices - so I ordered a pair of her shoes. After all the leather, heel and sole choices were hammered out, my grand total came to 800RMB.

I go in tonight for a fitting and should be able to pick up the shoes next week. If the end result turns out as nicely as I hope it will, I will be sure to post her information.

The little bit of pinyin on the receipt reads "Beijing Tonglide" and its on DongZhong Jie, just north of the poly theater on the same side of the street. The front looks like a clothing/consignment store, but if you go all the way back they have shoes. I'm not sure if this is the only locale or if there are others since there are three phone numbers on the receipt.

The stuff they have on display looks and feels well made and they have a variety of leathers to choose from ranging from thin and crappy feeling to sturdy and luxurious feeling. I'm crossing my fingers that my choice comes out at nicely as the display models! They also have two big fat binders with pages of various styles that you can choose from for them to make.

Went in for a fitting this evening, but she said she would have to call me in a day or two...so we'll see how this all plays out.

Bump - eagerly waiting to hear the results on this job :!:

Ahh - so sorry for the delay. I had been waiting for a phone call from the lady at the shop, but got sick of waiting so I finally stopped by on Wednesday. Turns out she had been trying to call me for days, but was dialling the wrong numbers.

Anyway - I tried on the rough draft, and she marked the areas where the shoe needed some alterations. The rough draft looked and felt great, but since the leather and sole had not been applied so its hard to say much more.

She told me to come back next week to pick up the finished product...as long as we don't have any contact snafu's I should be able to post picutres of the shoes by the weekend!

Is there a place in town where you can buy Allen Edmonds, Cole Haan, or even Johnston & Murphy mens dress shoes?

I have never found trendy brands like Mark Nason or any of the more conventional American brands like AE and J&M. I suspect that Cole Haan is available somewhere here since some of their production has been outsourced to China. Their Chinese are products are signicantly inferior to what they make in India, which is on par with mid-range Italian footwear. You are better off trying to find Italian brands here since their pricing is not likely to be significantly higher than the, already inflated, prices you would find in the States.

My sense on Mark Nason is that it is made in Italy. The style is very hip but the quality seems to be below the more traditional brands like AE, Alden, etc. Again, I think that for a trendier shoe it's probably best to stick with the Italians or even Spanish shoes. There are goodyear-welted Spanish shoes in very fashionable styles - the prices tend to be lower.

Anyway, I'm thinking that this should be the regular men's shoe thread. I will update it periodically with new findings.

I'd be interested to know how these came out, as I am on the hunt for some hand made dress shoes in Beijing, with a budget somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 yuan.