John Lobb

John Lobb arrived in London from Cornwall in the 1840s, having served his apprenticeship in shoemaking in his home county before moving to Sydney — where he produced boots for the Australian gold rush — and then returned to London to establish himself on St James's Street in 1849. He was appointed bootmaker to the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) in 1863, and bootmaker to Queen Victoria shortly thereafter. The royal warrants conferred prestige; the product justified it.

The address mattered then and continues to matter now. St James's Street — running from Piccadilly to St James's Palace — has been the address of English gentlemen's trade since the 17th century: the clubs, the wine merchants, the hat-makers, the gunsmiths, and the shoemakers. To be established here was to be embedded in a specific world. John Lobb understood this.

London and Paris — A Necessary Distinction

A clarification that every serious buyer should have before approaching the house: there are, in effect, two John Lobbs, unified under the same legal entity since 1976 when Hermès acquired the company.

John Lobb London — the bespoke-only operation on St James's Street — is the original house, producing handmade bespoke shoes and boots through methods unchanged in their essentials since the 19th century. This is the operation most serious shoe collectors mean when they say "John Lobb."

John Lobb Paris — the Hermès subsidiary that produces the ready-to-wear and made-to-order range under the John Lobb name — operates from Paris and distributes through boutiques globally. These are fine shoes; they are not bespoke.

The distinction is not snobbery. It is accuracy. A man buying the RTW line from a John Lobb boutique is buying something different from what a bespoke client commissions on St James's Street.

The Bespoke Process

A bespoke commission at John Lobb London begins with the creation of a last — a wooden form carved in beech to the exact dimensions of the client's foot, incorporating between 30 and 40 precise measurements. This last is the property of the client; it is held in the house's archive — currently several thousand individual lasts, some dating back a century — and retrieved for every subsequent pair.

The construction is hand-welted throughout, not Goodyear-welted. The distinction is technically significant: hand-welting uses a single curved awl to pierce welt, insole, and upper simultaneously, producing a tighter connection and a slimmer profile than the Goodyear machine process allows. The shoe requires approximately 190 individual operations and between eight and twelve months for the first pair — longer if adjustments are required after the first fitting.

Key Lasts

The bespoke operation works to the client's individual last, so no standardised catalogue exists. The ready-to-wear and MTM range produced by the Paris operation includes several signature last shapes:

The William — a rounded toe Oxford, the house's most commercially accessible shape, suitable across a wide range of body types and suit silhouettes.

The Portland — an elongated, more formal toe, narrower through the waist, intended for the dressiest occasions and suiting of considerable formality.

The Hermès Question

The 1976 acquisition is a subject on which serious enthusiasts hold strong views. The honest position is this: Hermès has provided the capital necessary to maintain the St James's Street bespoke workshop without subjecting it to the commercial imperatives that would otherwise force compromises in quality or speed. The leatherwork expertise that Hermès brings — they are among the world's most serious students of fine leather — is a genuine addition rather than a dilution.

The workshop on St James's Street operates as it did before the acquisition. The waiting list is real. The output is unchanged. The royal warrant continues. What Hermès has added is financial stability and access to exceptional raw materials.

FAQs

What does a bespoke John Lobb commission cost? The first commission — which includes the cost of creating the personal last — begins at approximately £5,500–8,000 depending on the model and leather. Subsequent pairs, using the existing last, begin at approximately £3,500–5,000.

What do John Lobb Paris ready-to-wear shoes cost? Current pricing for the RTW range begins at approximately £700–1,200 per pair. These are manufactured in Northampton to high standards and represent a credible entry point to the house — with the understanding that they are not the bespoke operation.