That's interesting.
Here's mine experience with Ed Et Al when I am doing a MTO over at Fiftyfive. The guys there are extremely helpful when it comes to fitting when I told them that I am very particular about the fit as I will always have blister at the heel if the shoe is either too big or tight. After knowing my concerns, we proceed to the fittings and because I have a wider feet width, he recommended me a double E width and it totally feel good! To my knowledge, their RTW shoes are single E width and for MTO, they can provide up to double E width.
When I am about to take off my fitting shoes, he asked me to keep it on till the end of the session so as to make sure the fit is good for me. From there, we proceeded on to the colours and designs and from here, I can tell that the guy who serve me know his products well and will give me his frank opinions. These kind of simple gestures actually make me feel that they are "tailoring" a shoe for me based on my personalities and in person.
The whole process took around 1-1.5 hours and we did have a lot of personal talks including shoes as well as his personal experience and opinions. As I feel more comfortable talking with him, I extended the talk by asking him about the polishes. He explained the differences between them and did not sell hard on their products but asked me to buy when my shoe arrive so that they can choose the specific colour for it.
All In all, I think that the staffs in Fiftyfive are very well-mannered and friendly, including KBKS which I did a couple of shirts with them before.
I always believe this " Never try, never know".