Hello there from Diamond Walker bespoke shoes
Hello everyone,
I'm Conrad Chua, the Marketing Head from Diamond Walker and we have noticed the strong interest in our shoes amongst the many footwear enthusiasts in HWZ.
We have long been aware that certain comments towards our brand have been rather mean-spirited, and to see our customers and supporters being the targets of vicious words, false accusations and to see a flame posting specifically created to generate negative responses against Diamond Walker or DW, has amazed us to no end why the interest against our brand is so strong, by a few very vocal members here with questionable motives. We can only presume there is vested interests here at work.
So to address the many speculations and viewpoints expressed here, we would like to make our statement, by providing as much facts and information as possible within our corporate guidelines as follows:
1. Diamond Walker is a Singapore-registered brand, with our owners and investors both Singaporean and Korean. Our design and R&D house and factories are in Korea. Our craftsmen are Korean and our shoe designers are also Korean. Our shoes are 100% handmade in Korea.
Offering an unprecedented range of shoe styles, far beyond some bespoke men’s shoemakers from Europe and America, Diamond Walker’s handcrafted footwear offers dress shoes encompassing the classic oxfords, brogues, derby and monks; semi-formal versions of the classics that incorporate interesting colours, different leather types and heels as well as casual shoes which include loafers, moccasins, sandals, hiking boots, Chelsea boots and fashion boots. Women’s versions are also available upon request.
Featuring Italian full-grain calfskin leathers, hand-sewn welt construction, full cowhide inner lining, steel shank-reinforced mid-sole for more stability, different options for insoles, outsoles as well as more than 48 different choices of leather & suede and over 200 shoe designs.
2. As many people know, Korea is at the forefront of fashion, technology & entertainment for many years but the English-speaking world has been slow to discover that the shoe-making industry in Korea is as old and established as the western world, partly because its always been a pretty insular society like Japan. Diamond Walker is slowly changing that by bringing our shoes out to the world, by marrying the craftsmanship of hand-made shoes with the Korean style that is taking the fashion world by storm.
3. We have a few Korean creative designers and factories under our employment or who are our partners, and our collections cater to different fashion styles and product categories. As a brand, we are constantly evolving due to market demand and our latest range has since been upgraded to nothing short of having the best quality leathers from Italy mated with fine craftsmanship, done by unquestionably the top shoe designers and shoe craftsmen in Korea, to produce the shoes that you see in our facebook here: facebook .com/Diamond.Walker.SEOUL and in our boutique at China Square Central (strategically between Club Street, the CBD and close to Chinatown).
4. Our shoes have the option of being hand-welted and that is a skill which very few craftsmen can do properly and efficiently without putting in years of experience. As a bespoke shoemaker, we can produce shoes to cater for different shoe styles and budgets. Hence, you can make shoes with us with cemented outsoles to achieve a slimmer shoe profile. We do not discriminate why fine shoes should not be cemented if the customer wants it so.
Likewise if there is demand, we can produce our shoes in Goodyear welting. It is essentially the same process except much quicker and cheaper as a machine does the stitching instead of a human being. However, there are certain nuances that a mastercraftsman's eye and hand feel can pick out & strengthen for certain custom soles that a Goodyear Machine can't replicate. The tolerance level between machine and made by hand is also different.
If you take a look at the attention to detail we put into even reinforcing the optional rubber protector (over the leather soles) with stitching, or the diamond edging on our outsoles, or the double-stitching for some parts of the shoes, and a FULL innerlining made of cowhide to NOT cut corners, you will know where we are coming from as a shoemaker.
Our shoemaking is what we deem as 'modern innovative' bespoke, which may irk the traditionalist who believes in bespoke being nothing less than needing a wooden last to be painstakingly produced for each shoe last design to first make personalised fitting shoes before the actual shoes can be produced. This process, while having a hundred years or more of heritage, may be a little out of place in today's fast-paced modern world, where the consumer may not have the luxury of time to wait for six months or more and pay for this very expensive process to make your own lasts (and be restricted to that shape) and factor in costs for the attention needed.
At Diamond Walker, we have made redundant the process of individualized lasts, by fitting you to the nearest last for that particular shoe design that you picked, and taking into account the measurements taken and the customers' feedback for the feel that he wants - to cater for the length, the ball size (width), the instep (the thickness of your feet), the ankle bone height, the fleshiness of the foot (for tongue shortening) - even for both individual feet. Every shoe is individually made from scratch for each customer.
We have fitted customers from a size 4 to a size 16, with bunions, with odd shaped feet or even different leg lengths with custom modifications. We have fitted our widest customer at EEE. We can even make our shoes with various heights of insoles, whilst still retaining a sleek aesthetical profile. I believe this is something unique to the shoemaking industry as this is a very Korean thing as the men here can be pretty vain.
We can make new patterns for the customer if he finds nothing suitable amongst our over 200 designs and lasts. Aesthetic-wise, for the more stylish individual, you can customize your shoes as you wish, with the options of choosing the shoe construction type ie. hand-sewn welting or cemented, rubber/synthetic outsoles by Vibram or full leather outsoles, choice of colours for your outsoles etc.
The customer is free to mix-and-match leathers and different colours for different parts of the shoe, to change the stitching colours, inner-lining colours, to remove or add a medallion, to laser-engrave his initials, to have his shoes with hand-painted patina as he wish.
If all the above cannot warrant the use of the word 'bespoke shoemaking' to describe how each Diamond Walker shoe is handmade for an individual according to his unique measurements and aesthetics, then perhaps we are just arguing over semantics and is up to an individual's interpretation.
5. At Diamond Walker, we believe that the modern man is stylish and wants shoes which reflect his individuality and at a pricepoint which is pretty sweet for a pair of handcrafted shoes, with good quality materials, both inside and outside. People say that good-looking shoes are uncomfortable. And comfortable shoes are ugly-looking. At Diamond Walker, we believe they can be both. Our R&D efforts have evolved our shoes since we started, to be even better constructed - to be well-balanced, aesthetically good-looking and to bring comfort to your walking in the materials we have incorporated into our shoes.
6. Yes, Diamond Walker is a new player in the shoemaking industry. Yet in that one year since we launched our brand, we have had numerous media channels writing about us or showcasing us on TV, and we had our shoes on catwalks in Seoul, Singapore, New York, Milan including Seoul Fashion Week, Fide Fashion Week, Audi Fashion Festival with collaborations with numerous fashion labels including Ted Baker, CY Choi, Steve-J & Yoni P, French Haute Couture menswear label Marc-Antoine Barrois. We were even invited by Harvard University to collaborate for their annual IDENTITIES fashion show in April this year.
We had many Korean and local celebrities wearing our shoes as well as prominent local fashion designers and personalities as customers.
We have also been the official shoes for the World Baseball Championship team from Korea, and are also currently the official shoes for the Panerai Singapore boutique in Ion Orchard.
To those naysayers, we believe that our products and brand do stand for something . We aim to bring a freshness to an old industry that many consider boring and unexciting. We are here to make a difference and an impact and we believe the future will be very exciting for our customers.
7. Lastly, we stand by the quality and craftsmanship of our shoes and while some individuals here may have expressed doubt and passed on heresay or misinformation, knowingly or unknowingly, it does not matter. We invite you to come down to our Diamond Walker boutique at China Square Central and take a look for yourself. Nothing beats a personal inspection.
You may also want to come check out our premium Royale Collection range and some special leathers eg. saffiano leather, which we have exclusivity to in the market (as we have bought up the entire batch direct from some top Italian tanneries), to create that truly special shoes!
Warmest regards and 감사합니다,
Conrad Chua on behalf of
The Diamond Walker team