![]() If there were more cordovan available, we’d be able to put it to great use. Availability is increasing slightly in 2016, but it takes several months for increased supplies of raw hides to be turned into finished cordovan for shoemaking. “It’s a scarce resource for certain, so we’re careful with it. “The increase in China’s interest in luxury goods, combined with a reduction in the consumption of horsemeat in French and French Canadian cooking, has resulted in a great deal of pressure on supply,” he says.Īllen Edmonds gets its cordovan entirely from Horween and wouldn’t think of using another tannery. Allen Edmonds CEO Paul Grangaard sees pressures beyond just men’s wear geeks on the Internet. If Nettleton had to go to the ends of the earth to source shell cordovan, that’s because demand is also spanning the globe. “But once it absorbs the creams and lotions it takes on a really beautiful patina finish and will last forever.” “You have to care for cordovan a great deal more than calf because it dries out and there’s a lot of calcium in it,” says Tognioni. Nettleton offers a variety of cordovan styles, which are priced at $1,295 and sold through trunk shows, e-commerce, and select retail accounts. Nettleton orders 50 to 100 “shells,” or hides at a time (it generally takes 1 1/2 shells to make a pair of shoes). So far the agent has been able to meet orders in six to eight weeks. Nettleton found an agent in London who sourced hides from Japan that were sent to England and Italy for tanning. Prices keep going up and it’s increasingly difficult to get.” “Cordovan requires a long tanning process,” says Edward Tognioni, “the material is limited, and demand is relatively high. When Nettleton decided to start offering cordovan shoes one year into its comeback, it was forced to look beyond Horween. Chicago-based Horween Leathers, founded in 1905, is the world’s leading producer. Part of the crunch is that there are only a few tanneries that produce horse leather. Thanks in part to what can only be described as #menswear, demand for cordovan has skyrocketed over the past several years thanks to blogs, message boards and social media, which have exposed younger consumers to loafers and lace-ups made of shell cordovan. Not to flog a dead horse, but there’s been a growing shortage of cordovan that’s not going to let up any time soon. ![]() It molds to the foot better than calf and develops a distinctive patina, a discrete signal of affluence and taste for the trained eye to spot. ![]() They settled on a Belgian shoemaker to craft the footwear, which is priced in the $800-$1,200 range, and when it came to sourcing shell cordovan - that hardy leather made from the hind quarters of a horse - they practically had to scour the ends of the earth.Ĭordovan comes from the Spanish word for from cordoba, and has long been a staple of traditional men’s dress shoes. When brothers James and Edward Tognioni revived the Nettleton shoe brand in 2013, they opted for a global approach to this storied American brand originally founded in 1879. Shell Shock: The Growing Demand For The Horse Leather Known As Cordovan The story is slated to see print in the June issue but went online today. I decided to investigate the topic for Apparel Magazine, which I’ve contributed to for over a decade. I must have asked for an unusual color and style combo, because I was told it would take six months to get it, and that there was a waiting list of 150 or so guys in front of me with orders at the factory. A couple of months ago, while browsing at the Alden shop in New York, I made a casual inquiry about a shoe in shell cordovan.
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