Store Guide: LeatherFoot, a high-end men’s custom shoe store in Yorkville

Store Guide: LeatherFoot, a high-end men’s custom shoe store in Yorkville

Store Guide: LeatherFoot, a men’s shoe haven in Yorkville

Name: LeatherFoot
Sells: Men’s shoes, shoe care products, bags and accessories
Contact info: 24 Bellair St. Unit 7, 416-967-3668, leatherfoot.com 
Hours: M–W, Sa 11–6, Th–F 11–8, Su 12–3
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LeatherFoot specializes in handcrafted leather shoes for men, the kind of investment pieces that a gent will still be wearing forty years from now. The Yorkville shop’s off-the-rack pairs range from $310 for driving shoes by La Cordonnerie Anglaise to $1850 for hand-stained monkstraps by Saint Crispin’s (whose Romanian workshop reportedly produces fewer than 1,300 pairs each year). However, discerning shoppers willing to wait a few months and chip in an extra $200 or more can specify the leather, colour and soles of any shoe in the store, including pairs by England’s Alfred Sargent and Spanish brand Carmina. Finally, the truly shoe-obsessed can order bespoke pairs (starting around $5,000), in which the entire last is made according to the client’s measurements.

Owner Ideyi Chuku and general manager Arne Ben Peterson know their trade and are happy to pontificate on the finer points of caring for leather (the CliffsNotes can be found on their blog). The shop also carries a full range of shoe care accoutrements, as well as a small collection of leather briefcases and weekend bags by Gaziano & Girling, and suspenders by Albert Thurston—a favourite of both James Bond and Gordon Gecko.

See inside LeatherFoot »