The art of finding great quality, affordable, long lasting school shoes for children is, according to our customers’ feed-back, a challenging task. Funnily enough, it is actually the pair of shoes that children will wear the most during their school years, so it is very important to make the right choice.

Parents often go for a lower priced option as a result of them thinking they will have to repurchase each semester. The truth is, choice is limited and most popular brands of school shoes offer very average quality shoes. They tend to use the poorest quality of leather which can still be legally called leather (mostly upper-crust pork hide) coated with a synthetic finish that gives it a “plasticky” feel.

The sole is usually thick, made from a black synthetic composite and glued to the upper part of the shoe. The overall design of most school shoes is therefore bulky and the synthetic materials often used prevent the children’s feet from breathing properly and do not allow for comfort that genuine soft leather and rubber provide.

This finding was a great a motivation for designing and manufacturing quality school shoes that conform to most Australian schools’ standards and offering amazing value at the same time. Our school shoes are made from 100% genuine soft leather enabling the feet to breathe and for the shoe to mould to the child’s foot. The development of a unique sole stitching technology (“stitch-down” shoe construction) ensures the shoes are flexible, waterproof and durable and the feet are supported by cushioned inner padding.

If you ever wondered how a high-quality leather shoe, including school shoes, is manufactured, we have described the 20-step journey of one of our leather shoes below.

The journey of a Comme les grands leather shoe

All Comme les grands shoes are handcrafted almost entirely by hand in a small manufacturing facility. Each shoe is the result of no less than twenty different handlings from start to finish.

1. Each Comme les grands shoe model is uniquely created and made into a prototype sample which gets “road-tested” and assessed for comfort, practicability, durability and aesthetics. Parents also give their feed-back on the different aspects of the shoe.
2. The shoes that pass the test and are chosen to fit in the collection are then designed on a paper sheet from different angles (up, side, profile etc…)
3. A sole and a last are chosen for each model.
4. A paper pattern is designed for each component of the upper shoe in each size.
5. Steel cutting dies are prepared accordingly.
6. Leather preparation: all soft leather pieces are manually inspected and polished in case of any irregularities or thinned with a special knife if they are overly thick.
7. All leather pieces for the insoles and upper shoes are being cut partly with a hydraulic press, partly manually.
8. All leather components of the upper and insole are prepped for stitching. They are sometimes sent to a special workshop if they require embroidery or any stitched decoration.
9. All leather parts are then stitched together as well as hoop and loop straps, eyelets or any other vital parts.
10. The shoe lasts are prepared on a conveyor belt. There is one for each model and size.
11. The upper of the shoe is set on to the lasts, followed by the insole and both are sewn together with special stitch-down sewing machines. This step is performed by a very experienced technician to ensure comfort and aesthetics of the shoe.
12. Another fine polishing is then performed with sand paper to buff out any irregularities in the leather.
13. The bottom of the sole is polished with a specific product to ensure a strong grip of the outsole.
14. The arch support foam in introduced under the insole.
15. The outsole is covered with glue and placed on a conveyor belt under strong heat.
16. The flexible rubber outsole is strongly glued to the bottom sole and is placed under a heavy press.
17. The shoe lasts and the shoes are then refrigerated because they endured much heat during the manufacturing process. This last step is essential to obtain a great quality product.
18. The shoes are taken off the last and inspected individually by a quality controller.
19. The shoes are labelled and tagged. The Comme les grands motif on the insole is manually applied.
20. The shoes are wrapped in paper before being delicately packed in the exclusive Comme les grands cotton travel pouch.