01 — amarelecimento
Yellowing
White leather and white rubber both turn warmer with age and with ultraviolet light. We tell you how to slow it down and we do not tell you it can be stopped.
AL TEI FABRICA CALCADO LDA — Felgueiras, Portugal
Every pair
has this label.We made it the way you shop.
What is printed on the tongue of the pair above
- parte superior
- couroleather
- forro e palmilha
- têxtiltextile
- sola
- outros materiaisother materials
Forty-two items. Six lines. Prices in US dollars, bought outright — there is no membership and nothing here renews.
01
Three rows. Nothing else on the label.
Footwear sold in the European Union has to declare what three parts of the shoe are made of, using four material classes. Almost nobody reads it. It is the most useful thing printed on a shoe.
Read the label in fullStart from a material.
These are the four classes the Directive allows. Pick one and the catalogue narrows to the pairs whose upper is declared that way.
- couroleather26
- couro revestidocoated leather3
- têxtiltextile7
- outros materiaisother materialsnone
No upper here is declared outros materiais. Every outsole is.
02
Six lines, forty-two items.
Grouped by what the upper is, because that is the decision that changes how the shoe behaves.
See everythingLine A — 8 items
White Leather
Eight ways to buy a white leather shoe, and three statements on every one of them about what white does.
$98 – $248
Line B — 7 items
Coloured Leather
The same lasts in colour, including the two models whose finish is thick enough to be declared coated leather.
$108 – $268
Line C — 7 items
Suede & Nubuck
Nap surfaces. Both are leather under the Directive, and they behave nothing like each other.
$118 – $288
Line D — 6 items
Textile
Cotton canvas and engineered mesh. The line where the first label row reads têxtil.
$78 – $188
Line E — 7 items
Chunky & Retro
Deeper soles and older outlines. Casual shoes with a retro shape, and no performance claim anywhere.
$128 – $318
Line F — 7 items
Care & Sets
What each material actually needs, and three combinations that cost less than their parts.
$18 – $398
03
What white shoes do.
Seventeen of our models are white or close to it. Every one of them carries these three statements on its product page, above the price, before you buy.
02 — vincos
Creasing
The vamp folds where your foot folds, from the first few wears. It is the structure doing its job. Softer leather creases sooner, not less.
03 — limites de limpeza
Cleaning limits
Dust, scuffs and street grime come off. Oil, grease and dye lifted from dark denim sink in and generally stay. Both halves of that sentence matter.
None of this voids anything. Yellowing and creasing under normal wear are what these materials do; separation of the sole, a split, or an eyelet pulling out are faults, and those are covered. Where the line falls, with examples.
04
Two ways the sole is attached. Neither can be undone.
Cupsole and vulcanised are both permanent joins. That is the honest limit of this kind of shoe and we would rather you knew it now.
Cupsole
The upper drops into a moulded rubber cup whose walls come up around it, and cement holds the two together. More sole underneath you, more structure, more weight.
Vulcanised
Rubber cured onto the upper under heat, with a foxing tape band around the join. Thinner, softer, and it folds with your foot from the first day.
The limit
These shoes cannot be re-soled.
A welted shoe is stitched, so the thread can be unpicked and a new sole fitted. A bonded shoe cannot: taking the sole off takes the bottom of the upper with it. When the tread here is gone, the pair is finished.
We say so on every product page, next to the construction, rather than leaving you to work it out at a cobbler.
05
Three of these four are couro.
Suede and nubuck are leather. The statutory class does not tell you how a surface behaves, which is why every product page gives the material underneath it as well.
How each one is cleaned
couro
Full-grain leather
The grain is intact. Pores, growth marks and all.
couro
Suede
The flesh side raised into a nap. Still leather.
couro
Nubuck
The grain side sanded. Shorter nap, tougher surface.
têxtil
Cotton canvas
Plain weave. You can count the yarns.
06
Eight to start with.
One from each direction the range goes in. Every card carries its three rows so you can compare without opening anything.
All forty-two
- couroupper: leather.
- têxtillining and insock: textile.
- outrosoutsole: other materials.
A-01 · cupsole · White
The plain white cupsole this whole line is measured against: full-grain calf upper, one piece of rubber under it, nothing else going on.
- couroupper: leather.
- têxtillining and insock: textile.
- outrosoutsole: other materials.
Nubuck Cupsole
$148
C-03 · cupsole · Taupe
Nubuck is the grain side sanded, not the flesh side raised. Shorter nap, denser surface, and it survives being brushed far more often than suede.
- couroupper: leather.
- courolining and insock: leather.
- outrosoutsole: other materials.
Tan Cupsole
$128
B-03 · cupsole · Tan
Vegetable-tanned tan calf, leather-lined. It darkens where it is handled and where the sun hits it, and that is the reason to buy it.
- couroupper: leather.
- têxtillining and insock: textile.
- outrosoutsole: other materials.
Chunky Sole 5 cm
$148
E-02 · cupsole · Cream
50 mm. The tallest sole here, in cream so the volume reads softer than it would in optical white.
- têxtilupper: textile.
- têxtillining and insock: textile.
- outrosoutsole: other materials.
D-01 · vulcanised · Off-white
The cheapest thing we make and the one whose label is honest in the simplest way: têxtil, têxtil, outros materiais.
- couroupper: leather.
- courolining and insock: leather.
- outrosoutsole: other materials.
White Full Grain
$168
A-05 · cupsole · White
Heavier hide, leather lining. It holds its shape far longer than the entry models and it takes about two weeks to stop feeling stiff.
- couroupper: leather.
- têxtillining and insock: textile.
- outrosoutsole: other materials.
Suede Cupsole
$118
C-01 · cupsole · Sand
Sand suede on a white cupsole. Suede is leather — the nap is the flesh side raised — so the label still reads couro.
- couroupper: leather.
- têxtillining and insock: textile.
- outrosoutsole: other materials.
Retro Tennis
$158
E-04 · vulcanised · White
The slim court outline from the 1970s on a flat 18 mm vulcanised sole. Again: an outline, not equipment.
07
Cleaning is not one method.
A brass brush that rescues suede will ruin smooth leather. Each material gets its own instructions, and each one lists what comes out and what does not.
- Smooth and coated leather5 out / 5 stay
- Suede and nubuck4 out / 4 stay
- Cotton canvas and woven textile4 out / 4 stay
- Engineered mesh3 out / 3 stay
08
Measure the foot, not the size.
Every model lists the measured interior length for each EU size in centimetres, and the forefoot width of its last in millimetres. Wide-fit models state both.
3 years of legal guarantee
Portuguese law gives you 3 years on a defect in conformity, with the first 2 presumed to have existed at delivery.
Garantia14 days to change your mind
Return an unworn pair within 14 days of delivery, no reason needed. Try them indoors on carpet; an outdoor sole cannot be returned.
Livre resoluçãoFree shipping over $129
Standard shipping is $12 below that. Delivery windows by destination are published before you pay.
Envios e devoluçõesComplaints book, always open
Portugal requires an electronic complaints book. Ours is linked on every page and we answer within 15 business days.
Livro de Reclamações