We're making some high-end men's boots

[Chase]

Hey gents,

We wanted to get into the physical products space.

Mainly because of how hard it is advertising dating advice... we thought something more universal might be a good gateway drug to GC.

So I mulled it over a bit and I thought shoes would be a good place for that.

I've always liked cool boots. But often have a hard time finding any I really like.

So we got a designer in Milan to design some boots for us. Plan is also to do high end men's sneakers and business shoes. But we'll start with boots.

The objective was to create a pair of men's boots that are sexy, unique-looking, and perfect for going out.

We'll just use my name as the brand name. So Chase Amante shoes... you'll be able to wear your Chase Amantes out about town in style.

Now that we have the design, we'll have a shoe expert go over these and do all the materials and dimensions. And then we'll do the prototype.

The main focus during these stages will be materials quality and comfort. I have a lot of issues with ankle boots not being very comfortable / requiring months sometimes to break in, and I'd like these boots to be different. Not sure how easy that'll be, given the structure of boots, but we're going to try for it.

Back with more updates later.

Chase

 

[Mr.Rob]

Whoa interesting marketing strategy.

Sick boots too, though I'd like them a bit more if they were a bit slimmed down in the mid part (they're a bit beefy and I'm a skinny bastard).

How much to snag those puppies? $200-300 I'm guessing

 

[alleniverson]

Awesome idea.

 

[readjusting]

I got the brown boots you recommend in the “dating while you’re broke” article. Some girls (and guys) complimented me on the boots. The reception is better than the boots I chose myself, so Chase is the real boot expert here.
The downsides of the brown boots were that they scratched the skin. However, long socks 100% mitigated this issue.

Just from the picture I can tell these boots will go well with high end looks.

 

[Chase]

@Mr.Rob-

Noted on beefiness. We're having the professional shoe designer do the tech pack (industry parlance for "all the measures, materials, and technical specifications") now... will ask about beefiness vs. thinness on that midsection.

Price-wise since we're starting out high-end it's probably going to be $750 for these. $200-$300 would put us right in the "slightly high-end" niche where you have Aldos and related boots. The really high-end stuff is around $1200-$1700. I think it'll be hard to create an image of the boot being the high-end thing for extra stylish guys to wear if it's retailing down around $200-$300, but we can probably safely get there at $750 without having to go all the way to the $1500 range. (and then maybe do a discount line later... as a friend who does product manufacturing/brands once told me, you can always start out high-end with expensive products, and introduce a discount line later. You cannot usually start out as a discount line, and introduce an expensive high-end version later)


@readjusting-

Oh neat, glad the reception's been well for those boots! They're pretty attention-grabbing, huh?

I've had that issue with both those and another pair I bought at the same time. Ones from that article scraped the skin off my ankle; another pair rubbed the skin off the back of my legs. Ended up having to wear bandages on the vulnerable parts for a few months until I fully broke the boots in, to guard against further scraping/rubbing.

This is a big thing for me to fix with a new boot. Is there a way to build the boot so it doesn't take months to break in, before it stops hurting/carving up your feet?

Aldos are usually better about that. But even still they are not super comfortable either.

Chase

 

[walkwaybush]

I will give an opinion on my personal taste.
This is only my personal opinion.

I think a round toes always look more beautiful than the square tip. Square tip to me always looks ugly

The leather is cut into too many pieces. Its the style of leather normally done to hide how bad the quality of the leather is. I prefer a shoe with each functional part made entirely of one piece of leather.

I prefer Chelsea style elastic side panels over the zipper. They allow for freedom of movement for the feet.

The shoe appears to be in certain places wider than it would be normally to match a foot. I'm not sure how comfortable this is for wearing

I think the only possible way to make a shoe stand out without making it look ugly is with accessories or exotic leather.

In order to make the shoe comfortable to wear recently I started to experiment with buying a bit larger shoe and then inserting a piece inside the shoe which makes the interior feel comfortable more like a sneaker on the foot.
This was a solution which works for me in my cold climate.

 

[walkwaybush]

I think the black leather looks beautiful and is universal for a shoe design

Whats the metal on the shoe?

 

[walkwaybush]

How did you figure out that the high end shoes would be the optimal choice for a "gate way drug"?

 

[readjusting]

This is a big thing for me to fix with a new boot. Is there a way to build the boot so it doesn't take months to break in, before it stops hurting/carving up your feet?

I have an idea: The outside is hard leather (or whatever material that looks good), the inside has soft cushion material

 

[Chase]

@walkwaybush-

Yeah, tastes are interesting, huh?

I always see the round tip boots and the look does not appeal to me. Often I wonder why there are so many of them, and so few of the square-tipped boots, which I like much more.

I wonder what causes people to have these divergent tastes.

That is the thing with fashion though: you are never going to please everyone. If you do well, some people will like what you make, some will be meh, and some may actively dislike it.

We're having a professional measurement person do a tech pack and do all the measurements next. So if she thinks it is too wide, like you and Rob said, it might get slimmed down.

I like that note on exotic leather -- yes, alligator skin boots, or snake skin, etc. Those can be really good looks.

Hmm, that's something to think about.

Good notes on the inserts.

I'm not sure what metal that is -- the prototype is just a computer model. The pro designer who works on the design next will tell us what materials she thinks we should use for each step.

As for high end shoes as an optimal gateway drug... I don't know if they're optimal! We needed to do something different, ideally something physical, and a bunch of other things we considered I did not like. But I like the idea of doing shoes. So we will give this a try and see how it performs.


@readjusting-

Yes, absolutely -- interior needs some kind of cushioning.

I think the issue with boots is that they are generally thin, while cushioning usually takes up some space.

So the thing there will probably be "how do you get enough cushioning in to make the boot comfortable, without making the boot look bulky and less-good?"

Chase

 

[Space]

Just a quick note here.

Square toes. Isn't this the thing always coming up in compilations on what you should never ever wear under any circumstances? I'm talking about square toes like this in particular:

I've found the above one through an image search but it came straight from the article: Why Do Square Toes Still Exist?!!!

Girls Chase being a diverse place with authors of different views got me thinking: Who is the style authority on Girls Chase? Is it Chase himself, he just doesn't have the inclination to write all those style articles and he outsourced this job to Darius Belejevas? Or is it Darius from whom Chase also learned most of the best stuff he knows about style and he recommends Girls Chase readers to turn straight to him for style advice? I don't know if any discussion between Chase and Darius took place regarding the design of these boots. Fashion designers such as the designer from Milan Chase mentioned may have different objectives than style advisors.

The one thing didn't occur to anyone yet in the topic yes it image archetypes. That is, different looks for different folks. The numbers differ (Darius has 6 and Tanner Guzy has 3 of these, in case you are interested), but the point is that most folks (who do not fit the image archetype) should never wear these style of boots. This style only goes well (the square toe notwithstanding) for certain type of folks, who are statistically a minority. As it's the case with all other styles, especially with distinctive styles.

It seems to me Chase wanted to design a pair of nice boots for himself - which is totally fine. Even if price isn't an issue, most folks aren't on such an advanced level on their style journey that justifies the spending. Chase certainly is, but Chase isn't most folks. Imagine buying such an expensive piece and you find it in a few months this isn't really you. That was an expensive mistake. A portion of the money would have been better spent on cheap style consultation - Assuming you don't want to put in absolutely any time to learn about this stuff by yourself. One of style experts' (including Darius) most important advice is how to get rid of excess stuff, which do not define you.

Note: I'm not an expert on luxury items but I assume folks buying luxury goods (say, who can afford such expensive mistakes if the purchase turns out to be a mistake for them) are quite a different group to folks consuming content on this site. I'm not saying there's no intersection, but I assume most folks here even if they can afford such expensive style mistakes (if it turns out to be a mistake for them) would rather avoid being in that situation in the first place. That's not why they work on themselves so much.

Anyway, I don't want to sound negative. Chase, I hope you enjoy the boots you designed/co-designed for yourself! They should certainly look better on you than they'd look on me!

As for high end shoes as an optimal gateway drug... I don't know if they're optimal! We needed to do something different, ideally something physical

Maybe you haven't watched Hector's Q&A where he talked about what he learned from the famous business buy and quite a personality Gary Vaynerchuk: The key to success is introspection. And self-awareness.

 

[Space]

I've found the above one through an image search but it came straight from the article: Why Do Square Toes Still Exist?!!!

There's more to it. The one being criticized on the link looks much more like Chase's design.

 

[GreekLetterMale]

I really like this idea and would definitely invest in buying apparel from GC. Personally I'm interested in buying some Chelsea boots, a simple design with a logo somewhere I would be into. I was planning to buy a pair of Blundstones boots. I don't know if it's legally allowed but if you could mark them with a logo or something I would buy them.

 

[Kezarin]

Oh yeah, sign me the hell up for these! Lack of sexy and high quality boots were always a bummer for me, and I can't justify paying almost $2000 for a pair of shoes. Really hyped and can't wait!

 

[Rain]

We wanted to get into the physical products space.

Mainly because of how hard it is advertising dating advice... we thought something more universal might be a good gateway drug to GC.

Hey Chase,

If someone got your boots and then read the article you said you don't need more than $40 stylish pair of boots to get have a really great look.... is there a risk to your reputation if they think they've been cheated somehow? I'm guessing you're simply trying to reach more men. Of course, they would also hopefully read other articles on the site and realise maybe money doesn't matter so much anyway and then well they found gc and may now have a possibly improved dating life due to many many articles/comments etc.

 

[Chase]

@Rain,

That article's about how to pick up girls broke.

You can get a Motorola Moto E for $150. It's a nice looking phone and perfectly functional.

It's not a risk to someone's reputation if he says, "If you're broke, get this cheap phone that still looks great. If you've got money, here's this awesome phone we sell ourselves."

Anyway, the boots project is on hold, given the current climate. The factories shut down earlier this year and have slowly gotten back in gear, but all we have plans to do at this point are making the prototype (since we were already so far along), then put it on ice after that.

I guess whoever our prototype tester is will have the only pair of Chase Amante boots in the world.

Chase

 

[Roundy]

L

Hey gents,

We wanted to get into the physical products space.

Mainly because of how hard it is advertising dating advice... we thought something more universal might be a good gateway drug to GC.

So I mulled it over a bit and I thought shoes would be a good place for that.

I've always liked cool boots. But often have a hard time finding any I really like.

So we got a designer in Milan to design some boots for us. Plan is also to do high end men's sneakers and business shoes. But we'll start with boots.

The objective was to create a pair of men's boots that are sexy, unique-looking, and perfect for going out.

We'll just use my name as the brand name. So Chase Amante shoes... you'll be able to wear your Chase Amantes out about town in style.

Now that we have the design, we'll have a shoe expert go over these and do all the materials and dimensions. And then we'll do the prototype.

The main focus during these stages will be materials quality and comfort. I have a lot of issues with ankle boots not being very comfortable / requiring months sometimes to break in, and I'd like these boots to be different. Not sure how easy that'll be, given the structure of boots, but we're going to try for it.

Back with more updates later.

Chase

Sad to be a broke boy Chase, these look like the tits