I can't imagine any serious cobbler would be unfamiliar with shoe trees. I need to pick up a pair myself, but the prices are ridiculous. I'm leaning towards a relatively economical pair from Amazon, but postage might make that unreasonable too. Could you PM me with your eBay vendor for the shoe trees if you're happy with them? If you have a good vendor for the Saphir stuff too, that would be very much appreciated.
My pair of Loakes were picked up yesterday from the courier, and I'm reasonably impressed with them. The craftsmanship is good, stitching is impeccable and the fit was bang on. I'd definitely recommend trying on a pair of Loakes at David Jones for sizing if anyone is considering doing the same. They're comfortable and the leather sole isn't too slippery and will improve over time. There were a couple of little scuffs in the leather when it arrived, and I considered contacting the seller to see if they might throw in some free polish to compensate me. Turns out that they'd already added a shoe horn and a tub of clear polish as a gift anyway, so I'm happy enough with that. It adds a little bit of character to the shoe, will almost definitely buff out, and is pretty much where the toe crease will form anyway. I'm also impressed at how solid the Goodyear welt on the sole is, it looks both durable and extremely secure. I'll probably run some wax around the stitching to try and add a little more waterproofing, but it doesn't look like it needs it.
So, I'm now happy to recommend the UK-based Pediwear as a good vendor for shoes. Customer service was very good, a couple of freebies was nice, and they use DHL as their courier. It took three days for the shoes to move from Leeds to Melbourne, and the weakest link in the chain was the lazy-ass Aussie deliver guy. Pediwear are also offering a standing 10% discount off future purchases of Loake shoes from them, seemingly designed to make sure that they retain the cheapest online price. It's a nice touch, and might encourage me to make another purchase from them around Christmas. I would like a matching pair in black...
Ah, they were unfamiliar with tongue pads, not shoe trees.
The cheapest one i could find was this :
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1Pair-Wo...49?pt=AU_ClothingShoeCare&hash=item5d4a73031d but i have no idea what size this is and the sellers of this type dont know, they just give dimensions.
This is the seller i bought from :
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Pair-Men...=AU_ClothingShoeCare&var=&hash=item5d4d89bd51, not sure why there are two different shoe trees pictured in the listing now, the ones i got had the hook type heel in the second pic. One of the shoe trees in my second order came broken but the seller seems happy to work with me for a resolution (well its ebay, everyone is worried about their ratings).
For saphir, i got them from pediwear, but you need to contact them and ask to calculate shipping. Their website automatically charges 3.95 pounds for every item which got a bit crazy for the 8 or so items we purchased, but they were happy to reduce shipping down to 15 pounds.
I guess i should try on some loakes in the nearest david jones just to figure out what size would fit me best. I wear UK 12 sneakers, and UK 12 dress shoes are too big for me. I order a size larger than my actual foot size because i wear orthopaedic insoles and that takes up a lot more room in the shoe. Whats especially confusing is that when i first got my dress shoes (two of them now), they were too tight after i put my insoles in, but after i wore them for a few hours, they expanded a lot more and now they are way too loose. Is this supposed to happen? I figure that would make trying on shoes for fit really inaccurate in store since the shoes havent had the chance to expand yet.
I actually went with herrings for my first shoe as they seem to have better sales than pediwear, and pediwear's site is a bit confusing (theres no way to view sale items only from what i can tell). Where did you hear about that 10% discount? Im pretty sure it wouldnt apply to sale items though?
I was really lucky and got a slight seconds for a pair of Loake 1880s for just $150 + shipping from Herrings. The sole had been scratched (probably someone scratched it while trying it on) but in exchange, ig ot the shoe at half price...would gladly do that exchange again.