Buying tip – Winson x Tanakajakkuten Grit Dress collection – Shoegazing.com

Indonesian shoemaker Winson and Japanese men’s shoe store Tanakajakkuten have collaborated on a small, completely handmade RTW range that combines chic and cool in a very beautiful way. Unique designs, exquisite craftsmanship and truly wearable and interesting shoes are the result.

Winson is one of the most famous and acclaimed footwear brands from Indonesia, making fine premium hand-welded, fully handmade MTO and MTM footwear, and through some retailers also small exclusive RTW offerings (listen to Emil Rahmana Putra, founder of Winson and sister work boot brand Midas on this episode of the Sheogazing Podcast). Tanakajakkuten is a small specialized men’s shoe store based in Osaka, Japan (I thought it was a Finnish store when I first heard about it several years ago, as the name really sounds like it should). They sell shoes from TLB Mallorca, Saint Crispin’s and Winson Shoemaker. They also have an online store, even though it is only in Japanese, you can use your browser to translate it.

Tanakajakkuten develops many shoe styles together with the brands they work with. With Winson they have introduced what they call the Grit Dress collection, in which they combine a cool style with elegant chic in different, very different and often unique-looking styles. They are all made with fine European leather of a really high quality level, handmade with handmade sole stitch, which is impressive considering the shoes here are rubber soles. They either have Dr. Sole Supergrip half rubber soles or Supergrip full rubber soles, with Dr. Sole’s full rubber heel tops. These are lumberjack/logger heels, with a concave shape and a wide edge towards the top.

The models offered are really cool. For example, a medium brown lineman derby (think bowling shoe style), a special black longwing derby, a longwing loafer with tassels, a black oxford with special contrast stitching on the toe cap, etc. Often with a softly chiseled square toe that enhances the contrast with the sole, in a similar way to the more common Commando lug sole styles, but in a more personal way.

They cost around €1,000 / $1,200 (85,000 JPY) including shoe trees, which is a very good price considering the level of quality. However, these are very small batches, only of the three recently launched models there are more sizes available. Their website only ships domestically, but customers abroad can email them at info@tanakajakkuten.com or fill out the contact form on the site, and they will help with the purchase.