All men should invest in a pair of high-quality shoes. Not only will they look sharper with your suits and jeans, but they will also last longer, and you’ll be able to resole them repeatedly. But that begs the question. What makes a good shoe? Fine footwear has three parts:
1) The outsole, which is the piece that comes into contact with the ground,
2) The insole, which comes into contact with your foot and
3) The upper, which covers the top of your foot.
The distinction is in how these pieces are sewn together. Two popular types of shoe construction are Blake and Rapid Blake.
The Blake, that is the traditional Italian way, comprises attaching the upper, insole and outsole with a single interior stitch. (A guy named Blake invented this method in 1856.) Because the stitch is on the inside, it is possible to cut the edges of the soles very close to the shoe’s base, producing footwear with a low, elegant silhouette. The downside is that water can seep into the shoe since the stitching goes from the outsole directly into the foot bed. (But then again, you shouldn’t be wearing your good shoes in the rain anyway.)
Rapid Blake is similar to Blake construction but with an additional layer involved: the midsole. The insole is stitched to the midsole, which in turn is affixed to the outsole via a row of exterior stitches. This solves the water problem, but makes Rapid Blake shoes unable to have soles as thin and flexible as those of the traditional Blake models.