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A plain leather court shoe costs anything from the price of lunch to the price of a flight, and from a distance they all look the same. The differences that matter are not visible across a room. They are easy to check, though, if you know what to ask. Here is what we would look for, on our page or anyone else's.
Read the leather line
"Genuine leather" and "premium leather" tell you nothing. "Full-grain" means the outer surface of the hide is intact, and that is the part that creases where your foot bends instead of cracking across the toe. "Corrected grain" has been sanded and coated to look smooth on day one; it tends to crack rather than crease. A brand that knows where its leather comes from will usually tell you. Ours is full-grain, from gold-rated tanneries.
Find out how the sole is attached
This is the one that decides how long the shoe lives. A glued sole peels away at the toe, and then the shoe is finished. A stitched cupsole has a line of stitching running round where the rubber meets the leather. Stitched means repairable. If the description does not say how the sole goes on, assume glue.
Then ask what happens when it wears through. Our Court, Court High and Slip can all be resoled: email us for a prepaid label, and our workshop fits a new cupsole and posts the pair back in about three weeks.
Check the inside and the small print
A footbed nobody mentions is usually thin foam. Cork molds to your foot in the first week and then holds that shape, which is why ours is cork-lined. Look for real sizing advice rather than a generic chart. The TREAD Court is true to size, in US men's 5 to 13 (women's 6.5 to 14.5), and between sizes you take the size down, because the leather gives a little.
Last, the returns window. Ours is 60 days from delivery, free, as long as the pair has not been worn outside. That is long enough to wear them round the house for a week and know. A short window is asking you to guess.
A good product page answers the questions a good shop assistant would. If it cannot, the shoe probably cannot either.
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Two minutes a week and three tools. The routine that keeps full-grain leather creasing instead of cracking.
Four shapes at one price. Which to buy first, which to buy second, and what each one is really for.
Six colors, one shoe. Start with the trousers you actually wear, not the swatch that looks best on its own.
Why we make one court shoe instead of a new one every season, and what making it properly actually means.