Review: Guido Maggi Elevator Shoes, part 2 · Real Men Real Style Community

Review: Guido Maggi Elevator Shoes, part 2

Part 1: https://www.skool.com/rmrs/review-guido-maggi-elevator-shoes-part-1

Today, I am continuing with the review of the Guido Maggi elevator shoes, and at the end, I will also include some guidelines on how to pick a good pair of elevator shoes.

After the previous order, since the original oxford insoles were too tall for my feet, I asked GM to exchange them, and to send me other heights as well, so I could test them all, which they did.

In the meantime, I also ordered another pair of penny loafers just like the first one, but in black. I really loved that design! As for the white sneakers, I ended up posting them on eBay, as (despite good quality) I determined they don't really suit my style.

Now to the point:

OXFORDS "VERONA" AND "TERNI"

Just like the loafers from Part 1, the oxfords I've ordered have a very pleasing, simple design. Due to the higher elevation, they do have a bit more of a vertical emphasis than the loafers. However, the elevation is still pretty much invisible. I had one tailor really compliment the shoes on their great, subtle design.

One piece was the plain-toe oxford "Verona", which was made pretty much as-is. I asked the other piece (based on the "Terni" model) to be done as quarter brogues (with brogued cap toe) and also on the leather sole. Both came out very nicely, which shows that GM, despite not having quarter brogues in their main offer, can accommodate individual requests quite well.

To accommodate the elevation, the shoes are a bit taller than regular. They land somewhere between the standard dress shoes and low boots like chukkas.

The design of the shoes includes a subtly reinforced, rounded arch on the back of the shoe. This keeps them on your feet and prevents them from wobbling around. This is consistent with other GM designs, such as the loafer.

One weird detail was that the shoelaces in the "Verona" black oxfords were a bit thicker than the ones in the brown "Terni". This ties into the huge variety of GM shoe designs, which I will talk about later. Fortunately, it was an easy thing to fix.

Both pairs used Blake rapid construction, which is uncommon on dress shoes. This made them a bit less sleek and formal, but provided a more robust and grounded aesthetic, which I decided matched my style pretty well. Your mileage may vary, though, so definitely do pay attention to those details.

The quality of the leather was comparable to that of loafers from Part 1, which means very solid. They are vegetable-tanned, providing a more natural look, and the potential for a nice patina to develop in the future.

INSOLES

Since they are very versatile and are reused across different shoe designs, the elevating insoles deserve their own paragraph.

They are made of leather and are quite lightweight. The design is flat in front and connected with the heel part in the back, which provides different levels of elevation (see the photos below).

The insoles are rather flat. For me, the higher elevation levels lacked in arch support. It's not a feature for everyone, though, and some people religiously hate arched insoles, which is why the flat design is the default. I've reached out to GM about this, and they've said that they are considering adding a built-in solution in the future (e.g., an option to have an insole with arch support). For now, I'm using relatively cheap orthopedic arch support inserts on top of the GM insoles, and they work fine.

Because of the thickness in the back, the insoles seem to insulate the feet a bit better, which makes them a bit better for cold weather, and worse for warm. The difference in insulation between the taller and shorter inserts is not significant enough to consider.

STORE

As far as the offerings go, let's start with the positives — the variety is HUGE, and it seems to grow larger by the month. You can find many designs of various shapes and materials. It seems like GM is trying to be very versatile and appease both the conservatives and the modern crowd. However, this also has its downsides. You can definitely find most of the classics, but there are many trendy offerings as well, including some "frankenshoes". This means that unless you can notice subtle style irregularities, you might end up accidentally buying a shoe that seems classic at first glance, but has some very trendy element, such as a thick lug sole.

The online store design is OK, but it's not very optimized for customer clarity, but rather for showcasing their huge variety. What seems like different material versions of the same shoe are presented as different shoe models, so it's difficult to tell how many different lasts GM actually uses. This also makes the number of products overwhelmingly large. The fact that these shoes are all technically made to order (so they are just examples of what GM *can* make) further adds to the confusion. As a customer, I would probably prefer them to group their various material options under a single model and provide some kind of easy-to-use shoe design wizard, similar to the one used at Proper Cloth.

The prices are OK for the value, currently hovering around 600-700 EUR for a regular pair of shoes (exotic leathers are obviously much more expensive). There is usually some sort of discount going on (often -25%), so I recommend aiming for that to get a better deal for your money.

PRODUCTION, RETURN POLICY, AND DELIVERY

Officially, Guido Maggi holds no inventory — all of the shoes are made to order. This means that they can make anything in any leather that you want, and are much more open to personalization. However, this also means no returns, since the product is made for the specific customer. So you should shop very carefully, otherwise you could risk ordering a pair of weird shoes that you can't return.

Since the rise in their popularity, Guido Maggi is also becoming increasingly busy, especially around the summer wedding season. Since all their shoes are made by hand, you might end up waiting a bit for your footwear. However, once they confirmed the order and received the payment, the shoes I ordered were at my doorstep in ~1 month, which seems pretty good for an MTO maker.

SUMMARY

All in all, Guido Maggi can surely be called the lone king of elevator shoes right now. I wouldn't call them "luxury" (fortunately, neither are most of their prices), but they definitely make solid products — and they are about the only ones in the elevator shoes market who actually care for quality. They are definitely a store for a discerning customer, and you need to really know what you want to avoid making costly mistakes. However, when you account for that, they can provide good value for money in their offerings, especially if you take advantage of the frequent discounts.

BONUS: PICKING YOUR ELEVATOR SHOES

In this section, I will provide some advice to help people who decide to start their journey with elevator shoes.

1. CHOOSING THE DESIGN

Obviously, some shoe designs will be more subtle, understated, and timeless than others. It is a matter of taste, but I definitely advise going with these. Less is more, especially when it comes to elevator shoes. If wearing these, you probably don't want to bring excess attention to your feet.

In general, darker colors are going to be more discreet and understated. But if you are hesitating between colors and going for something mostly in the middle, feel free to pick the lighter one. You can always darken a light leather using a darker shoe cream, but not the other way around.

Definitely avoid the logo. Having a huge logo of an elevator shoe company stamped on the upper is detrimental to their being discreet. You don't want people to be asking about it and then Googling it.

2. PICKING THE ELEVATION LEVEL

The elevation of the foot in elevator shoes is mostly created through a raised heel and a thicker insole in the back. They basically work like high heels for men. Therefore, the higher the elevation, the larger the angle between the front and back of the foot.

This means that although the difference in added height is relatively small compared between various models, the difference in comfort is massive, especially between the 6 cm and 8 cm dress shoes. This is because every additional 1 cm makes a significant difference in the angle between the front and the heel of the shoe. With high heels for women, the heel usually has a small surface in the back. However, dress shoes aren't designed to be constantly walked with the back of the heel first.

Now, as for how various elevation levels felt to me:

- 5 cm feels completely natural. When wearing the shoes, you might not even notice that the elevation is there yourself.

- 6 cm feels like wearing regular boots. This provides good comfort and feels like a perfect balance of added height for everyday wear. You still get pretty good elevation, and you don't have to pay the "walk awkwardly" tax. It also creates the most natural-looking leg angle and side profile when paired with well-fitting pants.

- 7 cm creates some difficulty running. If you have problems with a lack of arch support in elevator shoes, this will exacerbate them during longer walks. It also starts looking unnatural from the side.

- 8 cm feels SIGNIFICANTLY less comfortable, and visibly awkward to walk around in. You will feel unstable, like a girl wearing high heels for the first time. For my feet, dress shoes with this elevation were also unwearable due to tightness at the top of the feet. I would only wear such shoes if I wanted absolute maximum elevation for a photoshoot or something of that sort.

The above is about the standard dress shoe experience, which means a thin sole in front, and the entire elevation coming from the added angle in the back. However, in thick-soled shoes (like chunky sneakers from part 1), the front of the foot is also raised due to the thicker outsole. This adds around +1 cm of "total" elevation without changing the angle of the foot or harming the comfort level (which means that +7 cm thick-soled shoes wear like +6 cm dress shoes). However, the thicker sole creates a different shoe aesthetic, which is something you might not want.

The elevation in the back is split between the outsole and the insole at the heel. Originally, the loafers I ordered were originally 3 cm outsole + 2 cm insole, while the oxfords were 4 cm outsole + 4 cm insole. I've reached out to GM to ask exactly how the split works across different height versions, but they didn't give me a clear answer.

The good news is — you CAN switch out insoles for different heights. I've tried oxfords with insoles from +2 cm to +4 cm, and they all worked. I've also tried putting +3 cm insoles into the loafers designed for +2 cm ones, and they also worked, although the upper leather had some pull marks; this was mostly fixed by sending them to a cobbler for some stretching. The design of GM shoes is robust enough to allow you to fine-tune the elevation later on if you so desire, using your own height-increasing insoles or getting the original ones modified.

Obviously, it's much easier to sand down the taller insoles and make them a bit shorter than to get a new pair of taller ones if they're too short from the beginning. So if you're in doubt, I recommend ordering a taller version of the shoe and then adjusting down as I did.

Once you have picked your target elevation height (I really recommend 5-6 cm), you will want to keep your shoes on the same level. This is for a simple reason — you will want to adjust the length of your pants for them. For details, see the next point:

3. COMBINING WITH OTHER CLOTHES

Since elevator shoes "elongate" your legs, I recommend wearing them with pants that are a tiny bit longer, especially in the back, where the bulk of the elevation is. Since most RTW pants are too long for short men anyway, it's just a matter of getting them hemmed at the tailor. It's best to do it after we've already decided on our perfect elevation height. (See above for that.)

It seems like a good idea for the hem to be a bit wider (at least not very narrow), so the additional height of the shoes can be concealed under the pants leg. For this reason, I think that wide-leg or straight-leg pants will work better than slim fit for most people.

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Review: Guido Maggi Elevator Shoes, part 2