A guide buying custom leather shoe in Hoi An

Photo by Tony Wasserman

Not only being known as a food heaven, Hoi An is also an ideal shopping place for those who are crazy at hand-made products with high quality at a reasonable price. When walking around the town, you will see lots of shoe shops offering shoe making for tourists. It may hard to make a decision how to have your new leather shoe made in the ancient town. However, it becomes much easier with the following guides:

Make a few stops at shoe shops before choosing one 

When you are trying to buy something in a new land, it deserves to spend time visiting some shops before picking up one. Look at their products on display and see if their quality meets your requirements and talk with the sales staff. Trustworthy shops often have better-trained staff who are willing to answer all your questions. They will show you samples and let you have a look at the leather.

Photo by Friendly Shoe shop

You also need to take the size of the shop into consideration. Small shops run by a family tend to charge you less. While the bigger ones offer higher prices but with good customer service. Besides, there are shops with an area inside for crafting the leather products and others outsourcing their work. The latter one use low-quality leather and less experienced craftsmen that help lower the price.

Before going around, make a research on reputational travel sites such as TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet to get recommendations from other tourists and also ask for advice from the locals you meet, including the receptionist at your hotel and your motorbike taxi driver.

Design your items

Photo by Friendly Shoe shop

If you wish to make your favourite shoe which is not in their catalogs, you had better bring a copy or a photo of your product. Shops have stockpiles of leather and suede in different colours. And they may go to a neighbouring shop to bring a sample for you or drive you to other shops if you cannot find your preferred color.

You are able to choose every aspect of your shoes, ranging from the color of the leather to the type of buckle and sole. Don’t forget to insist that your shoes are stitched, not glued.

After that, it’s time for you to ask for the price. It is expected to be around $60 for the custom leather shoe but you can bargain to reduce by 5-10%. Once the negotiations are complete, you will need to make a deposit of 20-50% of the price. Remember to ask them to write down everything so that you have something to claim if the final product does not look like what you order.

Then they will take an outline of the shape of your feet on a piece of paper with a pen, and make some measurements of your foot with a measuring tape.

Have enough time for alterations and testing your new shoes

Photo by Friendly Shoe shop

In Hoi An, you only wait for 24 hours to have your shoes made. However, you had better order the shoes a few days before leaving so that you have enough time for some alterations.

You should compare your leather sample and test your shoes at the fitting. If the shoes do not live up to your expectations, you can ask them to do some adjustments and return later to take them. Walk around to check if the shoes are rough and hurt your feet. If there are some problems, be patient and gently tell the staff about them.

If you are in a rush, you can ask them to deliver your shoes to the hotel. They may ask a nearby motorbike taxi driver to do the delivery and you need to pay for the delivery fee.

Hoi An is a great place to have everything. And you need to be made in a quick time at surprisingly low costs. When you are in the town, why don’t you try having your own leather shoe made with half the price compared with the same one at home?

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