If you’ve been in the market for footwear these past couple of years—particularly of the made-to-order variety—you probably know that estimated delivery timelines are wayyy out of whack from reality. Labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, Covid-related lockdowns…none of these things are ideal, to say the least. It’s all a bit chaotic right now.
Indonesian bootmaker (and Stitchdown darling) Sagara has been experiencing some supply delays of their own—things can get tricky when you’re that far away from the raw materials. But, rather than wait around for more leather to show up, they’ve decided to pull some of the leather they have off the shelves and make some ready-to-wear stock!
Sagara has chosen three distinct styles—the lace-to-toe Valiant, a plain toe Boondocker, and a slightly-reworked Bedrock boot-shoe—for this limited collection.
The Valiant comes in Maryam Black Horsebutt (not normally available as part of Sagara’s MTO options), built on the Morgan last. These get the 270º Norvegese treatment, along with Dr. Sole black cork soles. This model goes for $630.
Next, the Boondocker is also Morgan-lasted, and made with an Indonesian dark brown roughout. This classic style comes unstructured, with a 270º hand-welted construction and Dr. Sole raw cord soles. Price: $350. Pretty insane value on this one, and great to see the Indonesian roughout make an appearance while many Indonesian makers are almost exclusively using imported leather at this point.
Finally, this new Bedrock features a pattern that has been slightly tidied up and built for comfort. This makeup features two different leathers—Pueblo Bone from Badalassi, and a natural Cuoio from La Bretagna (which is actually their Ghost waxed leather, but the wax has been removed for this makeup). Also unstructured, the Bedrock is built on the Mark last, with a 270º Norwegian storm welt and Vibram 2021 wedge soles. These ones are $480.
Hit up Sagara at order@sagarabootmaker.com with the subject header “RTW _____” (_____ = whatever your makeup of choice is) to get details on sizing and ordering a pair of your own. Might be especially worthwhile if you haven’t picked up a pair yet for the Patina Thunderdome, which kicks off this week(!).