American footwear brands Florsheim and Esquivel are teaming up to launch a special capsule collection just in time for the holidays.
Featuring both wingtip and captoe styles, the shoes are handmade in California using premium leather sourced from Wickett & Craig, the leading North American producer of vegetable-tanned leathers.
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“Working on a project with Florsheim has always been a dream of mine” says George Esquivel, who bought his first pair of Florsheim longwings in brown pebble leather over 24 years ago. “It has been an honor to work with them, pulling from the archives, and together we took a fresh approach to the final collection.”
The capsule collection, each pair entirely handmade, draws inspiration from the tradition of Florsheim’s longwing and captoe styles, blended with Esquivel’s contemporary sensibility. Colors range from the classics in brown, camel, and navy to more vibrant holiday hues such as green, cobalt, white, silver and gold.
“I find the special blue pebble-grain leather from Wickett and Craig on the Sigmund Cap NB to be particularly striking and distinctive,” John Florsheim, the president and chief operating officer of Weyco Group Incorporated, tells us.
Symbolizing the collaborative spirit is the asymmetrical toe medallion in the letters “F” on the right shoe and “E” on the left.
Florsheim is no stranger to collaborations, having worked in the past with Duckie Brown and Brush. So what keeps them game enough to engage with other brands? The creative freedom. “It is fun to find commonality between two seemingly different brands is something we find enjoyable – that’s when you create something unique and new. Esquivel offers edgy silhouettes in unexpected, hand-burnished color combinations that when joined with our expertise and long-standing heritage for handcrafted footwear, result in an extraordinary USA made collaboration. This collaboration reminds us what we love most about the business.”
The Florsheim x Esquivel collection is available on the dedicated Florsheim x Esquivel website www.florsheimxesquivel.com. Prices for the collection will range from $500 $1,200.
