The Gloucester is a long awaited edition to the collection — a classic wingtip brogue design reinterpreted to meet The Armoury aesthetic.
The Gloucester is our full brogued faux wing-tip, a less formal alternative to the Pedder but equally as comfortable owing to the one-piece vamp construction. The Gloucester owes its name to the The Old Wan Chai Police Station’s home, Gloucester Road, in Hong Kong’s Victoria harbour front.
Our Hajime 始め last is inspired by the Japanese word for ‘beginning’. The last features our signature soft chisel toe, a low, sleek profile, and a wider forefoot.
As with our Pedder and Gloucester captoe oxford designs we were looking to make the shoes as elegant as possible. Therefore we did away with additional layers of leather and created the detailing purely with broguing and stitching.
Whilst it is harder to execute, forgoing the additional layer of leather reduces bulk, causes less creasing, and makes for a sleeker shoe. They are generally more comfortable to wear too.
A black calf Oxford is essential. It greatly compliments grey trousers with navy sport coats or suits. For those looking for a casual option other than suede we recommend the full brogue Gloucester. We've also made this model in dark leaf and burgundy calf, each will patina excellently over time.
Our calf leathers are sourced from the 150 year old Weinheimer-Leder tannery in Germany.
The goal of The Armoury Shoe Collection was to produce a new line of shoes that was uniquely ours. We partnered with the renowned master shoemaker, Yohei Fukuda. Fukuda-san was trained in England and developed his skills under the tutelage of great English shoemakers: John Lobb, Gaziano & Girling and Cleverley. He is an exemplar of classic English shoemaking.
To compliment the lengths that we went to during the design process, Northampton, England seemed like an obvious choice for manufacturing. We partnered with a century old shoe factory who’s skills and experience allowed us to make a hardwearing shoe with our unique style at an accessible level.
In the uncompromising search for quality, all of our shoes are goodyear welted, feature a wooden shank, are fully lined, and made with premium calf leather or suede. They offer exceptional value, especially when well maintained.
Our friend Mr. Slowboy illustrated our shoebox labels. Our shoe models are named after special landmarks in Hong Kong or New York, the home of The Armoury, the illustrations show those places on the outside of the box.