It may have escaped your notice, but a barely perceptible revolution in men's shoes is taking place in Hong Kong. Where once the flashy and fleeting Italian and French designs held sway, there now appears to be a shift towards the more genteel way of doing things. American and British brands - along with a contingent that includes the Austrians and the Spanish - are starting to chip away at the long-time dominance of big luxury fashion houses. Their shoemakers are providing quality craftsmanship and value for money.
'I see glued-together fashion shoes selling for well over HK$10,000 and I don't see any handiwork in them. You need a craftsman to make good shoes,' says Wallace Chan, store manager at exclusive men's shoe shop Tassels.
Chan is so passionate about shoes that even an avowed sneaker wearer would find his enthusiasm infectious. He has helped to proselytise the virtues of handcrafted shoes to Hongkongers and it appears to be working. An increasing number of men are agonising over footwear as much as they would over the right watch.
Men are realising what women have always known: that the right shoes can make or break an outfit.
Ethan Newton, business development manager of The Armoury men's boutique in Central, is another missionary preaching the sartorial gospel. Newton sees that men are eschewing the more obvious luxury brands because 'the world has been overexposed to the notion of designer as celebrity'.
Newton believes men are looking for shoes where the value comes from form and function and not just logos. 'This idea of style by association - that something has style only because of the name written on it - means that men have been sold sub-par products at high prices for too long,' he says.
Education has provided an epiphany. 'As guys get savvier about what makes something better, they realise they've been taken for a ride. Handmade shoes seem justifiably priced when you see the work that has gone into the construction and finishing,' says Newton.