Three local guys give you classic styles that fit you like no other – and you can walk miles in.
Jeremiah Ang, 33, Kenneth Teh, also 33, and Joshua Leong, 31, are not fashion greenhorns – albeit they know more about men’s stuff than women’s. The first two are owners of The J. Myers Company, a fiveyearold men’s leather goods company, while the third, an ex-apprentice for the late Florentine artisan Stefano Bemer, has an eponymous gent’s shoemaking brand.
But where there are men, there will be women.
“We’ve had requests for ladies’ shoes at our own brands,” says Leong. So, the idea to provide custom-made, flat pumps started last year.
“We were in the middle of a bak kut teh dinner when one of us made a joke about three fellas sitting in the middle of the CBD, making shoes for women.”
The joke became an idea. The idea simmered into 30 prototypes and countless critique sessions, like taking “toe cleavage” out of one style and ensuring that the pumps fit so well, they’re good enough for long walks – be it on the cobbled streets of Florence or to the MRT station. And instead of the CBD, the trio settled into a shophouse at Joo Chiat where the feeling of you being Cinderella happens.
The pumps in five different designs are customised in two ways – either made-to-order or bespoke (see sidebar for difference). Lasts are made in Italy, not China. Toes are stiffened by vegetable paste to prevent the front from biting into your toes and leaving behind ugly marks, the way man-made adhesives do. Super-soft lambskin and calfskin are used, and they come from Italy and Spain.
