Dinkelacker shoes. Handmade from Budapest

The origins of the Dinkelacker shoe manufactory date back to 1879, when Heinrich Dinkelacker began making shoes in Sindelfingen - driven by an exceptional standard of quality that has been the leitmotif of the company's work ever since. Since the 1960s, Dinkelacker has been making shoes in Budapest - the world capital of shoe manufacturing. Forty highly specialized shoemakers build shoes there whose workmanship is beyond reproach. Several hundred operations are required per shoe, and a shoemaker at Dinkelacker can only produce one pair of shoes per day. This is done entirely by hand because the company is firmly convinced that this is the only way to achieve the desired quality. First, after carefully checking the leather, the upper parts are cut out. After steaming, the upper is nailed tightly over the wooden last - a Budapest last with a high, upward-sloping tip - and tweaked the next day. The shoes only come off the last after a week (machine-made shoes only stay there for around 30 minutes) - this guarantees that they will retain their shape for many years. The upper leather, lining leather and welt are then sewn to the flexible insole - there is no better connection. If the shoes ever need to be refurbished (which will usually only be the case after many years), Dinkelacker offers an in-house repair service. For shoe care, we recommend our Burgol palm wax shoe polish.

But it's not just the manufacturing process that is worth taking a closer look at in a Dinkelacker shoe - the raw material is also important. Some models use the famous Shell Cordovan leather, which is made from the croup of a special cold-blooded breed. Dinkelacker sources it from the Horween tannery in Chicago, which has specialized in horse leather since 1905 and today has a quasi-monopoly on it. It is the shoe leather par excellence, of outstanding quality and very durable, with a dense and firm fiber structure. Due to its high fat content, shoes made from it have a softness and suppleness that makes them fit like a glove after just a little break-in time.