Earlier this year I wrote shortly about Italian shoe manufacturer Buttero and their presentation at Pitti Uomo. At Pitti I also had the pleasure to meet the great people behind the brand. Today taking a closer look of the company and a pair of their tanino low leather sneakers.
Buttero - the company
Buttero was founded and started as a manufacturer of riding boots in the 1970s by Mauro Sani. Mauro was the father of three sons who nowadays run the family company. Being still handmade by craftsmen in Stabbia, Tuscany of local ingredients Buttero products honor the Tuscan tradition. Company uses best local vegetable-tanned leathers and the silhouettes of the shoes rises from the Italian eye for form, proportion and style. Result is a fusion of pure rawness and elegance. And shoes that pay much attention to details. Brand's shoes has in some instances been called to be "the defender" of sneakers and now I can personally state that the parable is pretty much correct.
Buttero tanino low leather sneakers
Earlier this summer I bought my first pair of Buttero sneakers. A pair of Tanino low leather sneakers in orange toned color with cap toe and heel part in contrast (brown) leather. The pair features off-white rubber soles stitched to the upper (as every pair of Buttero), leather lining and "natural" / brown leather laces. In addition there was a pair of cotton laces included in the box.
The first notice you make of buttero sneakers is the thickness of the leather. It's stiff, definitely thicker than most of other leather sneakers on the market. These are not shoes to be pull out of the box and wear sock-less but they instead they need to be worn to be broken in.
My pair has now probably around 20 times of use behind and in general they're still like new. Unless you check the soles, you might think that those are still as new as they were when I got them in the first place.
How to wear and sizing
Some say that these kind of sneakers can be dressed up with a pair of flannel slack for example. I personally would engage them only in casual combinations. Denim, cotton chinos or maybe shorts for bottom half combined with some button-down shirts, knitwear and casual outerwear such as field or parka jacket.
I wear my own pair most of the time with a pair of jeans and sometimes with olive green cotton trousers. During summer I might go for shorts.
In terms of sizing Buttero sneakers run big so you may want to size down when ordering a pair. I ordered mine as 40 which is my normal size but I can easily fit a thick additional insole to them. So 39 would have been better for me but as far as I'm concerned they do not make sizes that small, unfortunately. If you ever get a chance to try them on before buying that chance is worth to take.
Buttero - where to buy
There are multiple shops you can find buttero sneakers so I picked few to keep your eye on.
Europe:
US / Canada:
Sum-up
To put it shortly, in terms of quality this pair of Buttero is probably the best pair of sneakers I've owned. In fact they feel like "real shoes". Of course my experience so far is based on New Balance, Adidas, Superga, Puma, Nike etc, which are made with a bit different kind of approach and for different kind of use. I have no experience of Common Projects sneakers for example which are the most usual target of comparison. Still I've been really impressed of this pair. And if I needed to guess, there's probably gonna be few more pairs of Buttero sneakers in my closet in the future.
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