Nothing a man wears is more important than his shoes. The late philosopher king, Glenn O’Brien, cavalierly preached that. We do too. This is why we went to Northamptonshire, England to produce our footwear. The perfect place to try something new, the old-fashioned way.

England is to shoemaking what Germany is to luxury sports cars. The county of Northamptonshire has been bench-making Goodyear welted shoes to exacting standards since the 1880s. As the name implies, bench-made shoes are hand-tooled on a craftsman’s table or cobblers bench as they undergo up to 225 different operations over nine weeks. A single shoe will pass through an assembly of English artisans—the last-maker, the pattern-cutter, the clicker, the closer, the maker, the socker, and the tree-maker—before eventually landing in the inky embrace of the polisher.

The result is the kind of well-made handcrafted shoes the British are world renowned for, but with an unruly American air. The subversive sophistication inherent in each design—from high voltage broguing to punk-infused chunky lug soles to hand embroidered skull and crossed keys—identifies its place within the F.E. Castleberry house. These details are not important—they are essential. We like to think these motifs denote membership in an underground coterie; a sign of solidarity.

The first rule: shoes play an important role in a man’s life. The second rule: it is totally impossible to be well dressed in cheap shoes. And you should want to be…well dressed. After all, the better you dress, the worse you can behave.