Comfortable is of course subjective, but my current go to for "fancy" shoes is Meermin. For about the price of a pair of higher end Nike or Adidas shoes that a

Comfortable is of course subjective, but my current go to for "fancy" shoes is Meermin. For about the price of a pair of higher end Nike or Adidas shoes that are just foam glued to fabric, you can get a pair of "traditionally made" Goodyear welted leather shoes. Meermin, for example, still does some manufacturing steps in China. As far as I know they sew together the leather pieces in China and then ship them to Spain for lasting / final assembly / polishing. It goes to show how the big athletic shoe companies are taking the piss. Of course they have middlemen and retailers and whatnot who need to take their cut, but if I can buy a pair of nice leather shoes, made from leather from UK/French/Italian tanneries, with about a million steps done by a human, for the same price as some glued together foam and fabric...something is wrong.