Suede

Suede is leather finished from the flesh side and buffed to raise a soft, even nap. Done cheaply it is fuzzy and flat; done well it has a fine, dense, almost matte pile with genuine depth of colour. Ours is made by Conceria Opera, a Santa Croce sull'Arno tannery built on three decades of family suede know-how, from calf and calf-split hides worked for a tight, uniform nap and good body.

Opera are suede specialists — it is essentially all they do — and it shows in the consistency of the nap and the richness of the colour, which is exactly what a suede sneaker needs to look considered rather than casual. They are Leather Working Group Gold-certified and run a per-hide traceability system, so we know where each skin came from. This is their standard calf suede; it sits alongside the softer Buttery Soft Suede we also take from them.