With summer fast approaching, I was in the market for a simple, handsome and elegant slip-on for casual wear. I thought about loafers from Alden and Tods, but an easy everyday shoe that I’d be wearing for walking the dog didn’t strike me as an occasion to splurge. Then I remembered Jack Erwin.
The group of “New Disrupters” in the menswear game offering affordable solutions without the middleman is large. Once these brands establish their ability to deliver goods at a reasonable cost, what separates the men from the boys is a certain intangible and unquantifiable thing called taste. The new disrupters who actually have a level of refined taste that puts them on par with more established influential brands is a much smaller group. Ideally, the taste level filters through all levels of the brand experience, from the design and presentation of the actual merchandise to the logo and slogans to the execution of the website, which had better give first (not last) consideration to smartphone and tablet users. Jack Erwin is among this group.