TLB Mallorca’s 3D Custom Tool feature is now live and available for immediate use. I just had a play with it and created a pretty cool Adelaide Oxford in a two-tone brown suede/boxcalf mixture. Tools like this are easy to get lost in, creating yourself 10 pairs and then pulling your hair out over which one to get. While the 3D custom tool is not the first of its kind, TLB Mallorca marks the next major player to offer it to its clients.
There is a risk/reward feature when offering the 3D Custom Tool. The risk is that you get inundated with custom orders, which in turn can slow a production factory down in its core business of large production orders. The reward is that it boosts your MTO program and it frees up what I see as the most valuable resource: Time in back-and-forth emails. Overall, the 3D custom tool is a feature that any brand offering MTO should have. It makes life easy for everyone, and TLB’s version is pretty straightforward.
To kick things off, they are offering 15% off your order (of the 3D tool, not RTW shoes). I went to the very end and saw that an Artista oxford only came to $438. Not a bad price! I couldn’t quite figure out how it got to that price, as the 15% discount was shown at $490, and there were no further charges at checkout. Considering RTW is $495, that is one heck of a deal!
There were a few things I noticed that were worth mentioning. Whether or not TLB updates these in the future, I cannot say, but I thought you would want to know:
- Changing the last did not appear to update in the rendition. All three lasts looked the same.
- There are only 48 models available, which is a fraction of what TLB has to offer
- There are only three lasts available, at least that is what showed when I selected the model I did.
- There is no option to change the upper stitching – while I understand this to a degree, as it can get crazy, I think that it should be offered for full suede models. For example, it is a classic look to make this adelaide in dark brown suede with neutral stitching.
- There are few leather options available
Now that I’ve got the negatives out of the way, allow me to list the positives:
- I imagine that, like anything, there will be kinks and details to work out that might have been missed, like the upper stitching.
- I presume that TLB Mallorca will find details that need updating and roll out new updates to this system.
- The zoom feature is pretty top-notch
- The rendition of the shoe is very realistic-looking – that really helps.
- The system is simple and easy to use
As a shoe brand owner myself who has offered MTO, I understand not having 200 models available on 20 different lasts. Most people don’t realize what is actually behind that, but that is the availability or creation of 4000 patterns. Which is a lot. Same for adding 100 types of leather. I believe that TLB is going for precise and simple. Not overcomplicating it by essentially offering ‘too much.’ It might result in less orders, but it will also result in less stress and potential errors.
The only thing that likely really needs updating, in my opinion, is the last rendition when selecting between Goya (round) and Picasso (chisel). Maybe that is harder than I imagine, but I think that it is important for the visual aid. The coolest thing about TLB Mallorca’s 3D Custom Tool is that it offers one of the more realistic
Overall, it’s exciting to see a new brand offering this, and I look forward to seeing what people create themselves!
Read other posts on The Blog about TLB.
Learn more here: https://www.tlbmallorca.com/
—Justin FitzPatrick, The Shoe Snob
Shop · Marketplace · Patreon
