Mario Bemer Canvas Options: He Can Make Anything! ‣ Diverse Daily

During my last visit to the Mario Bemer showroom in Queens, New York, he had a lot of shoes getting ready to be shipped to his clients. Mario Bemer is purely a Made-to-Order company, so during trunk shows, he will amass an influx of orders and a few months later, then have an influx of shoes to ship out. I was fortunate enough to be there at a time when there were a lot of goods in-house getting ready to go out. There was one thing in particular that stood out to me: His use of canvas and all of the things Mario was making with it.

Mario Bemer is a true artist, and his mission is to please his clients and make them what they want, probably so much so that it makes life complicated. I say that because the more I know about production and manufacturing, the more I know how difficult it can be to take a piece of material/leather and pass it around to three different production facilities that make different types of goods, expecting one harmonious packaged presentation. That takes a lot of time and coordinated effort. I think many, probably even Mario Bemer’s clients who request this, potentially take that for granted.

Often, one might say, ‘Hey, if you can make shoes, you can make belts and bags, right?’ — Well, no, those are all very different productions, ways of working, and even more so, require different types of hides, construction methods, etc. It’s not that simple, nor even close to the same world, despite them all being ‘leather goods.’

So, when I saw that Mario Bemer made a shoe/belt/bag canvas combo for one of his clients, I was thoroughly impressed. I knew that at that moment, Mario really aimed to please his clients, even potentially at his own expense. And that was admirable. On top of that, I must admit it was also super cool. I like to match myself, and having a backpack-type of bag matching my loafers is right up with the type of train of thought I would take as a client myself. That is what drew me to it. But funny enough, I rarely do the matchy-matchy thing with my belt. I have always believed that the belt should do the opposite of drawing attention away from the shoes. Nevertheless, a lot of people like to match their belt to the shoes, and the fact that Mario can do that is cool, especially as he uses a lot of unique leathers.

I just remembered, he had even made some braces (suspenders) in the same color combos. That was really cool!

If you like matching your shoes to your belt, bag, jacket, and other goods, Mario Bemer is your man. If it is leather-made, Mario can source it. Let’s just hope now that the Mario Bemer canvas options start to come in other colors! 😉