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A Luxury Shoe Storage System—With Some Puzzling Craftsmanship Issues
Are we being too nitpicky, or is this an acceptable build quality for the pricepoint?
The sheer breadth of furniture design subcategories, particularly within the luxury space, never ceases to fascinate us. Initially we were tickled to see this handsome Modular Wooden Shoe Rack:
Enter a caption (optional)
Enter a caption (optional)Made in Italy and consisting of 12 individual boxes that interlock, it initially seems to be a worthy luxury object that would please a (literally) well-heeled client. The price point certainly puts it within that space, as it retails for £3,375.00 (USD $5,115) inside the EU, and £2,812.00 (USD $4,261) outside of the EU and their pesky levies. However, a closer examination of the retailer's photos reveal some head-scratchers. For instance:
Enter a caption (optional)Is that tear-out we see around the lip of the recess that houses the window? We were also puzzled that the screws weren't countersunk, but looking at the photo below…
Enter a caption (optional)…it appears that the screws need to stand proud in order to engage the magnets that hold the door shut.
The handles struck us as odd…
Enter a caption (optional)…as they're rough-cast but also polished shiny. It seems they ought be one or the other, rather than both, but we suppose that's a subjective aesthetic call.
Here we see the pins by which the boxes can be aligned, both side-by-side and one atop the other, as there are presumably corresponding holes in the bottom of each box:
Enter a caption (optional)For the price we'd have expected something a bit more elegant than what appears to be a thin piece of stamped metal holding the two pins together.
Thus far the things we've pointed out (except for the tear-out) could be defended for one reason or another. But here's where we get into a damning craftsmanship no-no. Whereas the horizontals appear to be created from narrower stock that has been glued together edge-to-edge, take a look at the endgrain on the verticals:
Enter a caption (optional)As you can see, they've gone with the cheapest cut of wood, i.e. plainsawn/flatsawn. I realize quartersawn is prohibitively expensive, but flatsawn is notoriously the cut most susceptible to wood movement and warps the most. The proof is in the pudding: Look closer and you'll see that the box at top right no longer sits evenly on the box below it.
Enter a caption (optional)We're not surprised that that happened, but we are surprised that they would reveal that in the retailer's photo! And if you look at how the verticals join up along the left side of the photo, you'll notice they're also far from square.
Enter a caption (optional)In short, these are the types of build issues we'd expect to see from a fledgling Chinese manufacturer, not an Italian concern like Turms, "a small family company in Montegranaro [Italy's center of shoe production]." A UK-based website called Permanent Style writes of this piece, "As with all Turms products, they are beautifully made and therefore not cheap." It's true that I've not witnessed their full production run in person, but based on what we've seen here, "beautifully made" seems like a judgment call.
So, what do you all think: Are we being too nitpicky? Is this about the level of fit-and-finish you'd expect from a piece of furniture in the four- to five-grand range? Are we fetishizing Italian craftsmanship and expecting a level of perfection that is no longer practically attainable in the 21st Century? And for the experienced furniture builders among you, are those the cuts of wood you'd have chosen?
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Comments
Not only do the units seem slapped together and cheap, but they're dirty! What is up with the dust? The fingerprinted & smeared dust on the tops is driving me crazy.
And even if you were to dust the unit before the pictures, that doesn't change the fact that you're still going to wind up with dust collecting there later.
You both make excellent points!
With so many opportunities to exemplify "attention to detail" they definitely missed the boat, from the type of wood, joints, fasteners to the structure of the piece/s. Does that all really matter when there are going to be consumers eating this stuff up? I don't even think that pull is installed straight.
I just took a closer look at the pull, you're right!
I agree. For the money, it’s rubbish.
This is a great piece of furniture... if it was made by me or cost $100. For the price at which it is sold and the region from whence it came, I am very disappointed. Juan Cano beat me to the tabs. How CHEAP looking! And there seems to be tear-out on the window edge as well, which definitely means it's acrylic. Also, Juan, good point about the lack of leather. Perhaps leather pull-tabs instead of those confused pulls. Aaron McGinnes hit the nail on the head, though, with the visible dado. That is unforgivably lazy and probably the worst thing about this piece. Laziness abounds.
I wish there were Amazon reviews of products like this, so that I could read what the customer feedback is. Based on the retail photos, I can't imagine someone spending that amount of money and being content with the results.
Great review! There are some definite craftsmanship and merchant photography issues for a stack system at this price point.
I'm not entirely sold on the small window on the drop-front. Does anybody else think it limits the view of the actual shoe collection? I'm assuming a set up of this magnitude isn't for the average pair of shoes, so why not allow for a better way to showcase the actual shoes?!
Now that you mention it, the windows do seem comically small, from a usability point of view. I also just took a closer look at how the radii are rounded off on the insides, and it looks pretty sloppy. I can't figure out how these guys are getting away with it.
Perhaps one consideration would have been to increase the
radii of the window, and scale down if not skip the branding labeling option
below. It creates too much of a guessing game for the user, and it’s not a practical
consideration for everyday use.
I’ve seen this system on the Bureau Belfast, and in
fairness, their footwear assortment is exceptional, as is their customer service
in store and online. If somebody is investing in an expensive pair of bench made
shoes, they’re probably going to want to store them in a premium storage unit.
Unfortunately, in this case the higher perceived value was created in part by a
high MSRP, not the quality of craftsmanship. TURMS does have some really nice
accessories kits though
This is a luxury item in a commoditized category. The real question is how do you store your
shoes and why?
Another case of marketing in lieu of quality. Even a millionaire is a sucker for paying that much for even well made wooden boxes.
Nitpicky, yes. Inappropriately nitpicky, no. I'd be pretty upset if I spent that kind of money on something that didn't fit together as flush and level as most particle board closet systems.
By set screws do you mean grub screws, like the headless/cylindrical kind you use to hold a gear onto a shaft? Now that you mention it I'm thinking pan-heads might have been a better choice, or at least look more deliberate.
Ah, I can't remember what those are called (the fasteners in your link) but "socket cap" sounds about right.
My mistake. I didn't mean grub or set screws. I'm not sure what you would call them, but here's a picture.
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/images/products/m3-screw.jpg
Socket cap? I didn't say "Allen" assuming that refers only to the inset hex opening and not the style of the cap.
To me, it looks like fabric lint that was snagged by, and adhered to that cut edge-not actual tear out. The handles, and the pin-link system don't bother me much, but the poor material choice with the wood is a big issue. However, I doubt that is actually wood movement that has already created that gap in the pic. Likely, its just poor alignment during assembly. Give it a thump on top and its good to go.
I wish I had a larger photo so we could see for sure. But even if it is fabric lint, isn't it kind of unforgivable to not break the edge on that recess?
I believe it is wood movement that's leading to the misalignment--but looking at the photos again, I think the problem is actually with the top and bottoms, not the sides. The sides of the boxes look fairly straight, but in the photo I've repeated three times, I can now clearly see that the top of the topmost box is cupped, and the top of the box beneath it is bowed. If I paid that much, I'd be pissed!
Be it tear out or lint, either way the edge is rougher than it should be.
I agree with you. When I saw the way the window was put in that recess, with those cheap tabs; is that even glass or just acrylic? For that price I would expect hand blown glass (it is Italy after all), plus wouldn't you want to include leather as part of the system to tie it in with the shoes it will be housing? The workmanship is definitely more Home Depot than a small Italian business.
Seriously. Those little bent tabs just don't seem very "Italian craftsmanship" to me.
For that amount of dough I'd want hand cut dovetails or at least routered blind dovetails, not butt joints and a saw-cut dado for the base visible from the front.
The screws are definitely what's holding the pulls on. I agree that they look terrible on the inside and that a plate would be nice. The more I think about this design, and the pricepoint, the more bewildering I find it. Are even the wealthy no longer concerned with fine craftsmanship?