Others criticise what they see as a refusal to fully engage with the economics and overheads of the fashion industry when analysing cost. In the aftermath of the viral Common Projects takedown ( which even inspired its own reaction video), some fellow experts on Reddit attempted to discredit some of his assertions, particularly around the standard of certain European materials. There are people who disagree with Weston’s assessments. Aside from that, leather is really hard to judge unless you know really well what you're looking at.” “You're never going to find a super high-quality shoe for $50, and you're usually not going to find a terrible shoe for $500. “Price usually dictates quality,” says Weston. Equally, Weston doesn’t try to whip up commotion by holding cheaper sneakers to unrealistic standards or feign hysteria for clicks. People politely discuss the finer points of nubuck and suede, offer their experiences with popular brands, and pitch for new shoes to be put under the knife. On a platform where even the most innocuous of interactions almost always leads to some form of hate speech, the discourse on Rose Anvil’s channel is refreshingly positive and genial. But gleaning knowledge from it? I think that’s where people get guilty satisfaction.” If I was just lighting them on fire, I think people would be turned away. Seeing something that so many people treasure and are so protective over being kind of destroyed, but with a purpose. “Anytime I open up a rare shoe, there's always a gang of people who are upset that I'm destroying something that's so sought after” says Weston. So when Weston decided to slice into a pair of $1,000 Air Jordan 1s back in April, not everyone in the comment section was best pleased. ( Here’s a compilation of celebrities who clearly did not know that would be the case.) It’s said that the sneaker industry is predicted to be worth almost $100 billion by 2024, driven by huge cross-culture collabs and the online reseller market. Once they’ve made their picks it’s time to hand over their credit cards, with the bill often tipping over $10,000. Just look at Complex’s mega-popular style series ‘Sneaker Shopping’, in which A-listers are invited to peruse the shrink-wrapped stock of Stadium Goods in New York while waxing lyrical about sneakers old and new. For a long time now, much-hyped trainers have been treated with ceremonial reverence on YouTube and beyond. You half expect a fried egg to start oozing onto the table. For that, Weston will pluck away at the threads – his sensitive microphone picking up every single snap – and then open up the entire cross-section like a master sandwich-maker. Rubber requires more elbow grease, but hardy boot bottoms are a far more intricate operation. Then he’ll make short work of the laces, before slicing a line into the heel – “skrrrrrrrk” – and moving onto the sole. First, he’ll drag a razor-sharp scalpel across the length of the toe box and tongue. There's literally no way to see what's on the inside of the shoe unless you're cutting it in half or pulling it apart.” “There's tons of people out there doing reviews on Common Projects and Dr Martens and Red Wings, but they only know a small portion of what's actually going on. “I was like, maybe I'll do that with boots,” Weston tells me over the phone from his Utah-based workshop, where he crafts camera harnesses, wallets and rings. He got the idea from a fellow YouTuber and friend, JerryRigsEverything, who has built a fanbase of almost six million by breaking down mobile phones. But Weston isn’t interested in wanton destruction: his mission is to analyse the leather quality of popular brands, educate his audience about the craft, and introduce some much-needed transparency to the process of buying shoes. This American leatherworker has been dissecting boots, sneakers and sacred cowhides on his fast-growing channel, Rose Anvil, for almost a year now, achieving success in the fine YouTube tradition of taking, ripping and blowing things apart.
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