You will often find that the traditional methods of tanning and shoemaking are still used in Italy, which means the finest of materials are chosen for the uppers and inner lining. The shoes are even hand sewn. This kind of quality often comes with a high price tag but the Italian shoemakers are coming up with great shoes at lower prices.

Italian designers are among the best footwear designers in the world designing the highest quality men's shoes, with the best style, comfort and fit. If you want the very best, there is only one way to go, that's Italian!

Choosing a good quality men's designer shoe can be easy when you know what to look for. This would include the grade of leather, available styles from designers and your own personal tastes along with your correct shoe size. Let's begin by looking at leather grades.

Full grain leather has its original markings and grain texture of the animal the leather was taken from. When a full, natural grain texture is present, you can consider it full grain leather. Full grain leather is considered the best quality. You should inspect the leather. The leather should smell good, look natural and be soft to the touch. There are leathers made from mark free, perfect hide. They are more expensive and rare.

There is less expensive leather. It has its natural grain sanded away and the surface embossed with grain. This leather has a thick coating to cover the imperfections. They are stiff with the look and feel of plastic. This leather is considered top grain leather. Top grain leather is often misunderstood by a lot of customers because of its name. The quality of this leather is a contradiction to what the name implies. This leather material is not genuine since the original grains were sanded away. The grains are only imitations stamped on the leather. If however, the genuine grains are still intact, the leather will be called "full grain" or "full top grain". The top grain leather is considered the much weaker type of leather. Most of the top grain leathers are graded lower but are more affordable to many buyers. Top grain leather can still wear well and look great.

When choosing your quality designer men's shoe, you want to choose the best leather along with the best stitching. The best stitching is hand-sewn leather. Hand-sewn leather is the strongest most durable leather when it comes to quality men's designer shoes. It is true what they say about the Italians, they do it best!

Often you will find Italian designer shoes with accent stitching, tonal stitching and other really unique stitching as well. This can be very defining in a good quality men's designer shoe. Be sure to examine the stitching for its quality. Sometimes you just simply have to admire the exquisite designs of the hand-sewn Italian designer shoe. Some of the craftsmanship is simply breath taking.