Carmina Shoemaker Reviews 101

Marie from Customer Service was absolutely great. I had a non-typical return/exchange, and she handled it so easily, and was very polite and nice to me! Really made me feel good about the $850 purchase. Great experience - Marie!! and great shoes.

I am very impressed with my Balmoral Boots from Carmina. They look amazing. The shoes are made from very high quality leather and are also good year welted. And the craftsmanship gone into the shoes is impeccable. The Rain last used for my shoes give them a very sleek and classy silhouette with a stylish chisel toe. I absolutely love them and am very much looking forward to wearing these out. On top of that, the customer service is also excellent whereby they responded to any questions promptly with very helpful advice. I will certainly be buying more from these prestigious shoemakers.

Hello
i must say i really appreciate Carmina's shoes : it's quite rare to find goodyear's welted shoes of quality for woman !
The woman shoes succeed in the perfect balance between feminine touch and masculine design on the oxford/derby models with flat heel.
I love also the abilitie Carmina have to stay truth to tradition while improving modern searches.

I must say that i sometime buy some shoes in the man line : some are really délicate and elegant so they can be worn easily in androgynous outfits.

I must give a special thanks to the customer service (Brenda is so patient !!) who pay attention to their clients with so much skills and kindness.

and a special one also for the parisian shop team : it's always a pleasure to go to the Opera Store !

The Simpson last is the best for the shape of my feet (long and sleeks)

I own around 10 pairs of Carmina and have only one pair whose leather is just a little bit under my expectation (the client service gives me a discount !)

I do recommand Carmina !

Supernice company. You taste the heritage, dedication and kindness of a long lasting company that specializes in a special craft: making outstanding shoes and leather products with a clear Carmina signature. Products are beautiful, packaging too and customer service is outstanding.

Be careful with fitting the shoes - do it on a carpet, as the leather is so supple, it can quickly wrinkle (also the soles).

Hope to visit a Carmina (offline) store in the future, too.

Great shoes, friendly people !

I had a wonderful experience with Carmina. The service staff was very helpful in providing assistance with sizing. I initially ordered a pair of shoes on the Rain-last, which would have been too narrow, but Brenda quickly and efficiently changed my order to a pair of Chestnut longwing bluchers on the Detroit last. They fit like a glove and are very high-quality shoes, especially for the price. I could not recommend Carmina enough, and I will be ordering a pair of cap-toes from them soon.

They make quality shoes, but recently they have become fraudulent with their return policy. I wanted to make a custom size for a pair of boots. I sent pictures of my measurements (calf and feet) and Brenda replied saying that I would not need a custom order, that UK size 9 would fit me based on my measurements. Brenda also said I should let them know how it fits when I receive my order. However, the boots didn't fit when I received my order and they did not reply any of my emails when I requested for a return/exchange. Carmina doesn't provide a return slip, their policy requires the purchaser to contact them to initiate a return/exchange. It's sad because I have bought about three pairs of shoes from them in the past and I have also returned shoes with them, but my last experience with them was deceptive.

*update* my response to Carmina’s reply: Carmina is trying to make it sound like I made a custom order. I did not make a custom order. Carmina recommend a size to me based on measurements I sent but the boots did not fit my calf area and Carmina refused to accept my return. This is a form of fraud.

Great shoe quality but eur 50 for a return or exchange in 2024?? Such a disappointment from an otherwise solid brand

Received full support from Brenda to create a lovely pair of shoes tailored to my taste. Her constructive explanations and advice helped build my confidence in designing my shoes.

The challenging aspects include production lead times, availability of stock for current models, and made-to-order (MTO) production times. These areas could be improved to make the process even more competitive.

Overall, Carmina remains one of my top-tier shoemakers.

First of all the experience with Customer service: Brenda has been responsive all along. She is knowledgeable and gives excellent advice! She is a good listener and patiently answered my myriad of questions. Looking forward to picking her brain for my next purchases...
Now the shoes:
The design is definitely more refined than our traditional higher end shoes here in the states so if a slimmer cut with a more modern look is what you're looking for then Carmina it is. And as much as I hate to say as an owner of dozens of American made higher end shoes from the well know brands, Carmina's finish and attention to detail is definitely a step above. On my 6th pair and will be returning for more

"It has been a pleasure purchasing several boots and shoes from Carmina. The support has always been quick and clear. Very satisfied!"

I ordered two pairs of shoes, one of which required customisations and urgent delivery for my pre-wedding photoshoot, the other one needed more time to be manufactured.

Carmina's customer service/delivery team provided great flexilibility in promptly working on and first delivering the urgent pair, with the other pair delivered at a later date - all without any extra costs.

Special shoutout to Brenda who gave periodic updates to me throughout the process to provide me with assurance that the shoes would arrive on time for my shoot. It was thoughtful and much appreciated.

Customer service is fantastic! Brenda was very informative and especially helpful in choosing the right size for me. I chose the Balmoral Boots in Tan Grain, and I am delighted. The leather is supple; the fit is spot on like a glove; and the color is an eye-catcher in dazzle and beauty. These boots are also such a pleasure to wear and walk in because of their comfort. I love them!

Amazing customer service and attention to detail. A company that truly cares for its clientele. I am actually switching from some very top brands I used to buy to Carmina for their amazing customer service which is usually lacking these days. The quality of their shoes I find to be superior to shoes from their more expensive competitors. A big thank you especially to Marie and Ariadna.

I've rather recently sold off 4 pair of handmade men shoes, but still owe and use 2 pair of EG, 3 pair of C & J and 3 pair of Carmina.

The last pair purchased was actually a pair of Carmina loafers in dark brown suede. This time I used Carmina’s custom online service which gives you the possibility to configure the shoe after your own preferences to a negligible extra charge.

I choose to put on Rendenbach (JR) soles and go for tassels and EE-width which goes extra well on my feet.

The result was pretty much awesome in this price segment, both in terms of quality, fit and not least the appearance. Personally I can't see any reason what so ever not to go for Carmina when it comes to purchase of a pair of pure classic, tassel loafers in suede. And for sure, you will quickly find out Carmina offers numerous of other shoe models to choose between.

I've made all my previous orders on the Carmina official website and I have only very good experiences to share from doing this. Firstly, we are talking about great products & craftsmanship, but furthermore, any inquiry is replied upon in a very prompt & swiftly manor, delivery is fast and easy to track, and at least for me it’s obvious the Carmina staff (not least Brenda to mention anyone in particular..) are keen on and besides very able to make sure you get fully satisfied with your purchase.

My order got more than a month of delay because the leather I selected wasn't in stock, and noone notified me.

To make up for that, they upgraded my order to 'custom' so I got the chance to fully customize my shoe, including using leathers that aren't even proposed on the website!! (at least at the time of writing). I could even ask for custom width to the Inca last that is not normally offered in wide, and they accepted, knowing that this would require last modification.

On top of that, they also offered me a complete shoe care kit for compensation of the great delay my order took.

I received the pair yesterday and have to say the shoes were worth the wait, the length is great, the width and instep is slightly (barely) on the tight side but the leather will surely give after a few wear, so the size would be spot on. Construction quality is great. I have another pair of Goodyear welted shoe (Allen Edmonds) and I can say Carmina is better constructed with more attention to details. Only the left shoe sole had some minor stitch alignment issues but luckily noone would get to see that.

Now I am so happy to have a very rare (if not unique) pair of oxford. Thank you Carmina!

Ordered out of curiosity a pair of cap toe oxfords on April 3rd. Received the shoes on May 28th.

I‘m into well made shoes for at least 20 years, but haven’t had such a bad experience with a renowned company before. Bad fitting, bad quality an an after sales sales service I wish nobody to go trough. Promises not held, long communication delays and overall not solution oriented.
I heard about bad service before, but didn’t want to believe it, or thought at the least the shoes may be good, but how wrong have I been.
Save you some time, money and energy and look elsewhere. This is a company that needs to learn the hard way on product improvement and how to deal with customers.

From UK looking for a pair of patent shoes.
I very muched liked a pair from Crockett and Jones but could not justify the asking price but was still tempted until I came across Carmina shoes by accident and saw a very similar style to C&J for much less and after further research found that both were of quality goodyear welted construction, calf leather, leather sole however the what finally made my final decision to go with the Carmina was that their finish had a closed stitching on sole (C&J open stitch), the price and customer service by Brenda from Carmina who always replied back.
When the shoes arrived I was blown away by the style, size was perfect, fit a little tight being new will need to be worn a frew time to loosen.
Thank you Brenda and Carmina

So if you are into shoes you will find no better. So I ordered some shoes and there was a slight delay so carmina gave .e a free gift (item related to shoes). It wasn't necessary but they did it anyway. Furthermore, carmina was only a few weeks late and I'm like I ordered from other shoe makers that I ordered 8 months ago. (The other shoemakers say nothing) So on top of making a perfect shoe their customer service was top notch. Thank you

I am shoes lover and have already bought 16 pairs of shoes from Carmina (mostly in shell cordovan) . Besides the high quality shoes they produce, Carmina has an exceptional customer service, Ioana (in the past) and Brenda have always been very accommodating. Brenda always provides best advices and does everything she can to make customer happy. I appreciate her professionalism and dedication to picky customers like me.