Tory Burch or Tieks? Part One （Sizing Correction in Part Two)

While searching for good leather insole shoes for sweaty feet, AupairToes found these two brands having super close competition so she decided to buy one pair each and wear both to truly compare!

In part one today, AupairToes will show unboxing experience of the two brands and give some initial analysis on how different or similar they are

Where to buy and price range?

Tieks is only available on its own website. No retail locations or discount. This helps Tieks to lower its price by bringing shoes from factory to customers directly. AupairToes got their popular cardinal red at $175. Depending on different design, colors and upper layer materials, there are options from $135 to $345 (and two $345 options are sold out according to the website)

Tory Burch can be found in many online shops, not only at their website. They also have retail stores almost everywhere. There could be discounts during different seasons. The price range of ballet flats vary from $129 to $258. AupairToes went to one of their retail locations in Austin, Texas and got the classic Minnie Travel ($228, exclusive from discount), which is foldable as Tieks and the closest Tory Burch to Tieks in every aspects.

Tory Burch is $53 more expensive than Tieks so far. That’s 30% more of Tieks’ price. Not a small gap!

Eco-friendly packaging and purchasing services?

AupairToes got Tory Burch one week earlier than Tieks and also she tried on the shoes in the store so the packing was not as neat as the mailed-in Tieks.

Tieks came in via a very small iconic teal color box inside a quite small white mailing box. The size saves quite a lot materials of the packaging. However, the glittering flower decoration, the bag inside for carrying the shoes around are not made of eco-friendly materials. There is a bag of the bag, which pretty much cannot be used for anything else. -2 in packing materials or eco-friendly awareness. However, the packaging includes a hand-written thank you card and a nice instructions about shoes maintenance, etc. The flower is a decoration but it shows extra mile in a service to make the customers happy. +2 in customer-oriented details. Unboxing video below for more details.

AupairToes went to shop Tory Burch at the store so service score is really tied to the sales rep that night. It was not busy at the beginning so AupairToes got good attention from the sales rep. However, after she decided to buy and would like to ask more questions regarding the leather, the store started to get busy. Obviously 3 sales reps in the store were still not enough? and the one serving AupairToes did answer all the questions but rushed to close the deal without enough patience. The sales rep did have good upselling skills while she tried to sell 2 pairs together while AupairToes was trying both of them before buying. -1 in rushing though from customers’ perspective for a luxury-level brand like Tory Burch. (yeah, they do offer free drinks at their stores, e.g. box apple juice for kids). Packaging of the shoes is very old school standard, as you can see from the video below. AupairToes really liked all packaging materials are either paper or washable cloth that are more eco-friendly. This even includes the shoe holders (they are like paper straws in this case). +1 for thoughtful packaging process.

Well, both brands ended up with 0 score in eco-friendly packaging and purchasing services. Tieks emphasizes more on pleasing the customers by making the unboxing experience more like unwrapping a gift box. Tieks wins in more TLCs for customers while Tory Burch did show more careful thought in packaging materials to make the environment more sustainable.

Sizing?

How about choosing the right size under both brands? AupairToes has the most standard feet usually can fit either size 6 or size 6 1/2 under any brand. Tieks doesn’t have half sizes so it recommends on the website to go one size up if customers usually wear a half-size due to wide feet. Well, that’s not AupairToes’ case so she just went for size 6 to try. Surprisingly, it fits quite well. It’s slightly tight on the thumb toe area but we all know good leather products take a few days to break.

AupairToes tried different sizes at Tory Burch’s store and found for Mini Travel, 6 1/2 works the best so she got that one rather than 6. It’s very common to have your feet fit into different sizes based on different designs even under one same brand.

Comparing Tieks with the Tory Burch physically, size 6 in Tieks actually is almost the same as 6 1/2 in Tory Burch. Check out the video below. How interesting! As another shoemaker told AupairToes, the best way is to buy a few sizes if you are shopping online or even physically, try them each for a few days and then figure out one to keep while return the rest. All brands use different lasts to make their own shoes which cause the differences in sizing across the market.

Tips from AupairToes’ experience so far:

1. to save money, buy Tieks
2. to enjoy better customer services, buy Tieks
3. to help the enviroment, probably buy Tory Burch
4. Tory Burch is true to the half sizes. Still try or order several different sizes to figure out one to keep

Here concludes part one. AupairToes is going to wear both pairs every other day for a few months to test their durability, flexibility and capabilities for sweaty feet. Give some time and she will present analysis part two soon!