Very true on the thinning aspect. The holes are like that bc of them pulling on the stitching, it does not look bad in person by any means, if I wanted to be a true stickler on it, I guess I could be, but my pair from Mercer, compared to a lot of the pairs from 1948 are wayyyy better in craftsmanship aspects. You should see this one toebox from 1948, and none of the materials are rolled over, the leather is just cut all crappy. I know my toe box isn't a 2004 shape but its night and day compared to the bespoke Ive seen from 1948. And I have no idea why, because both Mercer and 1948 use the EXACT same factory, I have checked this with multiple people's pairs....only thing I can think of is I was one of the first to do it at Mercer back in October and they all jus now got their pairs back from 1948...a lot of them have the "booty" on heel as well, they're all returning them because of that - that and because few of them actually got the wrong size!!!! After paying $1k and waiting for 6-8 weeks they come in and they're a whole size smaller?! I would be furious...but I love mine haha
Haha yes SOUTH AFRICA not UK! I read the kids post wrong and people are asking about release dates in US and what not! My bad!