Japan.

The shape is old. It comes from the tabi, the split-toe sock worn in Japan for centuries alongside thonged sandals, where the gap between the big toe and the rest isn't a style decision — it is the only way the sandal stays on.

Later the sock became a shoe. Jika-tabi, roughly "tabi that touch the ground", were built with rubber soles for builders, farmers and gardeners, and they are still worn on work sites today. The split stayed because it gives grip, and because it lets you feel the ground under you.

Which is to say: a shape most people meet as a fashion object spent most of its life as workwear.

ARTOIS keeps the split and drops the work boot. A full-grain leather upper, leather lining, a stitched leather sole — cut and sewn by hand, one small batch at a time.

It is firm at first, and then increasingly yours. Leather takes the shape of the foot inside it, the split toe included, which is the part no factory can do for you.

There is no date on 011226, and that is deliberate. The shoes go out when they are ready rather than when a calendar says so, which sometimes means earlier than planned.

Everyone on the list gets an access link 24 hours before the release opens to everyone else. The last batch was gone in a day, so those 24 hours are the difference between owning a pair and seeing a photograph of one.