Lems Shoes Reviews

On Sept 8/22 I placed an order with Lems Shoes for Men's Boulder Mid Size 12.5
On Sept 9/22 I requested a change for a size 11.5
Response received from Kim, Lems Support Hero, indicating that SHE WILL SEND A CANCELLATION REQUEST TO THE WAREHOUSE (see below). NOTE: I did NOT cancel the order !
Original charge on my VISA USD$ 129.95 / CAD$ 175.98
Refund received on my VISA USD$ 129.95 / CAD$ 164.44

I will not place another order and loose out on the exchange rate.
Furthermore, I will still be uncertain if the boot will fit since Lems sizing is problematical; it dose not follow typical US size charts. Most customer reviews indicated that Lems boot sizes are smaller than normal US shoe charts.
I am not at all happy dealing with Lems.

Sincerely,
Toma Diamantstein
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Kim (Lems Shoes)
Sep 9, 2022, 10:54 MDT
Hi Tom,
Unfortunately we cannot make changes to an order once it has been submitted. I will send a cancellation request to our warehouse and let you know what they say! If they can cancel your order, you will be refunded and can place a new order for the correct size.
Kim
Support Hero
Lems Shoes ========================================
Kim (Lems Shoes)

Sep 12, 2022, 09:51 MDT
Hi Tom,
Just reaching out to follow up on YOUR cancellation request - our warehouse was able to cancel your order. You will receive a refund within the next couple of business days. In the meantime, feel free to place an order for the correct size. Thanks!
Kim
Support Hero
Lems Shoes

On Monday, September 12, 2022 at 10:16:24 a.m. EDT, Lems Shoes wrote:

Lems Shoes ORDER #496655
Your order has been canceled
Order #496655 was canceled at your request and your payment has been refunded .

Refunded Items
Men's Boulder Boot Mid Vegan Jet Black / 12.5 US
Refunded $100.00
Subtotal $100.00
Shipping $29.95
Taxes $0.00
Total $129.95 USD
Visa $129.95 Refund Visa

Awful customer service. Received a pair of defective shoes and 8 days after the returned shoes arrived at Lems, I have not received a refund. After inquiring about my refund, I was told it was processed, two days later I was told Paypal was down, four days later Paypal is still down, and now today I am told Paypal is blocking their account until the tax audit is completed. Customer Service agent Caileigh is the the worst - unprofessional, dishonest and totally disengaged. Avoid this company.

My wife ordered 2 pairs and loved them! I ordered 2 pairs and it was a disaster!

I ordered one pair of Men's Chillums which fit great and seem like nice shoes. The second pair I bought was a Primal 2 and the shoe fit horribly, also the quality was nowhere near as good as the Chillum. It was way, way, too small and glued together, no stitching. I could over look this and exchange it except, 1) Lem's doesn't do exchanges, you have to pay $8 for a shipping label and return/reorder and 2) it took THREE WEEKS for my original order to ship. This is just unacceptable in today's online marketplace. The returns website was beyond clunky and thrown together. Customer service was ridiculous when I contacted them. They blamed their warehouse for all the delays even though the store had supposedly been begging the warehouse for updates. That might be the case, but as a customer it sounds like passing the buck. I don't care, address my issue, it's all your company no matter what division is facing the problems. They did offer a partial refund to me after I pointed out that I had been waiting over 2 weeks for my order to ship and that they had since started a sale. They gave me a refund of the difference between what I paid and the sale price and my shoes shipped a week later.

Overall, I'm pretty disappointed in my experience. I do like the one pair of shoes I received that actually fit. I'll have to see how they hold up. If they wear well and don't fall apart, I'll be a little more happy with my purchase. I'd really like to see some changes made in the company if I were to order again. I think 3 full weeks is too long to wait for an order to ship. I think that if you can nail sizing on one style of shoe, there's no reason you can't hit the mark on another style. I think if you are going to be selling online, returns and exchanges need to be made easy for your customers and if you need another size, offer a free exchange.

Lems Shoes Company touts comfortable wide, toe box shoes and states they provide free returns. They Do Not tell you that they charge you $8 for the return label.
On their website, they encourage you to buy a few pairs of the same shoe style at different sizes (they state their shoes run small, so order 1/2 size larger). So essentially, if you buy as they suggest you have to pay their $8 charge for the return label or else keep a pair of shoes that don’t fit!
Very disturbing business model. Plus the shoes just don’t fit as marketed.
I strongly encourage buyers beware when dealing with Lems Shoes.

I have bought Lems primal trainers in the past and can honestly say they were the most comfortable things ever. This time I bought trailhead and chillums in their new designs for myself and my partner. What used to be a values-driven shoe company now no longer offers the wonderful wide toe boxes they're known and loved for as standard. The shoes are also smaller than the sizing charts say they are so order at least two sizes up. Their sizing used to be reliable, now it is a measure of the shoe outer not the inner. Therefore if it says 28cm for example you will need to order 30cm to account for the shoe fabric and sole.

They no longer have the classic wide toe box but the site doesn't say this clearly. If you live outside of the USA bear in mind you will have about £25 in customs charges per pair, and will pay nearly as much as they cost to buy to return them as they don't offer free or reduced-cost returns labels internationally.

What used to be a helpful team is now a patched together website - the page and returns information is a manual patch fix where you enter info through a web form and the responses don’t make sense if you are not in the US nor does it offer the right options in their dropdowns. They only give 45 days to return shoes which given it has taken more than 25 days to arrive here is unreasonable to achieve in international returns without excessive charges.

A further update is customer service did come back to me very quickly and refunded my shipping cost to help with the returns. Much appreciated! Since they had missed an item from my order they refunded this pretty quickly too, although not the import tax.

Please update your sizing charts Lems - Such a shame as it’s a simple thing to state what size feet a shoe will actually fit. The app you have even recommended the sizes I bought and this was larger in size than my old trainers from you. I couldn’t get my feet in the trailheads as they were so narrow and also short. Toes were crushed in the Chillums and they were lovely and wide. Had they fitted and not been short in length I would have kept the Chillums.

I love Lems. In fact, they have been my only shoes for a couple years now. First wide leathers, then vibrams, but never wide enough. Never rugged enough. Enter Primal 2s. So light, foldable, awesome. The only shoes I took backpacking around Asia. Also have the boots (nylon not waterproof) which are slightly less wide but equally well made. I find customer service to be friendly and helpful, and basically just want Lems to be the way shoes are from now on.

The shoes are absolute trash. They use glue rather than stitching, and the shoes just fall apart. Their customer service is as trash as the shoes are. Here's the email I sent and the response I got...

"Hello,
Last August, I purchased two pairs of boots from your company for my sons. The one who actually wears his came home today and showed me his... Both are coming apart in the same place, all of a sudden. The adhesive holding the sole onto the leather has failed. These boots have been worn for about 3-4 hours a day, mostly indoors (and when outdoors on concrete), and have been taken care of. That's pretty shoddy work for $165.

The Mary Jane shoes I bought from you years ago did the same thing. I had hoped your build quality had improved, but it would seem not.

My son has been happy with the boots, until today. I can't tell you how disappointing it is to spend that kind of money, trying to safeguard your kid's health, and have this be the outcome.

I am a medical LMT, working with patients who have chronic pain, often caused by postural issues. I have recommended your footwear to many... but no longer. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend a product that is guaranteed to fail under such a light work load.

I've attached some photos for your edification. Three to four hours of wear daily over a year's time should not result in this kind of failure. He works in a convenience store for Heaven's sake.

Utterly Disgusted,
CW"

Their response....

"Hey Chandra,

Thanks for reaching out and sorry to hear about your experience! While the boot would be outside of our warranty window, I will be sure to pass your complaint along regarding the durability of our footwear. If you have any other questions or concerns feel free to let us know.

Thank you,
Tim
Support Hero
Lems Shoes // Discover more with less"

Buy your shoes elsewhere, people.

Brutal service. Unreliable fitting for online shopping. Terrible shipping, especially if you are in Canada or outside US.

I ordered two pairs of shoes. It cost me $170 on top of the price of $260 to get these delivered and return them when they didn’t fit… and I still don’t have shoes!

I paid $30 to have them shipped, which took almost 2 weeks to arrive.
I ordered the same size as a pair of Lems I already have, but the toe box in one pair was so wide they looked like clown shoes and were way too big and the other pair was too narrow and crushed my toes!!!

I got dinged with $70 import tax on the parcel. Then they didn’t fit, so I had to pay another $70 to return them!

Brutal. $30 + $70 + $70 = no shoes

I had been looking for a particular style of shoe for a while, and came across Lem's online. They had a style that was almost exactly what I had in mind, so I decided to give them a shot. Ordered the shoes, and they shipped promptly and I received them in a timely manner. The shoes are high quality, sized appropriately, and I am very happy with my purchase. Fast forward a couple weeks and somehow the stitching on one of the toes somehow started to come out. I sent them an email via their website and got a response the same day. After a couple correspondences, they determined I was eligible for a replacement pair of shoes under their warranty. Less than a week after I first noticed the problem, the replacement shoes arrived on my doorstep and I was able to donate the original pair. Its refreshing to see a small company committed to quality and outstanding customer service. I will definitely continue doing business with them!

Recently I purchased one of their items, and I posted a three-star review on their website due to a major flaw as outdoor-oriented shoes (I could have given one-star but the shoes are marginally comfortable so I chose three-stars). But the review never went online. So, I guess they limit the number of negative reviews posted on their website so that the overall review trend to be highly positive.

I generally don't trust a company that fills reviews on their website only with positive reviews because I feel it's unfaithful to customers. So, I wish I had looked at Trustpilot before ordering.