It's not clear what but it indicates something about the soles being handmade. I don't know. For $495 the explanation and specs are razor thin.

As far as your observation, well, that's hard to say. I can say from experience that mass production and taking your chances with reduced prices is often a better model than making to order. I don't know about this case but I bet it is the case. Looking at the shoes the production cost can't be much higher than $20 a pair if that, and they aren't spending as much on R&D or advertising as their competitors. So it's quite possible than at a tenth of the asking price, there is still profit for them