Catella Shoemaker is the brand of bespoke shoemaker Daniel Wegan, previously head of the bespoke department at Gaziano & Girling and world champion in shoemaking in 2019. This is my first pair from his own venture, and as expected they are made to a superb standard. Here’s loads of photos and a film of the shoes.

 

For those who followed Shoegazing for a while, you may recognise these shoes a bit. These austerity brogues were the shoes I ordered and followed the production of for the large article series on Gaziano & Girling bespoke (you find all five parts here), but since a change Daniel Wegan did on the last between the final fitting and the finished pair became slightly too big, which created a big crease behind the inner ball of the right foot, these shoes were to be re-lasted. I decided to go with a pair of chukka boots for the consecutive pair from G&G (those can be viewed here), since I were more in need of that model, pushing the remake of the austeritys further into the future. When they then were to be made Daniel Wegan had left G&G to start Catella Shoemaker, and Tony Gaziano and Daniel agreed that this order would be moved over to Catella, since I had worked very close with my fellow Swede on it all. To read more about Catella, go here.

The shoes are a pair of austerity brogues in a medium brown patina (slightly lighter in colour this round), on a last with a soft square toe, with a single leather sole and a slim bevelled waist, 14 spi (stitches per inch) sole stitch, etc. As expected the make is of a really high level. In my opinion where Daniel shines extra is when it comes to building heels, with perfectly levelled heel lifts and very well-balanced with straight outsides and slightly tapered backside, a classic heel shape on bespoke shoes but which is very difficult to perfect all around in the way Daniel does. Where he still can improve a little bit is on the final detail finishing, it’s not yet as super clean as the absolute best in the world here, like Eiji Murata of Main d’Or or Yohei Fukuda’s main bottom maker Akira Igarashi. The fit is excellent, not only with the last shape and build up of the insole and stiffeners, but with the relatively thin Italian crust leather and the fact that he also chose to skip side reinforcements to give extra flexibility for my sensitive feet, they are really comfortable. Daniel follows the same procedure as he did with G&G, where one is recommended to use the shoes for a bit before they and the lasts are sent to Hervé Brunelle for the lasted shoe trees to be made, hence it’s only generic shoe trees used here.

Below lots of pictures of the beauties, and a short film at the bottom.