The legendary British bespoke shoemaker Jim McCormack has worked five decades as an outworker for various big and small bespoke shoe companies in England. Hear him talk about life as an outworker and how this system works, about the development of the bespoke shoe scene in the UK the last 50 years, and much more.
Few people in the world know more about the bespoke shoe business in England in general and the outworker system in particular than Jim McCormack. Since the 70’s he has worked in the shoe business, and for more or less all of these years, he has worked as an outworker, doing bottom making for many different firms. England is the country in the world where the outworker system is the most extended. We talk a lot about the freelance system, how it works, the pros and cons and so on.
Jim McCormack. Picture: Tony Slinger / YouTube
But before that we cover Jim McCormack’s own journey into the shoemaking world, hear stories from for example John Lobb back in the 70’s, go through the different stages of the bespoke shoemaking scene in the UK the past 50 years, and much more.
Listen to the episode below, or in your preferred podcast player. All episodes of the Shoegazing Podcast can be found here. An extra recommendation on episode 22 where Jean-Michel Casalonga of Berluti talks about running a large bespoke workshop, the sort of counterpart to the freelance system.
Looking forward to playing this in the workshop first thing in the morning tomorrow 😉
Fantastic chat, thoroughly enjoyed listening to this one! Thank you so much.
Can’t help but feel through the conversation that this will be an important document for posterity as it describes well the changes which took place in the last decades, which more broadly was a transition for bespoke shoemaking from the end of the 20th into the 21st century
Raz: Cheers! 🙂
William: Thanks a lot for the kind words! Yeah it became a really interesting talk.
Its interesting to read but what about to listening the podcast about Men high heel collection
This was a wonderful podcast. Jim seems to me to be a fantastic craftsman and a top bloke. We he was divulging his beginnings getting into the shoe making scene, I thought about parallels between my experience as an apprentice funiture maker; not that I was a master craftsman (Jim is clearly a super important figure on the English shoe scene – I’m not putting myself in his league): I, too, experienced older guys coming to the end of their craft journey and I saw how they passed on their knowledge and experience. This was done by oral transmission or but them cornering you, if they thought you were half decent, and hammering home the importance of an approach or technique. I really learned a lot from watching and being prepared to ask the right questions.
Another positive I got from the podcast was how crucial English shoes and the traditions from England are on where we are now in shoemaking. The fact guys like Jim were happy to share their knowledge with, say, the Japanese guys wanting to learn. Now look at the impact makers from Japan are having on the scene.
Anyway, a long response…thanks Jesper and thanks Jim McCormack!
Anthony: Cheers! Yes Jim is great. Agree, all passing of knowledge is hugely important, and the bigger shoemaking regions are very important. In the future, Japanese shoemakers passing their knowledge on will be highly important, since it’s one of the strongest markets for shoemaking today.
What a treat to hear from Jim. Truly a wealth of knowledge both of the history of the trade and as a thoroughly experienced craftsman.
I appreciate that you touched on how even most of the so called independent shoemakers aren’t truly just one man bands. Speaking as an aspiring American shoemaker, I think many who are not as familiar with the nature especially of how British shoemaking operates with outworkers, we can easily get the impression that people are doing 100% of every aspect of the shoemaking process by themselves which of course is generally just not true or in most cases even possible really.
Great interview and I hope there will be many more similar ones!
Tom: Thanks for the kind words! Jim is a wealth of knowledge indeed.