Report - Show Goto / White Kloud

They are seen as the most well-made and exclusive workwear boots in the world, with a current waiting time of six years. The mythical Japanese bootmaker Show Goto only makes twelve pairs of his handmade White Kloud boots a year, plus limited runs of the more basic Jack & White Bros boots. Shoegazing has visited him.

In the middle of a quiet neighbourhood with low residential buildings, two or three floors, in the city Koshigaya in Saitama (a prefecture north of Tokyo, not the One Punch Man character), there’s a Harley Davidson motorcycle standing in front of a shop window. In the window there’s shelves with boots and vintage style shoe ad signs. At the bottom corner of a couple of the signs, it says WK White Kloud Custom Boots. For most people passing by, that means nothing. For footwear lovers like myself, it means one have reached an almost sacred place. The home of Show Goto.

A lovely neighbourhood.

The White Kloud space.

Show Goto.

Show Goto opens the door, wearing a denim overshirt with a large White Kloud print on the back, and greets welcome to his combined workshop and showroom. It’s literally combined. Just inside the front door is the making bench. To the right along the windows are shelves with fitting boots for customers to try on sizing, one shelf with display samples stands in the middle, and then materials and machines are spread out around the entry room and a room in the back.
– It’s not large, but I can fit in all I need. I had a different space close by before, but has been here for many years now, Show says.

Several decades ago he worked with foot massage and reflexology. During this time, he learned a lot about how feet work and how extremely complex they are. He has also worked for a motorcycle parts trading company and for Harley Davidson in Japan, and it’s at this time that he got his eyes open to workwear and denim.
– My career as a shoemaker sort of combine these, doing boots and shoes of the style that I love, but where fit and comfort that respects the foot is just as important.

Test boots and some of Show Goto’s own pairs.

A Harley Davidson poster on the wall.

Making bench.

His venture into shoemaking started the same way as it has for many other Japanese trained shoemakers – at the shoemaking school of Guild of Crafts in Tokyo. There he was classmate with among others Noriyuki Misawa – bespoke shoemaker and creator of art shoes (read more in this report) – and Takayuki Negishi of Sinando – Ogasawara Shoes.
– The fact that I was trained by dress shoe makers together with those interested in dress shoes, it has helped me to both learn and appreciate also the finer details and a high level of finishing, which I brought with me into the making also of really sturdy, heavy boots.
Another example of how the way he merges things together is important to achieve the special, high level of the end product.

Three days a week for two years he went to the shoemaking school, and then he practiced by himself the other days, and worked part-time for a dance shoe manufacturer, which helped him train really fine and neat work. The vision with what he wanted to do was there all along though, and directly after he finished school in 2005, he set up the brand White Kloud.
– Inspiration came from Red Wing, Wesco, White’s and so on, classic workwear boot brands, but also from some makers of really top class dress shoes. The mix of the heavy that can handle harsh conditions and the neat details is what creates the beauty, in my eyes, Show explains.

Since Show Goto don’t really have time to make sample boots, most on display are his own pairs that’s also worn. This cool one in crocodile is an exception.

Double row sole stitch.

Derby shoes with wedge soles.

And while White Kloud’s boot styles are great looking and highly admirable just due to this, it is the extremely high level of the making and finishing that makes them really stand out (in the Shoegazing’s Bespoke Awards a few years ago he got a podium position in the Finishing category). It’s up there with the absolute best makers out there, all categories. All from the super clean stitching to the mirror shined sole and heel edges. To achieve these edges, Show Goto sand first with machine and then by hand with finer and finer sand paper, and then build-up the shine with layers and layers of wax. No secrets or special techniques or products – just many hours of very hard work.

Working on the edge finishing.

An example of a finished heel.

Sanding machines.

For his White Kloud boots, that are fully handmade (apart from the outer sole stitch on rubber soled ones), he spends at least 150 hours of work. Lasts are modified for customers feet, and model, leather and all details are made after the customers choice, with prices starting from about €1,900 (300 000 yen) for Stitchdown construction, €2,300 (370 000 yen) for hand welted (note that prices will be revised from September, due to raised material costs). All is done by himself. That’s why he can’t produce more than about twelve pairs a year.
– It’s pretty bad business, haha. But I love making these boots, the personal process with the customer, the tedious manufacturing, the strive for a perfect end result.
A few years ago he introduced a second offering though, to make his footwear a bit more accessible.

Jack & White Bros by White Kloud is a Made to Order offering with a slightly special set up. He introduces a model and a selection of leathers, and then for a short period of time he opens up orders for this style. When the amount he can make is fulfilled orders are closed, and production takes place over a longer period. Then it repeats. The first model was a blucher derby, the second one his famous Letterman derby boot (which I myself has a pair of, I will publish a Buyer’s guide with this as base later on during a time when he has orders open for this model) and this he has opened orders for several times. Soon he also plans to add another derby shoe style.

The Jack & White Bros Letterman boot, in Badalassi Minerva cognac.

Vibram rubber sole.

Leather options.

Prices for the Jack & White Bros footwear starts at €900 (140 000 yen). Here Show Goto makes the upper, then they are lasted by hand by Sinando, and the Stitchdown construction making is made by Show but with machines. He produce four pairs of Jack & White Bros a month, this on top of the White Kloud work, waiting time for J&WB is about a year after order. These can, unlike the White Kloud boots, be ordered online.
– It’s been a popular offering, I’ve often sell out the spots I have quite quickly. It’s an offer I would like to expand more somehow, maybe with the support of outwork to a larger extent, we’ll see. The challenge is I want to keep it to my standard, and have good control of it all still.

When I ordered a pair of Jack & White boots, he also took careful measurements to help end up correct with sizing.

A pair of test shoes, which I wore for a walk together with Show around the neighbourhood.

Another pair of Letterman boots in the making.

It’s no wonder that many in Japan compare Show Goto to Eiji Murata of Main d’Or, and the other way around. They both do every step of the making themselves, to keep full control of things (exception only, as mentioned, for Show’s more basic MTO and the lasting for this), the level of the making and finishing is on absolute world-class level, and their quality has meant that the despite little marketing they are highly sought after, resulting in very long waiting times. Most of all, what they both have in common, is a dedication and love to the shoemaking craft that goes above and beyond.

A lot of his customers are international, not least Americans, not surprising given how strong workwear boots are there, and the fact that the price point for them with the strong US dollar and weak yen makes the price more attractive.
– But lately I’ve had more and more Japanese customers, which I’m happy for, says Show.
Going forward, Sh0w Goto wants to continue as he does today in most ways, continue to refine and develop his boots and shoes. Apparently, what’s seen as perfect in most people’s eyes are not enough for people like him. That’s the way to reach new levels.

To see more of Show Goto’s work, I recommend following his Instagram here.