In-depth – The Reverse Goodyear construction

One of likely the newest construction techniques in the world is called Reverse Goodyear, which essentially is a traditional turnshoe, but made using a Goodyear machine. The shoes become super flexible and comfortable, lightweight and neat, and has become a popular summer shoe. The Indian company Bridlen is world-leader in this method, learn more about how they make these shoes in this article.

If  you want to make really flexible and lightweight shoes, you need to look into two things. Firstly, you want to use as little material as possible. Secondly, the materials used needs to be as soft and lightweight as possible. There’s a number of ways to solve these things.

When it comes to construction, the most common one for super lightweight shoes are cemented, since then you more or less only need think about the outsole, the insole can be very thin. If you do stitched constructions like Blake they need to have a thicker insole which limits things a bit. Moccasin construction or Bologna construction is in this way better, here you can use only a thin footbed or half insole inside the shoe.

One of the oldest shoemaking techniques known is the turnshoe, which was the dominant construction method during the Middle Ages, about 500’s to 1500’s, and interestingly enough is the one that with time developed into the welted construction method (read more about this in this article). Turnshoes by definition needed to be flexible, since otherwise it would be impossible to turn them inside out after one had stitched the upper to the sole. Interestingly enough, there’s now a modern construction which do an old turnshoe construction but with a Goodyear sewing machine.

Goodyear Reversed stamp.

Traditional pointe shoes used in ballet dancing has been made a bit similarly, while for regular shoes it’s used by a few companies in Italy, where the shoe machinery company Fioretto who sells machines that can be used for it has pushed for it for some years now. But mainly it’s the Indian company Bridlen who is making it known wider. They have also developed it in several ways, and with a few tricks managed to solve some issues others have had challenged with, and can be said to have perfected the Reverse Goodyear construction.

For their regular shoes Bridlen is known for using the old-school Goodyear welted technique, where the welt seam is done directly to a carved out channel into the leather insole, instead of onto a canvas rib cemented on a leather insole. And using proper full leather insoles is essential to be able to do this construction.

Full leather insoles with a holdfast carved out is needed to be able to make this type of shoe.

Upper leather, turned inside out.

Preparing for lasting.

The first step though is the upper, and this is lasted inverted, with the inside out, which looks quite weird if it’s a lined upper, a bit more normal if it’s unlined. The upper is stitched with a Goodyear machine to the insole exactly the same way as when doing a Goodyear welted shoe, but there is no welt. Instead, after this step, the shoe is turned inside out, and what’s normally the insole becomes the outsole.

Certainly looks weird with the lining on the outside. Excess upper is removed, and then it’s stitched with a Goodyear machine to the insole.

Goodyear stitching, without welt. Picture: Fioretto

Here the shoe is then turned, and the insole becomes the outsole. All pictures: Bridlen

Onto this a heel is nailed as usual, and inside the shoe Bridlen adds a small amount of filling and then a footbed. If we go back to the beginning, with how one want to remove material if one are to make a flexible and lightweight shoe, looking at the Goodyear Reverse construction, it’s certainly optimised in this area. To get an even better understanding of the manufacturing process, I recommend this YouTube shorts video from Bridlen.

A Reverse Goodyear shoe is highly flexible and lightweight, of course suitable for loafers, which with the lower vamp also is easier to turn inside out. Given that there’s no stiffeners used, they are almost like socks on the feet.

For the uppers Bridlen uses Annonay’s nappa leather in five colours, and several colours of Repello suede from Charles F. Stead, which is lined with a thin super soft drum veg tanned leather. Price is €160 (15,000 INR). To get a strong, properly stitched shoe without any seams going directly into the shoe, that is as light and flexible as these are, surely is rare. So it’s no wonder that they’ve quickly have become very popular, especially in warmer areas of the world.