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One of the oldest remaining shoe and bootmakers in the US are going for a renaissance under new ownership. Shoegazing has visited their store and workshop on central Manhattan, and got a glimpse into the high ambitions of the company to create a new American powerhouse for custom made shoes and boots.
During the pandemic few people wore or ordered bespoke shoes – so what to do as a bespoke shoemaker? In Hiro Yanagimachi’s workshop in Tokyo, they spent the calm period to develop a completely new product for the new world: the hand welted LS1 sneaker. Built to merge the best from handmade dress shoes and casual sneakers – which has since been a smashing success.
Beetroot, tea and saffron. These are some of the ingredients that Gianluca Occhiuto uses when he paints shoes. In his men’s shoe store Il Pantheon in Oslo, Norway, he sells shoes from Italian makers Bettanin & Venturi, among others, and he himself is responsible for the extraordinary finish.
Raymar, often called “the Japanese Meermin”, has been making waves domestically in recent years and grown their steadily. Now they also start to turn to the international market with their highly affordable Goodyear welted and hand welted shoes – with the latter offered from less than €200 – not least with the participation at the London Super Trunk Show next month. Here’s an interview with the two brothers behind the brand.
Råland Bootmaker is a one-man operation creating seriously solid boots by hand – in Sweden. Now Adam Persson, the man behind the brand, has collaborated with the Swedish store Second Sunrise to launch a RTW engineer boot in Maryam horsebutt.
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Last week, the winter edition of the world’s largest shoe fair, Micam, and the largest leather fair, Lineapelle, were held in Milan, Italy. Shoegazing was there, here’s a summary of the impressions from the fairs as a whole and from some selected exhibitors.
Elon Musk, Ingvar Kamprad, Anna Wintour, Bill Gates – every industry has its driven entrepreneurs. In classic men’s shoes, Marcos Fernandez Cabezas is one of the best, the man behind some of France’s most successful quality shoe brands of recent decades.
In Osaka, Japan, Akiyoshi Nishiyama of Ann Bespoke has created a footwear brand with a distinctly unique personal character – without having his own house style, at least according to himself. Shoes I’ve admired for many years. A few weeks ago I finally got to see them in person, and have a conversation with the man behind them.
Last month samples from eight different bespoke shoemakers were gathered at Gallery Quadro in central Tokyo, in ambition to open up for interest from a new group of people. Shoegazing visited the reception, and talked with a few of the shoemakers exhibiting: Nayuta Takahashi and Kiyo Uda who also run Tweed & Mouth, and Ken Hishinuma of Khish the Work.
This June the summer edition of the men’s fashion fair Pitti Uomo took place in Florence, the first proper one since the pandemic hit. Shoegazing was there and checked out a bunch of the shoe exhibitors, here’s a summary of what could be found and some news from talks with brand representatives, who witness on the positive trend the quality footwear sector is seeing.
