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During the 1950’s an amazing shoe shining contest was organised in Wilson, North Carolina, peaking with 12,000 visitors one year. In what was almost like a rock concert the shoe shiners performed their shine work on shoes of people from the audience, where both the final shine and the entertainment they gave was awarded. Read the lovely history of these contests.
The word “handmade” and what it means when it comes to footwear has been through quite a journey the past hundred years or so. From referring only to expensive often hand welted shoes that are built more or less without any machines involved back in the days, to now be used for relatively cheap shoes that have all main parts made by large machines, hands solely guide the shoes through them. Here’s the history of how handmade has been devaluated through the years.
It’s one of the most intricate processes in shoemaking, it’s the one where machines has taken over even on the finest bespoke shoes, and it’s the part of shoemaking which most clearly has developed into its own profession. Here’s the history of how upper making of shoes has developed.
For those who really want to learn to make shoes, or those who want to learn how shoemaking is done, the best first steps is to read books about shoemaking. Luckily, some of the absolute best such ever produced are available to download from free from the website of The Honourable Cordwainers’ Company, in their The H.C.C. Guild Library.
New podcast episode with the British-based bespoke shoemaker William Efe Laborde, in a talk where we focus on connecting historic shoemaking, materials and tools with today’s. Among many things you’ll learn which area of shoemaking that he thinks is at an all time high now in present time, why the tools never can be made as good as they were before the World War II again, and much more.
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Sole stitching done well is something that looks lovely, even more so if contrasting, so of course two rows of nice contrasting sole stitching looks marvellous. No wonder this became a thing on the posh spade sole shoes during the first half of the 1900’s. As often is the case though, the reason this type of construction appeared was from the beginning solely practical.
Shoes have gone from something that most ordered from a local cordwainer in versions of relatively standard styles, past a segment where styles were perhaps more limited but Ready to Wear shoes were kept in loads of different lasts and widths that customers could try on, up to today’s situation where there is a huge selection of styles but fit-wise more and more streamlined to fit the most common feet “ok”, instead of fitting some feet great. Here’s how it all evolved.
For the third time, I set the spotlight on some of the finest made shoes you can see today, a collection that Crockett & Jones made for a major international exhibition in 1911. Here I show off a number of models not displayed here before.
The upper leathers available in the first half of the 1900’s was in many ways far superior to what was around before that, and to what we have today, in terms of quality. Learn the complex reasons for this, in an odyssey through the history of leather tanning, with the main focus on the golden age.
Most rarely think about it, but in many cases there are practical, utilitarian reasons that shoes look the way they do nowadays, and we’ve been used to it and think it’s the right and beautiful way. Learn the historic functional reasons why we have derby shoes, a lot of brown shoes, built-up bevelled waists, natural sole edges on workwear boots and why rugged boots have high toe spring and sleek dress shoes low toe spring.
