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A while back I posted a picture special with a bunch of bespoke samples being made by the German bespoke shoemaker Patrick Frei and his partner Kazuya Kimura. During covid they had time to continue the samples production, so here’s a bunch of new amazing shoes highlighted.
An episode with the 2018 world champion in shoemaking, Patrick Frei, whose amazingly well-made shoes are instantly recognisable with a personal character. Hear him talk about how one go about to find an own identity as a shoemaker or shoe designer, and loads more, like how he sees shoemaking as “The King of all Crafts” and how anyone doing anything first should look back to see how things has been done before, to just name a couple of examples.
The most famous, prestigious and formal shoemaking education in the world is Les Compagnons du Devoir et du Tour de France, which most of the famous names in French bespoke shoemaking has been through. A journey which takes the trainee to a number of different workshops with the aim to develop both the person and of course their craft. Shoegazing sat down with compagnons trainee Pierre-Baptiste L’Hospital to learn more about this traditional shoemaking education.
Finally, after several delays due to the pandemic, I’ve now been able to travel to Freiburg, Germany, and the Patrick Frei workshop, and the progress of my bespoke pair from them can now progress. In this article we’ll follow the fitting, modifications of the last, and second fitting.
