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Japanese MTO and bespoke makers Siroeno Yosui has made lovely film thoroughly showcasing all steps of making a pair of fully handmade shoes. With high quality footage and a great production, this can be one of the better films available for those who want to understand all the steps that goes into making handmade shoes.
My latest acquisition is rather different from what I mostly wear, yet something rather intriguing, if you ask me. A pair of bespoke side seamed Wellington boots in Horween Chromexcel leather, where Swedish bespoke shoemaker Janne Melkersson of Melker Shoes & Boots have added a Scandinavian touch to a very traditional British model, and created a quite spectacular pair. Here’s lots of photos of both making and final pair.
The tougher the competition gets – the more doubtful the marketing gets. One of the things that brands tend to use more and more in this day and age is dropping numbers on how long it takes to make the shoes, how long time that have been spent to develop new models, and similar. Numbers that are extremely exaggerated compared to reality.
One of the oldest still remaining manufacturers of welted shoes in Japan is Central Shoes. Founded in 1949, and still located in the same building in the middle of Asakusa, the shoemaking district of Tokyo. Shoegazing got a tour around the premises.
In old industrial neighbourhoods in the slightly rough town of Kettering in eastern Northamptonshire, one of England’s largest manufacturers of Goodyear welted shoes, Loake Shoemaker, houses. Around 4,000 pairs of shoes are produced here each week.
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If you visit shoe factories today, it varies greatly between older and more modern machinery parks, not infrequently also within each factory. However, it’s not very common to use as old machines as the one in the picture above. This lasting machine dates from the first half of the 20th century, and is located in Gaziano & Girlings factory in Kettering, Northamptonshire.
Do you think the picture above shows something being handmade? Sure, there are hands in the picture, but the main part here is a large, in this case also modern, machine. It stands next to maybe 30-40 other large shoemaking machines which are all part of the production of what nowadays more often than not are called “handmade”. To all shoe brands and shoe manufacturers out there who devaluate words and give untrue info to your customers, below is a list of phrases to help you give the correct info from now on. You are all welcome!
40 dark brown full brogue oxfords, made by shoemakers from all over the world. Here’s a substantial review of all the competition shoes that entered the World Championships in Shoemaking 2019. Info, comments, pictures of the shoes and in some cases also the manufacturing process.
Artista is a new top range from the Spanish brand TLB Mallorca, a range that I’ve been involved in developing, through my work for their retailer Skolyx. It’s an ambition at bringing some features taken from bespoke shoes into the midrange price segment of Goodyear welted shoes, offering a lot for the €425 they cost. Here’s a report about this project, now about to launch.
Union Royal is one of the more well-known Japanese manufacturers of quality shoes, who makes shoes in many different price ranges and with various construction methods such as Gooydear welted, hand welted and a kind of blend of Bologna and Goodyear. Shoegazing visited their factory outside Tokyo.
