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Saphir is perhaps the world’s most renowned manufacturer of shoe care products, with a history that goes back over 100 years in time, while also contributing to the development of new shoe and leather care products. Shoegazing visited the company’s factory in the eastern part of France.
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.
A week ago the first edition of the Isetan Shoes Expo 2019 took place – a real shoe bonanza with all things men’s shoes. Apart from the two sessions I worked with them on – a talk about the World Championships in Shoemaking with the top trio, and the Shoe Shining Champion of Champions contest – loads of exhibitions and happenings took place. Here’s a summary.
Today it’s the world premiere of the Shoegazing Podcast, the first podcast in the world about classic shoes. In the first episode I interview Patrik Löf of the Swedish multi-brand shoe store Skoaktiebolaget, we talk about the latest but hopefully not the last golden years for classic shoes, about the challenges with tanneries who have started hiding defects on leathers, about the aim with their own brand Löf & Tung, and much more.
Time for the first part of a new article series that will follow the process ordering a pair of bespoke shoes from last year’s world champion in shoemaking, the German Patrick Frei. The first part is about the measurement.
Articles continued:
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.
Noriyuki Misawa runs one of Japan’s largest shoemaking schools and has the Misawa & Workshop bespoke brand, but it’s the art project under his own name that gotten him recognition around the world, with amazing shoes unlike anything else. In a month he will hold a solo exhibition in London, but Shoegazing has visited him at his home turf in Tokyo.
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.
It is one of Northampton’s most reputable shoe factories, producing shoes for what’s probably the strongest brand. Shoegazing visited John Lobb Paris’ well-trimmed complex and documented the production in text and lots of images.
I am currently in Japan, and among other things I visit several shoe factories, which will be featured in various reports. First off is Scotch Grain, a relatively large modern factory in the outskirts of Tokyo’s shoe district Asakusa.
