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Normally box calf leather is associated with a nice shiny finish, but one can also do box calf in an almost matte finish. This was more common back in the days, which this pair of bespoke Yohei Fukuda made in a vintage Ilcea leather is evident of.
Almost 100 questions came in for this Q&A Special of the Shoegazing Podcast, with none other than the Japanese bespoke shoemaker Yohei Fukuda. A selection of all these were asked to him during an interesting talk, touching upon everything from the time spent on making his shoes to where inspiration for his style comes from.
The famous Japanese bespoke shoemaker Yohei Fukuda is about to seriously open up Europe as part of his business area. He will have trunk shows on July 1-2 in London, and on July 8-9 in Geneva, and the plan is to return there and likely also Paris every six months going forwards. He’ll take orders for RTW, MTO and full bespoke.
I’ve been fortunate enough to own a number of shoes from several Japanese bespoke shoemakers, and what continuously amaze me with these shoes are the exemplary execution of the making. Look at this shoe above by Yohei Fukuda as an example, see the flawless closing of the uppers, the perfectly trimmed and stacked heel, the immaculate blind welted waist, the precise sole stitching and welt finishing, and so on. One can make shoes differently than this – but one can’t basically make it better.
The seamless wholecut is a model that spent decades in oblivion before a rather unknown British freelance bespoke shoemaker revived the model a bit over a decade ago, causing a boom in manufacturers who set out to make the model. Shoegazing tells the story of one of the most difficult shoe models to make.
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This week I received my sixth pair from the Japanese bespoke shoemaker Yohei Fukuda. A seamless wholecut in a stunning burgundy patina, which really enhances the magnificent shape of Fukuda’s chiseled last. Here’s lots of pictures plus a film showcasing the beauties.
Once again time for a review of my shoe collection at its current state – one of the most asked for articles from readers. This time it’s 30 pairs of shoes shown in lots of pictures and some text.
For the second episode of the Shoegazing Podcast, I met the famous Japanese bespoke shoemaker Yohei Fukuda, who besides making some of the finest shoes in the world, also have been very successful with creating a brand image, something quite difficult especially for small bespoke shoemakers. It’s around this topic we focused our discussion.
Here’s a large collection of images of my latest bespoke pair from Japanese Yohei Fukuda, a 3 eyelet derby in light brown vintage Freudenberg leather. Superbly made shoes well worth taking a closer look at. Also a reminder that the qualification to the World Championships in Shoe Shining and Shoe Patina closes on Sunday.
I have taken tens of thousands of pictures on shoes over the years, but there are some that I often come back to and which I’m a bit extra pleased with for various reasons. The photo above is one of these, which despite some technical failures, is making the already amazing pair from Yohei Fukuda look even more amazing.
