For aspiring shoemakers, and established ones for that matter, it’s a constant hunt to get a hold of good tools and materials. One of few one-stop-shops online for this is ShoemakerCraft, which has a huge selection of old and new tools, materials, lasts and more.   Julian from Germany has a background as engineer, and after spending several years learning to make shoes he realised the need for good tools, and started making them himself. Through the years it has grown into a business, and now he has the webshop ShoemakerCraft with a quite impressive range offered. Some German-made fudgin ..read more

The Swedish brand Myrqvist who offer Portugese-made welted footwear in the lower price segment has announced its opening of their first international store, on the famous shoe and menswear location Jermyn Street in London. The two-storey 100 square meters space will open the doors later this summer.   Myrqvist started their journey with a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2016. Back then it was entry-level Vietnamese Goodyear welted men’s shoes that was their offering, they switched to a factory in India for some time, but since several years they have all their production in Portugal. T ..read more

Still today the most commonly used shoe trees in the world are ones with a front part and a big spring that is bent to be placed against the heel. This type of shoe trees are in fact bad for your shoes, in the worst case they may even destroy them. Learn why in this article.   It’s weird to see that the world is full of products developed for a purpose that they don’t manage to fulfil, instead they do the opposite, create more harm than good. One didn’t see it in the same way looking back through history, but nowadays, to keep prices as low as possible companies take so many shortcuts tha ..read more

It’s finally here, the substantial review of all 25 competition shoes that entered the World Championships of Shoemaking 2024. Info about the makers and the shoes, comments, pictures of the shoes and in some cases also the manufacturing process. Experience some of the best full strap loafers you’ll ever see.   Pt.2 with positions 11-25 can be found here. Go directly to list of contestants.   After a lot of work, it’s here, the summary of all contestant shoes 2024. And as always, there’s a huge amount of amazing craftsmanship and creativity to admire. Part of the London Super Tru ..read more

This is the second part of the substantial review of all competition shoes in the World Championships of Shoemaking 2024. Here position 11 to 25 are gone through with comments and pictures.   Pt.1 with more info about the contest and positions 1-10 can be found here.   Results (click on maker/brand to go directly to summary): 11. Paul.B.d.n. 12. Rozsnyai Shoes 13. Taewook Hwang 14. Zainutdin Islamov 15. Kaspar Paas 16. Reid Elrod 17. Three Shoes 18. H.T Liao 18. The Last Shoemaker 20. Kim Junghwan 21. Fausto Ripani Shoes 22. Shota Iwasaki 23. Hudsons / Rui Murakami 24. Wataru Na ..read more

A bunch of sales has already started in the shoe world, and more is likely incoming the coming weeks. As usual I’m here to highlight a few good ones where you can make a bargain on quality footwear.   Loding The French maker of entry level Goodyear welted and Blake stitched shoes Loding offers a 25% discount on their whole range of shoes, which means you can get their Portugese made welted shoes for less than €190. They also have some discontinued models at half the RRP.   Barker The British company Barker basically always run very large sales, and this summer edition is no excepti ..read more

One of the most common mistakes done when it comes to shoe care, if one look at the population as a whole, is the use of waterproofing spray also on full grain smooth leather. Yes, it do protects against water, but it also makes it difficult for the nourishing ingredients of shoe creams to penetrate the leather, which means the leather risks drying out. Learn more in this article.   Waterproofing sprays can be great to protect your suede, nubuck or textile footwear from wet conditions. They build a protective barrier on top of the material which keeps the water from penetrating the materi ..read more

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.   The high shined toe makes for an interesting contrast, even if this has evened out a bit during the years they’ve been used, this photo is obviously from when they were brand new. The tannery Ilcea is one of the most famous producers of box calf in Italy, nowadays under the realm of Vecchia Toscana. This hide used here is several decades old ..read more

The British-based bespoke shoemaker William Efe Laborde now introduces a Made to Order service, with shoes made to exactly the same standard as his full bespoke, but on standard lasts available in two different toe shapes and in four widths. Initially an oxford and a derby are available as base models, and the leather options are spectacular, with among other things several vintage Freudenberg leathers.   William Efe Laborde is an independent bespoke shoemaker based in London. He runs his own brand, and also do some outwork from a couple of the most famous British bespoke companies. You c ..read more

The legendary British bespoke shoemaker Jim McCormack has worked five decades as an outworker for various big and small bespoke shoe companies in England. Hear him talk about life as an outworker and how this system works, about the development of the bespoke shoe scene in the UK the last 50 years, and much more.   Few people in the world know more about the bespoke shoe business in England in general and the outworker system in particular than Jim McCormack. Since the 70’s he has worked in the shoe business, and for more or less all of these years, he has worked as an outworker, doing bo ..read more