August 15, 2019
Bespoke shoemaker, TYE Shoemaker, out of Japan has been making some very very interesting shoes since coming to light a few years back, thanks to Instagram. The latest are these very intriguing and unique blue suede Crocodile Norwegian welt derbies with a commando gum sole and a bamboo pattern. Damn, that’s a lot going on. Not to mention the braided trimming, just a little touch of detail that TYE likes to commonly through in there. […]
August 8, 2019
Following yesterday’s roast of Berluti’s RTW atrocities, is the upside post about their Bespoke Program and the amazingness that comes out of that. I recently saw this photo on the Instagram account of @sole_preacher and was immediately impressed with all that was going on. Now, don’t get me wrong. This is not a ‘normal’ shoe. This, for me, is not necessarily a wearable shoe either (i.e. I would not wear it) but the detail, making, […]
July 31, 2019
It’s nice to see when inspiration has been used to create something of passion. This style of loafer I have only ever seen once in my life and it was originally created by Magnanni and I wrote about it HERE. It would appear that Vietnamese Shoemaker Thanh Le saw this too and decided to make him and his lady a pair, which I find quite romantic! And I like what he did with it, fading […]
July 17, 2019
***Pics of shoes have nothing to do with the post, just for your eye candy*** There is a lot of confusion in the consumer’s eyes on what you should expect from a pair of shoes and I was hoping to clear that up for some of you as it is important to know what you will get from what you will pay for in a pair of shoes. So let’s break it down. I have […]
July 16, 2019
A pretty cool project recently went underway between a bespoke shoemaker and a wooden inlayer in the heart of Florence, Italy. For a presentation at the latest Pitti Uomo, they created three samples of shoes, one being a normal, leather brogue, another being made the same but in special cuts of wood (the middle, brown one) and one is in white paper (looks like paper mache). The shoemaker is called Orma Shoemaker (Wataru Shimamoto), trained […]
July 1, 2019
Parisian shoemaker, Aubercy, makes a very awesome shade of green leather. One that they in fact, use a ton and that I love to see. It’s a very deep, dark Emerald like green that is more vivid than most green shades out there. You don’t often find so many box calf skins in green (pre-dyed in the tannery) so what you tend to find is it being dyed after the fact on a crust leather. […]
June 5, 2019
For those of you that haven’t heard of him, there is a new bespoke shoemaker in town (of course, when I say new, I don’t mean literally) that is of French origin but set up with operations in Dubai. And his name is Morgan Papin. I don’t recall how I came across him. For sure on Instagram. But what got me was the shoe above. We all know that I am a huge sucker for […]
May 14, 2019
This is part two of the massive walkthrough of all competition shoes in the World Championships in Shoemaking 2019. Here position 11 to 40 is reviewed with comments and pictures.
May 13, 2019
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.
March 25, 2019
Just a quick email of the winners of the competition for the World Championship in Bespoke Shoemaking 1st place – Daniel Wegan of Gaziano & Girling 2nd place – Christophe Corthay 3rd Place – Eiji Murata of Main D’or A longer blog post will follow but for those of you eager to know and see the winners, here is a small teaser! Stay tuned for more! -Justin FitzPatrick
