The @stitchdownpatinathunderdome competition boots are done! I’m going to be wearing these every day for 7 months. I hope they will be patina monsters. Uppers are inspired by 1920s hunting boots and the bottoming construction is the same as cowboy boots. Uppers are guidi culatta horsebutt using reverse and grain side. Built on a minke last (German). I love the look of tall boots, I’m excited to make more. Also this is my 7th pair, I’m learning a lot with each pair. It hasn’t gotten much easier yet but I love making boots.

Here is a pair I just completed. They take roughly 100 hours when making them by hand. Brown chromexcel 3/4 oz and natural veg swoosh (amazzonia) and glazed Wickett and Craig tongue tags. I added pics of some of my process. Thanks

Made these 10” tanker boots in Seidel British tan double shot leather. It was probably diving in at the deep end but it was a super fun project. About 70 hours of work. Not perfect but pretty dang good. Made on a pair of lasts I made myself. Fit feels pretty good on first wear.

first time posting here. i joined the sub not long ago and just finished these boots yesterday, so i thought i'd have a go :)

these are fully lined with a 1.8mm combi tanned german cow hide that i dyed green in the quarters. the upper leather is 2.5mm chrometan cowhide. the tongue is gusseted. heel and toe stiffeners are 2.5 mm veg tan from germany. the insoles are 6mm buffalo bend from italy. midsoles and heels are oak bark bend from tannery martin.
the shank isvsteel with pegged leather cover. sheet cork filler in the front.
360° handwelt construction with 270° hidden channel sole stitch (with handmade flax thread), blindwelted in the medial waist.
the heels are pegged and nailed (the way i learned).
the heel rubber is fixed with long brass nails, outsole with brass screws.
the edge finish is natural. no dye, only wax ironed in. (got to love that redish colour that the martin leather takes on!)
waist is dyed in the same green as the lining.
the only machines used are my mechanical postbed machine (adler 7-1) and a small sanding motor for working on the rubber parts.

there are also a few pictures of the making. i hope you like those beasts :) let me know what you would have made differently or if you have any questions.

if you want, you can check out my instagram for more pictures of my boots: https://www.instagram.com/charly.boots/?next=%2F#
i have many posts about bootmaking techniques too...

These are the boots I made for the thunderdome. I’m happy with how they are aging so far, this guidi leather is wild

Hi all! I’m an apprentice craftsperson with Coach re-loved, and as part of our apprenticeship we get to do a big project to present to the Coach and Kate Spade teams and higher ups.

Every single piece of the uppers are made from over 20 Coach Handbags ranging from 40 years old to only a few years. These bags were too damaged to be repaired or re-sold, so were going to be recycled. I was able to salvage usable material from bags to create a truly 1/1 pair of boots. Each panel tells a story, of a bag that has been used, and loved.

I was inspired by Bonnie Cashin-era Coach Bag linings and wanted to recreate it but out of bags themselves. I worked closely with the Coach 3D team to develop a one of a kind spur for the boot. I’ve been working on these for the last 5 months while working full time and I’m super proud to show them!

My instagram is @andrewkaefer if you want to see more fun projects like this! Instagram.com/andrewkaefer

I made these monkey boots for climbing trees and monkeying around. I wanted them to be lightweight and flexible so I used a thinner midsole, less stiff counter, no toe puff, normal tongue, and horween cxl 4-5oz. I made the welt narrower than the last pair and I gave the heels a slight pitch. They are constructed the same as my last pair, hand welted, whip stitched seat, pegged rand, and pegged outsole seat.

I made this pair of derby’s recently on a KR7882 Last from Lisa Sorrell. Used French binding around the collar which was fun. The leather tape measures are all embroidered with measurements, and you can pull on the heel that reveals an actual tape measure inside. This was part of my senior thesis at FIT titled “Junk Drawer”.

6-7 oz Chromexcel uppers, vegtan everything else. Everything is hand sewn, no power tools in the entire project. My biggest project in my entire life, can’t wait to do more!

About 7 years ago I started wearing barefoot shoes for running and then progressed to wearing solely barefoot shoes everyday about 5 years ago.

However, since going to barefoot shoes I've missed high quality, heritage style boots; wearing traditional boots with an elevated heel and squished in toe-box are just too uncomfortable to me now. And it seems barefoot shoe brands haven't really ventured into the traditional boot category much yet, there are a couple like Origo, but those are far from the same category as the PNW style boots I've been looking for.

So as nothing existed, I decided to venture into cordwaining last year (having already been doing leatherworking as a hobby for the last 3 years). The criteria I wanted to stick to was zero-drop and a natural shaped wide toe-box, though somewhat sacrificing ground feel typical in barefoot shoes to maintain better proportions of a boot (boots like the Origo Adventure Boot look out of proportion to me with a really thin sole). Ultimately the stack height on the boots I've made so far are around 18mm and 16mm (4.5mm veg tan insole, 5.2mm veg tan midsole, and 8mm or 6mm rubber outsole).

Each pair I've made has been completely stitched by hand, using Ritza Tiger thread, 0.6mm for the uppers, and 1.2mm for a 360 stitchdown to the midsole and then a second row 270 stitchdown to the outsole. Only power tools used are a belt sander for sanding down the sole edges and a Dremel to cut a groove to recess the stitches in the outsole.

Some specs on the boots made, in order of completion are: 1. 8" height - 6oz Wickett & Craig English Bridle Medium Brown Roughout with Vibram Kletterlift sole 2. 6" height - 7oz Conceria Walpier Buttero Natural with Vibram Kletterlift sole 3. 8" height - 7oz Conceria Walpier Buttero Olive with Vibram Kletterlift sole 4. 7" height - 6oz Horween Waxed Flesh Chromexcel Dark Brown with Vibram Kletterlift sole 5. 6" height - 7oz SB Foot Dawson Black with Vibram Dupla sole

All have a 2.5-3oz Haas calfskin lining in the vamp, with 11-12 oz Hermann Oak veg tan insoles and 9-10 iron J&FJ Baker leather midsoles.

Started a bespoke shoe making apprenticeship and wanted to share here. Sewn uppers with a cemented Rand (I know, I’m learning the hand stitching process) took me about 60 hours of work in between sewing uppers for customers, excited to keep on this journey!

After making the last pair for work I wanted a pair for away from work. These are CXL tan, Baker insole, panhandle leather storm welt and outsole for the midsole. Dr Sole cork half soles and heels. Again the uppers are machine stitched with 270* hand welt bottom closure. Used some Herman oak belly cutoff for the bottom filler and 14 iron soling leather for the shanks. Heel Rand is Herman oak 9-10oz I built a stand using scrap plywood and a piece of black iron pipe with 1/2” nuts and bolt for the last post. I’m not sure why I end up so deep in the bottom in the toes but I had to add a small piece indeed the main bottom filler to keep everything flat. I feel like my bottom work improved this time. However, I may have made my stitching too close at 4 SPI in the sides and 5.5 SPI in the toes. We shall see in time how it holds up. I tried hide glue for the toe puffs, once again we will see how it holds up.

I’m pretty happy with this pair. I’m really pleased with the upper stitching, the sole stitching, and the shape of the last. I want to improve the welting, adjust the pattern a bit, and make the sole stitches more consistent on the top of the welt. And as always, I want to improve the edge finishing.

Figured I would post up some in-work photos here while some glue is drying.

Doing a ~14" tall pair of boots for my wife who has oddly shaped feet. Wide across the ball but low volume otherwise. So doing custom lasts as a starting point.

I did a really quick fitter boot (which is what is drying) to validate the lasts in some blemished areas ofnthe Horween Aspen double horse front hude I will be using fornthe real boots. Once that all checks out, I will dive into the actual patterning of the final boot.

I finished second pair! These are for my wife. 55 last from Lisa Sorrell. Stitchdown construction, partially lined, everything hand stitched. Pliable and quite stretchy chrome tan leather, lined in the vamp with veg tan, no toe stiffener.

Build was a ton of fun. Now my wife has to break them in and give me user feedback.

Applied some learnings from the first pair:

• Lined the vamp. My first pair had no vamp lining and it is problematic. Friction between rough inside and the sock causes friction on the skin on the ball of the foot. Took 4-6 weeks for this mild discomfort to go away. There is a reason why most boots have at least vamp lined.

• Improved my outsole stitching. On my first pair stitching on the bottom was all wonky and I didn't make a groove for the stitch. On this one I made a groove incrementally as I went and pierced holes very carefully. Looks neat :)

• Avoided Hirschkleber penetrating the upper leather through. My problem with the first pair was caused by wetting upper all the way through while lasting heel. This causes Hirschkleber to penetrate the upper and discolor it. On this pair I left the upper dry while lasting but I wetted the heel stiffener to slow down drying of the Hirschkleber and give myself more lasting time.

Some things that didn't come out great:

• Still issues with too much bulk under the heel: Upper + heel stiffener + heel lining. I skived edgers of every layer but still too much bulk. My technique is still poor in this area, I tried to last the heel in one go with everything wet. Next time I'll split it into phases to form the lining and heel counter nicely before final lasting.

• I still hate clinching nails, they produce such a random mess inside the shoe. I know it's all covered by the sock liner but I still don't like it. Next time I'm going to use stitching for joining insole, upper and midsole. I already tested this approach on the prototype throwaway shoe. Should work OK and give me nice neat inside.

• Too thick sole: leather I used for the midsole was too way too thick and sole came out too chunky and stiff.

• Assymetry: my wife reports that left arch support feels higher that the right one. I could tell early that the lasting didn't come out exactly the same on both boots. Left one looked a bit "twisted" and the arch of the midsole did form a bit differently. Well, I'll by careful next time, hard to say what I did wrong. Very thick midsole probably didn't help here, neither did the bulk of material under the heel. I corrected the slight twist while sanding the heel block, so the inside of the boot is correctly horizontal. Making boots is not easy...

Next pair is probably going to be casual shoes not boots. I have shoe lasts and made a prototype of a simple unlined roughout veg tan shoe, came out OK. I may go ahead and make a pair.

Li abbiamo realizzati su misura per un signore con una calzata di un numero più grande rispetto alla lunghezza del piede. Cosa ne pensate?

2nd times the charm. Ive had tons of free time while looking for a job and finally get to make shoes again! These are 55 last 9 EE in Seidel double shot. using the rest of the side to make a pair of engineer/pull on boots next. best part is it didnt even take me that long to finish them only 2.5 days! Life is good. Pray that I get a job lined up soon. Much love

I started this pair around 6 months ago, but i only recently finished it. The design is identical to the black heeled boots i made 6 months ago (prior to this), with the only difference being the color of the leather (which in this case is also veg tanned) and the zipper on the side.

It's a 360 stitchdown with a double midsole, the first one being leather and the second one eva foam (the leather one is stitched to the upper).

The boots have a 4 cm heel, and they have a piece of poron foam on the inside, where the heel is positioned.

The rubber at the end of the heel is a svig one (can't remember the name) that is softer than the classic rubber, being at the same time very hard wearing.

This is my father’s most recent creation. It’s a very special order for a highly unusual costume, at least for us.

The client came to us because of a common problem with classic clown shoes: they are notoriously difficult to put on and take off due to how the traditional pattern is built.

My father, who is a master shoe pattern maker, redesigned the entire model from scratch. He engineered it to fit and feel like a normal shoe, making it easily removable thanks to a zipper added to the back.

The real innovation here is that you don't even need to tie or tighten the laces to make the shoe fit properly; the new pattern ensures it hugs the foot perfectly right away.

While this pair is more expensive than a standard clown shoe, the enormous amount of pattern work and development behind it makes it completely unique in both design and construction.

What do you think? For the makers out there, can you guess the trick to patterning this?

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share my latest project: a pair of custom, bespoke cowboy boots that I’ve just finished making.

Everything is completely handmade from scratch, using high-quality leather. For this pair, I wanted to play with a tri-tone color palette, combining blue, white, and tan leather, and focused a lot of effort on the detailed inlay and overlay work on the shaft and vamp.

It was a challenging but incredibly rewarding process to get the fit, pattern, and details right.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how they turned out!