Episodes
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To be honest I didn’t think I’d ever get Brian the Bootmaker on this show—he doesn’t do many interviews at all, and for whatever reason I was, quite frankly, kind of afraid to ask him. Which in hindsight is insane because he’s about as sweet and genuine and fantastic to talk to as people come.
Working out of the central Los Angeles workshop he first wandered into in high school while looking for thread to customize some sneakers, Brian IS Role Club, hand-making some of the world’s most distinctive and in-demand custom boots alongside his beloved teacher Nacho for going on a decade and a half.
One of the earliest stories I posted on Stitchdown.com was about a YouTube video of Brian resoling an Alden Indy Boot with a Vibram mini ripple sole. Some said it was sacrilege! But all of Brian’s videos, and work, reflect him so well. He’s an innovator despite relying on techniques hundreds of years old, a calm in the content storm, a still young man who loves nothing more than really old boots. And one of the most thoughtful people I’ve ever chatted with.
Also he just might be Mister Rogers.Come to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
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When you grow up in a shoe repair shop directly next door to your actual house, it's hard to not catch the cobbling bug. But oh did Molly Monahan try to resist.
After learning how to repair motorcycles and doing some farming for a bit, Molly one day told her mother "we're opening the shop back up!" and immediately put mom back to work making leathergoods, before realizing she herself barely knew how to repair a damned thing.
Over a decade (and four kids, who themselves are growing up in a cobbler shop!) later, Molly and Sally run the reborn Saleigh Mountain Co., the epitome of a folksy, small-town, repair-everything shop in Hermann, Missouri. I chatted with Molly about the crucial importance of local shops in a world where high-end customization operations are thriving, the boots that have carried her through it all, and perhaps most importantly, piddling. Man is there a lot of piddling in this episode.Come to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
Missing episodes?
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This episode's chat is with Jess Wootten of…Wootten! The Ballarat, Australia boots and shoes and leathergoods maker that is doing some very interesting work.
We covered how Jess somewhat tripped into a family tradition of bootmaking, ran down what Wootten's making in Ballarat and how, some common misconceptions about the Blake/Rapid (aka McKay welted) construction that Wootten often deploys, what it's like to grow a boutique bootmaking operation (not easy!), why Australians are possibly overly obsessed with Chelsea boots, and plenty more.Come to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
“The only way I learned was making many mistakes and losing a shit ton of money in the process” is how Kevin Wilson neatly sums up the never-simple process of getting Caswell Boot Company off the ground.
In the past five years since saying "I'm going to start a boot company!", Kevin's stared down a failed Kickstarter attempt, his original US-based factory shutting down, patterns gone missing, rising costs in every possible area, and all the general fickleness that comes standard with manufacturing high-quality footwear.
But Kevin has found a truly powerful audience while building a brand that does things a bit differently, especially in terms of custom options, a hugely impressive leather array, and manufacturing in four different countries—including, soon, the US again.
We break down Caswell's different lines and how he manages to cohere them together, the bevy of mistakes he made along the way, an entirely new brand he's been plotting for a bit, and what inspired him a half-decade ago to say “a regular person can do this.”
Caswell's website: https://www.caswellbootco.com/
This episode was sponsored by Nicks Boots
Theme Song: The Road by Punk Rock OperaCome to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
Ben and Ticho once again dip into the Shoebag to answer listener questions—and tap in some special experts along the way—including: how to size boots to match orthotic inserts? What are some of the best brands for Women’s GYW shoes? Our thoughts on revolutionary new sole materials? Initial footwear “hard pass” that you eventually learned to love? How to start working as a bootmaker?
And obviously, because it's highly shoe related, what are the best road trip snacks?
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This episode was sponsored by Nicks Boots
Theme song: The Road by Punk Rock OperaCome to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
She was born in Canada and grew up in New Zealand, but few people could possibly seem more at home making bespoke cowboy boots in Guthrie, Oklahoma than Flora Knight. Learning the craft from two of the historic western city's best teachers imaginable—bootmaking legends Lisa Sorrell and Ray Dorwart—certainly didn't hurt things. Neither did her other obsession: old-time American fiddle-playing.
But Flora has most definitely carved out her own path to become a supremely talented bootmaker in her own right. On this episode of the Shoecast, Ben chatted with Flora about the most brutal days in the workshop being some of her best learning experiences, why you can't force artistry in bootmaking, and how to draw out a customer's personal vision, all while considering how the music and boots she creates reflect a pre-industrial society that might just have been a little bit better.
https://www.instagram.com/floraknightbootmaker/
This episode was sponsored by Nicks Boots
Theme Song: The Road by Punk Rock OperaCome to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
Phil Kalas of the Full Grain Podcast takes over the Shoecast this week to interview Ben about his recent trip to boots-and-shoes mecca Tokyo—expect a deep-dive into city's astounding footwear scene, why and how it exists, plus a preview of five upcoming feature videos that'll be coming out before too long.
Come to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
In long-overdue returns to the Shoecast, White’s Boots President Eric Kinney and Division Road’s Jason Pecarich sat down to pull back the curtain on what it’s really like to develop new footwear products, getting into every twist and turn on past collaborative makeups as well as some forthcoming never-before-seen construction + style combos.
We also hit on White’s lead times improving, very promising new boot-shoes, and what to expect at the White’s residency at Division Road this September 20th-21st. Also: what in the heck are “lifestyle” boots anyway, and do we need a new word for them??
Give it a listen through LINK IN BIO!
Theme music: The Road by Punk Rock OperaCome to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
Amara Hark-Weber surely must be one of the most delightful people in this world—which anyone could likely tell just from looking at the remarkably unique and creative boots and shoes the Twin Cities, Minnesota-based custom maker creates.
This episode, Amara fought through a cold to discuss why she makes EVERY pair different from the previous, the incredible teachers who helped her learn the craft in very different ways, why she owns approximately 100,000 awls, not sleeping the night before a customer picks up their pair, her work spreading the gospel of great shoemaking in museum and academic settings, and slashing boots (which is exactly what it sounds like).
Amara's site: https://www.harkweberstudio.com/
Josh's written interview with Amara: https://www.stitchdown.com/the-stitchdown-conversation/amara-hark-weber/
Amara's Voices of Contemporary Shoemakers article: https://www.craftcouncil.org/post/voices-contemporary-shoemakers
Hand Made in America: Contemporary Custom Footwear: https://cdmc.wisc.edu/hand-made-in-america-contemporary-custom-footwear/
Between Dreams and Reality: Bespoke Footwear: https://penland.org/gallery/2024_horn_bespoke-footwear/Come to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
For the closeout episode of Shoecast season 11, Ben sits down with Will Roman, founder of Chisos Boots, a young and growing brand out of Austin, Texas that offers one of the best values in a legitimately well made, well designed cowboy boot.
They cover how Chisos in some ways started with a lemonade stand, how Will ended up in León Mexico and fell in love with a small father-son workshop that makes Chisos to this day, where Chisos veers from cowboy bootmaking tradition and where it's extremely firmly rooted in it, his take on cowboy boot gatekeeping, and the grander promise he sees in the iconic American piece of footwear.
This episode was sponsored by Grant Stone
Theme Song: The Road by Punk Rock OperaCome to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
For the penultimate episode of the 11th season of the Stitchdown Shoecast, I’m quite excited indeed to be chatting with the just ridiculously talented man they call Bob Henderson. Bob is the operations manager at Popov Leather, the bustling leathergoods workshop over yonder in British Columbia, Canada—and over the last few years has been sucked up by the indomitable tractor beam known as bootmaking, operating as Bob Henderson Handmade Boots.
In a nice and rangy chat, Bob and I get into how Popov came to be and has managed to become a major player in the ever-more-crowded wallets, belts, and other small leathergoods space, what handmade really means in a world where the term is easily abused, his descent into bootmaking madness, old Toyota trucks (finally) and how they inspire his boot designs, why he wishes he could live at Disneyland forever, and plenty more—this one’s about bootmaking, and business-building, and why we care about what we care about.
Come to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
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This time Ben sits down with two, count ‘em TWO Fritz Seidels: Fritz Jr. and Fritz Sr., who every day are continuing on the tradition of the four-generation, 79-year-old Siedel Tanning Corp in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In addition to getting the lowdown on some longtime Seidel favorite leathers and overlooked gems, we get into Seidel’s history and fluid approach to tanning and meeting shifting market demands, what in the hell all that machinery in a tannery is doing all day long, why making heavyweight boot leathers is so damn tough—and of course, cows getting diaper rash.
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This episode was sponsored by Nicks Boots
Theme Song: The Road by Punk Rock OperaCome to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
Before he bolts for a very important trip to the bread store, Ticho is back in the leather-smelly homestead for perhaps our most comprehensive Shoebag episode ever, in which we discuss what shoe care products are essential and which you don't really need, brands we'd love to see restored to their former glory, what to wear with Red Wings (vague hint: anything!), how many midsoles is just too many midsoles, what we'll look back at in 10 years and make fun of ourselves for, and plenty more!
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This episode was sponsored by Grant Stone
Theme Song: The Road by Punk Rock OperaCome to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
When London (by way of Australia) bespoke shoemaker Sebastian Tarek began making shoes in high school, his grandmother let him in on a little secret: he had been preceded in his journey by 18 generations of family cordwainers.
After years of schooling—including at the famed Cordwainers College in Hackney, London—he eventually ended up settling into a role as a bottom-maker for some of Savile Row's most prestigious bespoke firms, both in an in-house capacity and also as an piece-work outworker.
Today, Sebastian continues his outwork...work...while also creating his own bespoke shoes and boots for clients, as well as select ready-to-wear collections for retailers in Japan and elsewhere. While the outwork keeps his skills sharp and focused, Sebastian's personal shoemaking style is a raw, anti-elegant ("I don't want the act of shoemaking to be the attempt to replicate and perfect something a machine can do") exploration of UK-based materials, all sprung from a love of old worn denim, centuries-old Japanese farmhouses, and possible overuse of the word "singularity".
To top it all off, Sebastian's about as delightfully affable and humble as people get, and there are few people more enjoyable to talk shoes and shoemaking with. So I did that!
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This episode was sponsored by Grant StoneTheme Song: The Road by Punk Rock Opera
Come to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
Adam Goldberg has quite legitimately always been one of my favorite actors—and from Dazed & Confused, to the Fargo TV show, to A Beautiful Mind, he has always been EXCELLENTLY attired, right down to his boots.
But he doesn't just play a person who cares about boots on TV and in movies! Adam is a very real-deal obsessive who's neck deep in Clinch, Zerrow's, and quite possibly too much more.
In an episode that will surely open the floodgates to most-to-all of Hollywood coming on the Shoecast to confess their footwear compulsions, Adam and Ben discuss boots he wore in different roles—usually self-selected!—sings a lovely rendition of "Working My Way Back to Ropers", tells the twist-and-turn-filled tale of his decades-long quest to get James Dean's boots reproduced, and announces the "only"(ha!) pair of boots he wants, all while we attempt to figure out what the hell is wrong with us for loving this stuff so much.
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This episode was sponsored by Nicks Boots—who turns 60 this year!
Theme Song: The Road by Punk Rock OperaCome to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
Back in 1989, Tony Wyatt and his brother Lance launched Wyatt & Dad Cobbler Company (and even trained their retired-preacher dad to do shoe repair work, so no it's not just a clever name). Thirty five years later, the operation has seen endless swings in the cobbling industry, weathering them as well as any operation out there.
The goal was always to build a chain that could deliver essential shoe repair services to communities in North Carolina big and small, and that's exactly what happened—with expansion and contraction following the whims of customers. Today, Wyatt & Dad has two shops...plus, obviously, a cabin in the middle of nowhere, where Tobias Crislip does incredibly high-end repair, restoration, and customization work that's mailed in from all over the globe.
On the latest Shoecast episode, I chatted with Tony and Tobias about how it all started for each of them and how they've smartly identified shifting opportunities over the decades, old TV commercials and billboards...about cobblers...why every cobbler is seemingly required to have a thriving YouTube channel, where the trade is going and how to keep it alive and humming in a very real way in 2024 and beyond, and plenty more.
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This episode was sponsored by Standard & Strange
Theme Song: The Road by Punk Rock OperaCome to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
The sneaker and welted footwear worlds are (very slowly) colliding, and Rory Fortune is smack in the middle of the two
In 2019, Rory and his wife Lauren set up shop in LA's design district to open Goods & Services, a half cobbler shop / half sneaker customization pacesetter. Custom resoles—often accomplished via the tricky process of converting cemented footwear to a welted, continually resoleable state—were immediately a core staple, while fully custom-designed footwear of various kinds worked its way in over the years as well. Goods & Services' work is consistently creative, impressively executed, and honestly just...really kinda dope.
In this episode, Ben chatted with Rory about how he cut his cobbling teeth, how Goods & Services' vision and mission have evolved in the last half-decade, why sneaker tastes and trends are shifting around so fast these days, his collection of wonderfully old shoemaking machinery, and why a world with even a few welted sneakers is a significantly better place.
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This episode was sponsored by Standard & Strange
Theme Song: The Road by Punk Rock OperaCome to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
In one of our favorite—and certainly the most sprawling—Shoecast episodes to date, Ben chats with Elizabeth Semmelhack, director and curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Canada. Which I believe is safe to say—thanks to more than 15,000 shoes, boots, and related artifacts covering 4,500 years of human history—is the world’s preeminent dedicated shoe archive and museum.
We follow Bata's mission of telling the history of humanity through shoes, starting with how and where shoes even emerged, then covering everything from King Tut's gold sandals, to how high heels were originally designed for THE MOST RUGGED OF MEN, to why sizing is such a mess from a historical perspective, and how the world's most momentous wars have been won and lost because of...boots.Come to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
Sagara head man Bagus Satrio is one of my favorite people in the whole bootmaking game. I absolutely love the work he and his team do—his Cordmasters need to be at or near the top of ANYONE’S best monkey boots ranking—and he’s just a hugely interesting and wonderful man.
Sagara’s almost 15 years deep doing exceptional work, and about a half decade into massively deserved international prominence. Which is great! But not always the easiest. So Bagus and I going to talk about that ride, what Sagara makes now and has coming up, wonderful dogs named after shoes…the whole deal. Been trying to make this one happen for over a year! Language barrier and weather—it rained hard when we taped, you might hear it a bit—be damned.
https://sagarabootmaker.com/
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This episode was sponsored by Grant Stone
Theme Song: The Road by Punk Rock OperaCome to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ -
Back in the 2010s, Ken Diamond had a booming moccasin business in Vancouver—celebrities wore his shoes, which also secured a hallowed spot on the shelves of Istetan, the Tokyo department store that's home to likely the world's great shoe selection. But at the brand's peak, a bit burned out and seeking something fresh, Ken bailed on it all.
Today, 150km and two ferries from Vancouver on Canada's remote Sunshine Coast, Ken is hand-making stitchdown construction boots, one pair at a time. This episode, Ben chats with Ken about what that moccasin roller coaster ride was like, how he started making boots (with a construction that's just so incredibly different from the moccasins), the meaning and impact of "copying" designs, what perfection means in footwear and if it's even attainable, and what satisfaction truly means to him.
Oh and LOST. That too. WE HAVE TO GO BACK, KEN!!!
https://www.instagram.com/kendiamondboots/
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This episode was sponsored by Standard & Strange
Theme Song: The Road by Punk Rock OperaCome to Stitchdown's Boot Camp, the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more in Brooklyn this Oct 12-13, 2024.
https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/
Support the Shoecast and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership
https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ - Show more
