Do You Have A Favorite Shoemaker?

Well, kinda blows the column, doesn't it? The title, I mean - pretty stand-alone, right? But you know me, always ready to talk a spell.

I have asked, and will continue to ask you, dear readers all, to share your resources with others here, and I am doing so once again (I suppose you should expect a pitch every month or so, just in case you missed the last one:-) But today, I am especially looking for shoemakers and shoe modifiers. Yes, there is a difference. A shoemaker makes shoes from scratch, or in Britain, bespoke. Whereas a shoe modifier, who may be a pedorthist, or even a very skilled shoe repair/cobbler person, takes existing footwear and makes modifications - lifts, wedges, rocker soles, inserts, orthotics, etc. For some of us clubbies, the later folks will do the job just fine. But for some of us, modification is not enough. We need truly custom footwear.

The problem is, there aren't a whole lot of these elusive creatures left in the wild. There are very few younger people who want to learn the craft, because well, its hard - to learn and do - and pays less than a software engineer. Or most other fields, for that matter. And many of the old timers are getting, well, too old to continue much longer.

You probably didn't know that, prior to 1890's, there were more than10,000 shoemakers in this country alone. But as the industrial revolution and mass production came into greater prominence, most of these shoemakers were absorbed, and eventually, segregated by the parts of the operation - last making, pattern making, mounting, "making" (sewing the uppers,) soling, finishing. The result was fewer true shoemakers, who are really capable of making the entire shoe as well as the last (for those unaware, the last is the first - step, that is. It is the form upon which the shoe upper is stretched, or "mounted" that gives the shoe its shape and size.) Hence the great decline in practitioners. Even today, at shoe-making operations doing custom work, the work is often segmented by parts, for greater efficiency and cost savings - it is not cheap to make a shoe, especially today. Few people bring their own hides into the shoemaker as part of the payment for the shoes, and yes, people actually did that at one time in this country.

It is no surprise, really, that most people don't get their shoes custom made anymore - it is far more expensive than the local big-box store sells mass-produced shoes for. But then, they don't exactly make many claims about fit, do they? But many clubbies tend to have wide feet. There are only a few mass-produced shoe lines that make 3,4,5 E width shoes anymore - New Balance, Alden, PW Minor, and a couple others, and no one can accuse any of those companies as making sexy shoes. But hey! They fit many of us.

Custom shoes, however, do more than fit (if made well, of course.) They allow for better incorporation of custom orthotics, hiding a necessary lift, better incorporation of a rocker sole, and because most shoemakers tend to use high-grade materials, they almost always last far longer than a factory-made product. My shoes last, on average, eight to ten years, and require resoling every two to three years. The fact is, the better the shoe is balanced, the more it works with your particular biomechanics, the longer it will last. Just sayin'.

So, who's your shoemaker, or pedorthist, or cobbler? Have you had to shop around before finding the one you currently used? What is it about their work that you can best recommend to others. Come on, folks, put it out there for your fellow clubbies! Because by recommending your shoemaker to others, the shoemaker is likely to remain in business longer, be able to find an apprentice one day, and thus ensure you with a steady source of footwear for the indefinite future. Imagine trying to find shoes that work for those sore doggies at the bottom of your legs at, what - Shoe Gazillion?