Amateur doofus makes bespoke shoes

[Bic Pentameter]

Hi Everyone,

A few years ago, I made the decision to stop putting my money into buying shoes and start putting it into making them. I have been taking classes at Clematis in Tokyo since 2019.

It is an incredibly inefficient way to acquire high quality bespoke shoes. On the other hand, it is proving to be a great way to while away the hours.

For your amusement, I have attached a few photos of a pair in progress. (The stain on the toe of the left shoe is blood shed from my finger.)

Bic

 

[Tried and True]

To quote another fledgling cobbler……

 

[Egdon Heath]

^
Bad timing. Maybe save the jokey gifs for after you've expressed awe for what this guy has done. Or maybe you don't think so, whatever. Count me as amazed. Hope the OP will post more about this. I can never get enough amazement.

 

[double00]

^
Bad timing. Maybe save the jokey gifs for after you've expressed awe for what this guy has done. Or maybe you don't think so, whatever. Count me as amazed. Hope the OP will post more about this. I can never get enough amazement.

DDL famously apprenticed to a cobbler when he was on hiatus from films

 

[JFWR]

Hi Everyone,

A few years ago, I made the decision to stop putting my money into buying shoes and start putting it into making them. I have been taking classes at Clematis in Tokyo since 2019.

It is an incredibly inefficient way to acquire high quality bespoke shoes. On the other hand, it is proving to be a great way to while away the hours.

For your amusement, I have attached a few photos of a pair in progress. (The stain on the toe of the left shoe is blood shed from my finger.)

Bic

How close do you think you are to being able to make a decent pair of bespoke shoes at this point?

You definitely seem to have some skill right now, but I don't know if you'd consider yourself at the point you could actually make a pair of sellable shoes. What do you judge your skill at right now?

 

[TimothyF]

How close do you think you are to being able to make a decent pair of bespoke shoes at this point?

You definitely seem to have some skill right now, but I don't know if you'd consider yourself at the point you could actually make a pair of sellable shoes. What do you judge your skill at right now?

Sounds like the OP could be content merely making shoes for himself. I didn't get any sense he wanted to turn this into a viable business

 

[brax]

DDL famously apprenticed to a cobbler when he was on hiatus from films

Not a cobbler (fixes shoes) but a cordwainer (makes shoes). DDL apprenticed with Stefano Bemer.

 

[Bic Pentameter]

Thank you for all of your comments.

How close am I to making a decent pair of bespoke shoes is a tough question. I have made wearable shoes that the average person would see as shoes. I never been "happy" with a pair I have made. Some of that is my personality. I have never cooked a meal that tasted as good as I imagined it should taste. Most of that is because I lack skills to create a shoe that I would find attractive. I lack the skill to draw a pleasing pattern on the last, the skill to persuade the sewing machine to stitch straight lines on the uppers, the skill to skive the pieces of the uppers before they are stitched together, the skill to make a tightly waisted welt, the skill to know how to pull the uppers over the last to take out excess material, the skill to punch an elegant medallion on the toe, etc. I have been a member of Styleforvm since 2002, and I see the threads asking if shoes should be returned because of defects. I cannot imagine satisfying a customer, especially if I were asking for bespoke shoe prices.

I think the easiest way to remove the fun from this would be to take orders from others, and try to satisfy them.

In an effort to improve my skills more quickly, I started going to leathercrafting classes. I have made a briefcase, a long wallet, and a purse for my wife. Yesterday, I finished making a belt for a friend of mine. I have attached some pictures of the belt in progress. I never planned to charge my friend, or ask him to pay the costs of the leather and the buckle. I really am embarrassed at the quality of the product I have made. I expect he will accept it with a smile, and talk about how wonderful it is, but looking at it cosmetically, I cannot imagine anyone paying good money for it.

 

[Egdon Heath]

^
You sell yourself short. Your skills at this stage may quaver a bit, but you have the skill to imagine and to make the imaginings real. I too have been with this forum since almost the beginning, enjoy it immensely, but it's mostly about buying stuff, not doing stuff. You are in the mighty minority. Revel in it.

 

[JFWR]

Thank you for all of your comments.

How close am I to making a decent pair of bespoke shoes is a tough question. I have made wearable shoes that the average person would see as shoes. I never been "happy" with a pair I have made. Some of that is my personality. I have never cooked a meal that tasted as good as I imagined it should taste. Most of that is because I lack skills to create a shoe that I would find attractive. I lack the skill to draw a pleasing pattern on the last, the skill to persuade the sewing machine to stitch straight lines on the uppers, the skill to skive the pieces of the uppers before they are stitched together, the skill to make a tightly waisted welt, the skill to know how to pull the uppers over the last to take out excess material, the skill to punch an elegant medallion on the toe, etc. I have been a member of Styleforvm since 2002, and I see the threads asking if shoes should be returned because of defects. I cannot imagine satisfying a customer, especially if I were asking for bespoke shoe prices.

I think the easiest way to remove the fun from this would be to take orders from others, and try to satisfy them.

In an effort to improve my skills more quickly, I started going to leathercrafting classes. I have made a briefcase, a long wallet, and a purse for my wife. Yesterday, I finished making a belt for a friend of mine. I have attached some pictures of the belt in progress. I never planned to charge my friend, or ask him to pay the costs of the leather and the buckle. I really am embarrassed at the quality of the product I have made. I expect he will accept it with a smile, and talk about how wonderful it is, but looking at it cosmetically, I cannot imagine anyone paying good money for it.

Do you think that you are just being hyper critical here? Because the belt looks nice. I mean, I can't tell all the details, but I would pay money for that belt as it looks like in the pictures.

Do you have more pics of your work? I'm impressed.

 

[Bic Pentameter]

Thank you, JFWR. I made these for myself and am relatively pleased with them.

 

[TimothyF]

Remember a belt with crooked stitching and inconsistent finishing works just as well as an objectively beautiful one. I've always been a form follows function kind of guy

 

[Bic Pentameter]

More blood was spilled on the cordwainer's battlefield...

 

[Bic Pentameter]

Here are a few pictures I took last night.

Bic