Shoemaking video

So, I was looking at one of my favorite shoe company’s website: John Fluevog. This company was founded 40 years ago in a sort of incidental fashion. The owner found a bunch of old Victorian shoes and thought to sell them. They were a huge hit and suddenly, he had a shoe company. So he started designing shoes and some of them are pretty wild. I had a pair of seafoam green loafers with pale blue harlequin diamonds on them. Frankly, they were pretty uncomfortable, but, man, they were really really neat to look at.

The designs now are colorful and fun and, while still a little out there, there is enough of a selection that even a more staid and conservative shoe wearer can find something fun.

But for me, the best thing is seeing how things are made and learning new ways or watching experts in their craft do their thing. This video shows a small factory in South America somewhere (forgive me for not researching where exactly it is) making a pair of pretty darn cute purple heels. I really like seeing the extensive and somewhat scary use of the knives. I loooove working with my knife. And most bootmakers use their straight knife for just about everything.