Shoe lasts are in!

I recieved my shoe lasts from Mexico. Fantastic job with the design, Alan. Here's a pic:

Links for machines and tools.

Gateway Worldwide has 5-in-1 and 6-in-1 cutters, finishers, and various other machines.

Shoe Systems plus, Inc. has tons of rebuilt and new machines.

Westchester Sewing has a Fortuna-style skiver for less than a grand.

Leighton's has Landis cutters, rebuilt and new sewing machines, and speed reducer pulleys.

Tippman Industrial is the maker of the BOSS sewing machine, and several inexpensive clickers.

Maine Thread has plenty of hand tools, but what makes them shine is their waxed cord in so many colors.

Useful links

MacPherson Leather Co: Shoe making supplies, not only leather.

Hide House: Leather of all types, even hair-on. 15% surcharge for non-businesses.

Tandy Leather Factory: Some supplies locally, as in Barge, but be careful of prices.

More to come.

The TrendBox: Fall fads.

Overall trends:

Return to grunge/American worker: Think plaids from lumberjack to more traditional. Beanies. Railroad stripes. You just came off a logging truck. This one's gonna end badly.

Early 60's executive: skinny ties, greased hair, metallic tone suits in brown, copper, gray, and silver.

And as one publication put it, Russian gangster: Think BoHo in men. Lots of contrasting colors, fur, mixed fabrics. I wouldn't expect many except for the uber-rich to be sporting this look. It's very tough to do cheaply.

Men's pants: Either cuffed, or 2 inches shorter than normal. Think punk "Oi" pants from the 70's. Showing off the shoes. Socks are going to be an element this fall.

Colors of leather you should stock up on when making men's shoes this fall/winter: Shades of gray, but medium to darker seem more typical. Careful though, black while classic, will be blase. I have seen a little orange, red, and violet as well.

Styles to work on: Ankle boots with the top exposed (sock showing), in classic 50's -70's styles, but in more modern construction and leathers.

Misccelaneous:

Surprisingly, fur is still in. Even shoes and boots are showing a bit of fluff.

Tongues popped out of lace up boots are showing up.

The TrendBox: "Laceless" dress shoes.

I've noticed this a second time now: Dress shoes (blucher or oxford style) that have eyelets, but are slip-ons using what I can only assume is elastic beneath the tongue. Meant to give that casual, "I-wear-dress-shoes-without-laces-and-socks" look while staying on your feet better. This reminds me a bit of the John Varvatos Chuck Taylors that came out a few years ago.





Common Projects laceless dress shoe.












John Varvatos laceless Chucks.











Cole Haan laceless leather sneakers - A nice in between.

Shoes made in the USA?

Routing by Rumor has a great piece on the New Balance "made in USA" shoes. A must read to see the state of shoemaking in the U.S. In short, it is almost nil, at least when it comes to athletic shoes.

New Balance Athletic Shoes - Made In USA? Yeah, Right!

Beginning to end shoemaking in 6 parts.

Alan from ShoeSchool.com turned me on to this. Ever wanted to see shoes made from beginning to end? Here you go. This is flat-out educational. The techniques Marcel uses take decades to master. Thanks to Marcel for this amazing contribution.

Here's the quick-and-dirty seven minute version, or you can see all the gory details if you're really interested:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part6

As an aside, YouTube is a massive resource for shoemakers. Search through, you'll see what I mean.

Shoe School

For those of you that are interested, I weaned myself on shoemaking at ShoeSchool in Port Townsend, WA. Allen and Jane are fantastic folks, and they will teach you all of the steps in one place, provide you with a wealth of resources, and do it all in a fun environment. This would normally take apprenticing for several years before you learn the only the secret of even just pattern-making. You get it all here. As I've recently learned with all things in the shoemaking world: they won't be doing this forever, so take a chance now.

Welcome

Apparently, I'm one of these guys on the left now.

The Toebox is my little contribution to the world of cordswaining. What the holy bejeesus is cordswaining you ask? Well, it's this, AKA Shoemaking.

I created this blog to condense and keep track of my interesting links I've found regarding shoemaking resources, blogs, and outlets to purchase goods.