Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Stitchdown Shoecast
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lennertson's Robin Carlo on Springline Last Development and Transformer Loafers | 29 Sep 2026 | 01:51:20 | |
It wasn’t always easy for two Belgian guys named Robin to build a shoe brand. Early production setbacks, finding investment, and eventually building a physical retail presence are never easy to contend with. But even though both Lennertson founders grew up in a culture of “we make and fix things around here,”building knowledge in footwear was perhaps their biggest hurdle—one they took on voraciously. Luckily they had plenty of help along the way—including for last development, thanks to dear friend of the pod Michael James at Springline in Northamptonshire. Robin’s nerdiness for this stuff is impossible to ignore, as we spend ample time discussing of materials and construction, quality footwear business models, Lennertson’s uniquely modular loafer, and what to expect from Lennertson at Stitchdown Expo 2026 Chicago. https://lennertson.com/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Custom Cowboy Bootmaker Lee Miller of Texas Traditions | 22 Sep 2026 | 01:47:29 | |
There are custom bootmakers—and then there's Texas Traditions. Opened in 1977 by “The Picasso of cowboy boots” Charlie Dunn, Texas Traditions has been run by Charlie’s apprentice Lee Miller since 1986. In one of the great Shoecast interviews we’ll ever have the pleasure of publishing, Lee gets deep into the shop’s history, Charlie’s uniquely mystical approach to cowboy bootmaking, the Mexican bootmakers who shared their knowledge with Lee, what makes a truly great toe and heel shape, how to fit a custom boot, contending with people that you can’t do something, and the impossible, beautiful toil of making boots by hand. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Edgy Albert on Which Shoes are Good and Not Good—and a Tribute to Denim Legend Roy Slaper | 05 Aug 2026 | 01:11:02 | |
If you know Albert Muzquiz, it’s almost definitely as Edgy Albert, his highly accurate internet alter-ego. Albert’s not just another menswearfluencer come-lately—he was also the first writer for Stitchdown.com, worked at LA’s iconic Self Edge, and wrote his college thesis on denim. Of course we get Albert’s view on what kind of shoes people are wearing in LA, and play a typically opinionated little “GOOD OR NOT GOOD” rapid-fire game with his takes on brands and footwear styles. And then there’s denim legend Roy Slaper, who unfortunately passed away last month. I didn’t know Roy Slaper. I didn’t even know OF Roy Slaper until I watched Albert’s fantastic YouTube video about Roy and fellow handmade denim maker Tilden Yamamoto. I was taken with Roy immediately—his dedication to his craft, his knowledge of ancient machines, his desire to teach and share. I wondered why he stopped making jeans. In this episode—which we recorded about two months before Roy’s passing—Albert went deep into his Montana trip to visit the two denim savants. What resulted is a truly lovely portrait of a slice of Roy’s denim-making life. Hopefully it can stand as a tiny little memorial to someone who cared about craft and its history as much as one can. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Keeping Maine Shoemaking Alive: The Rancourt & Co. Story | 21 Jul 2026 | 01:24:18 | |
At one point, it was tough to find someone in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine that wasn't personally connected to the handsewn moccasin shoe industry. Today, few Maine shoemaking operations remain—but those twin cities on the Androscoggin River continue to house legitimately remarkable footwear manufacturing. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| How Can Wolverine Revive its Iconic 1000 Mile Brand? Justin Cupps Has Ideas. | 07 Jul 2026 | 00:43:03 | |
Wolverine Worldwide is a footwear empire much bigger than just Wolverine 1000 Mile. Justin Cupps is six months into his role as President of the Work Group, which includes Merrell Work, Bates, HYTEST, CAT Footwear, Harley-Davidson Boots, Wolverine, AND Wolverine 1000 Mile. Yes separating out those last two is essential, especially in the eyes of Justin—who sees huge opportunity with 1000 Mile as a distinct brand in every imaginable way. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| The (Mostly) Complete History of Cowboy Boots, with Bata Shoe Museum Director Elizabeth Semmelhack | 30 Jun 2026 | 01:32:23 | |
Last time Elizabeth Semmelhack—Director and Senior Curator of the Toronto's exceptional Bata Shoe Museum—was on the Shoecast, she ran down a (mostly) complete history of boots, overall. It was excellent. This time Elizabeth is back to focus purely on cowboy boots—which is exactly what she's been doing for years while writing Rough & Ready: a History of Cowboy Boots, the most recent in a hugely rich (if far too truncated) pantheon of exceptional cowboy boot books. Where did cowboy boots emerge from? The heels, the tops, the toe shapes—when did those come into play? What do we all have totally wrong about cowboy boots and the culture surrounding them, from the 1800s until the modern era? It's all right there in the book—and on this episode. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| ACL's Michael Williams on Misguided Shoe Recs & The "Disappearing Middle" of Quality Footwear | 23 Jun 2026 | 01:22:30 | |
Michael Williams is sometimes a “marketer who hates marketing,” who has helped many of the great US manufacturing brands, up to and including Red Wing. Other times he he’s writing his often menswear focused newsletter, the quietly massively influential A Continuous Lean. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Carmina Shoemaker's Carmina Albaladejo on Family Tradition, Global Retail, and Custom Shoes | 16 Jun 2026 | 01:26:49 | |
Carmina Albaladejo heads US operations for the exquisite Spanish shoemaker with the exact same (first) name as her. https://www.carminashoemaker.com/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| The New Thing in Footwear Leather? 145-Year-Old Veg-Tanner Hermann Oak. | 09 Jun 2026 | 01:21:01 | |
Hermann Oak has been tanning leather in St. Louis since 1881, and they pretty much still do it the same way—one way, which of course is veg-tanning. Traditionally a major player in the equestrian leather world, Hermann Oak is edging into the quality footwear space in a hugely exciting way. So I chatted with Hermann Oak President Drew Gulick about the tanner's deep history, how making footwear leather is different from equestrian or tooling leather, and of course their core bridle, harness, and latigo products. Come see Hermann Oak and PLENTY of other tanneries, shoe-/bootmakers, and more at Stitchdown Expo 2026 Chicago this Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events! https://www.hermannoakleather.com/ https://www.stitchdownexpo.com/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Nathan Florsheim is Proudly Working Slower Than Ever | 01 Jun 2026 | 01:26:23 | |
Back in 2021, I got a great email from a young bootmaker named Nathan Florsheim who wanted to chat. Boy am I glad I took that call. About a year later I had Nathan—great great great grandson of Milton Florsheim, yes, THAT Florsheim—on the Shoecast. Four years and 130 handmade pairs later, Nathan is absolutely rolling as a custom bootmaker who has truly seemed to find his own space, one that so many clients want to inhabit as well. So along with the man they call Ticho, we caught up about what’s changed in that time with his technical and ordering process, why slow is actually really good, how he finally set up a workshop that really works for him, the tallest man in the world’s Florsheim boots, and obviously, plenty more. Also Nathan just so happened to open his order books right when this episode dropped, but it’s not THAT easy to get onto his client list. So of course we made a second bonus episode for subscribers in which Nathan shares the best ways to have success putting in for an order. That one’s available on our Premium Subscribers feed—check out Stichdown.com to learn more about Stitchdown Premium, our very excellent private discord, and how to get access to that episode. https://nfbootmaker.com/ https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Goods & Services' Rory Fortune on Red Wing Collabs and When to Pull Back on Customization | 25 Mar 2026 | 01:16:29 | |
This week on the Shoecast we’re bringing back Rory Fortune, founder of Los Angeles-based Goods & Services, which continues to be one of the most interesting footwear operations out there. We had Rory on back in 2024, and with the Goods & Services business and product range expanding like crazy, it seemed high time to get a closer look at exactly how Rory and team convert sneakers to a resoleable welted construction—yes the video version of this episode is up on Youtube—and catch up on plenty more. How is the role of the modern footwear designer misunderstood? What’s going on in a rapidly shifting sneaker culture? How’d a collaboration with Red Wing lead to rethinking the Postman shoe? When does a workshop founded on customization need to pull back on it—and does that hinder creativity? How do you find and train the people needed to grow that workshop? And why won’t Rory customize your Birkenstocks, right now? https://shopgoodsandservices.com/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Bespoke Cowboy Bootmaker Zephan Parker's Formula to Keep Craft Alive | 17 Mar 2026 | 01:14:50 | |
How do we keep craft alive in an over-technological society? Is it via the individual maker? Or more of a collective workshop approach? https://zephanparker.com/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| The Artistically Twisting Journey of Brooklyn's Bespoke Shoemaker, Anne Marika Verploegh Chassé | 12 Mar 2026 | 01:11:42 | |
My chat this week is with Brooklyn -based bespoke shoemaker, educator, and artist Anne Marika Verploegh Chassé, aka STIEFELwerk. Two decades ago, Marika came at shoemaking from a fine arts background, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s seen her work. After years learning the craft under many of the great shoe and bookmaking teachers, today Marika focuses on the use of veg-tan leather—often from the wholly unique Hudson Valley tannery Pergamena—to create hugely intriguing and distinctive custom, filly handmade footwear from her Brooklyn apartment-turned-workshop. In the chat, we get into Marika showing up at her first-ever shoemaking with her entire arm in a cast; the critical importance of the shoemaking community exchanging knowledge that ISN’T written in books; her own teaching at RISD, Parson, and FIT and why it’s allowed her to keep making shoes; the joy of carving her own lasts; and the importance of always saying yes, even when it really feels like you should say no. Here’s Marika, on the Shoecast. https://www.stiefelwerk.nyc/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Vintage Boot Wishlists and Reconsidering Tassel Loafers: It's Ticho on the Shoebag! | 03 Mar 2026 | 01:12:48 | |
It's Shoebag time for Shoecast season 17. Which means it's time for a serious dose of Ticho, who joins me to unpack all the biggest listener questions. Why are we both suddenly wearing the same barefoot-style shoes nonstop? Which iconic footwear figure from the past (aka, dead) would we love to spend a weekend in a deeply isolated cabin with? Why do we have so much ennui generated by hiker-derived fashionshoes? How in the world does someone size up a leather jacket properly? Who's this JohnnyWorks guy and what's going on in his workshop? Is Ben actually turning into a suburban cowboy or is it all just a clever ruse? What are our favorite Aldens that are STILL our favorite Aldens? And did we maybe, juuuuuuust maybe, get tassel loafers all wrong? Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Why Making Things By Hand Has Never Been More Important, w/ Cowboy Bootmaker Emily Boksenbaum | 25 Feb 2026 | 01:29:19 | |
When I met Emily Boksenbaum at our Maker’s Day 2025 conference in Chicago, I knew I had to get her on the Shoecast. Emily’s always made stuff. First it was art growing up, which led to a focus on fiber material studies in art school. Next came leather tooling, prop-making and other “creative odd jobs,” before going into corporate footwear design. That didn’t quite hit for her, which meant it was finally time to figure out how to make some cowboy boots. After training under some of the great makers and teachers in the space, she moved to Boulder, Colorado to open a custom boot shop dubbed Underhill Leather out of her garage, which she shares with one of our favorite former Shoecast guests, fellow cowboy bootmaker Holly Henry. This one goes ALL sorts of places, as Emily gets deep into navigating different materials, machinery, and mindsets; the emotional and dare we say metaphysical layers of creation; that time she woke up to flood of DMs from eager customers thanks to a bass guitarist who loved her boots; and what it means to be a maker in a world that’s forgotten how to make things. Oh and Zagnuts! Of course we got into Zagnuts. Here’s Emily Boksenbaum, on the Shoecast Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Why It’s Harder Than Ever to Start a Shoe Brand, w/ the Shoe Snob Justin FitzPatrick | 18 Feb 2026 | 01:29:43 | |
Justin FitzPatrick aka the Shoe Snob on fiery times in the comments section, what a dress shoe customer even looks like in 2026, button boots (obviously), and why it’s never been harder to start a shoe brand than right now. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Skip Horween & Nicks Boots' Shuyler Mowe—Live from Boot Camp Chicago 2025 | 10 Feb 2026 | 00:52:58 | |
In November 2025, we did a thing. Stitchdown’s Boot Camp 2025 Chicago was a quality footwear mega-expo, a materials trade show, a crossroads of the industry we love, and one big ol’ multi-day party with my favorite community in the world. As part of that weekend in Chicago, I sat down with Shuyler Mowe of Nicks Boots and the one and only Skip Horween for a live Shoecast taping at the excellent Hoste distillery. Skip and Shuyler are both multi-generational leaders in their spaces, and getting them to open up about how they work together to develop products, challenges the overlapping industries are facing, and some fun stories from the tannery was about as enjoyable as way to spend a night as I could imagine. So here’s our chat, with some attendees questions as the end. Also! We’re coming back to Chicago in 2026! Mark your calendar for November 6th and 7th for Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the same event but EVEN BETTER with a slight rebrand thrown in—at Artifact Events. Can’t wait to see you there. Here’s Skip and Shuyler, on the Shoecast. https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Franklin & Poe's Andrew Li on Where Retail's Going, Malls, and The Perfect White Tee | 16 Dec 2025 | 01:05:20 | |
My chat this week is with Andrew Li of Philadelphia’s Franklin & Poe, one of the best shops in the US for serious quality footwear, denim, and more. I got to know Andrew over the last few years the old fashioned way—seeing him in person, sitting down, and chatting entirely too deeply about some boots and shoes and denim. Which is pretty much exactly what Andrew and team have done every day since 2016 with customers in Philly’s Fishtown neighborhood, both at their original location and the new shop they had opened only days before we taped this episode. On the episode, Andrew and I chatted about that dedication not just to customer service but also creating a place for enthusiasts to find a real community, how to build out a top notch footwear brand list, the quest for a perfect white t-shirt, where brick & mortar retail is going and how it might thrive again, and his three pairs he’d keep forever if it came down to it. Oh and malls. We talk a lot about malls. Also sandwiches. Philly does good sandwiches. https://franklinandpoe.com/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Thursday Boot Co.'s Nolan Walsh on Their Own León Factory, Last Obsessiveness, and The Comfort Question | 10 Dec 2025 | 01:27:05 | |
The joke has always been that Thursday Boot Company’s Connor Wilson keeps his co-founder Nolan Walsh trapped in a factory working on the product. Turns out that joke actually true—except Nolan is the one very eagerly choosing to imprison himself. That certainly hasn’t lessened since Thursday opened its own in-house manufacturing facility in North American bootmaking capital Leon Mexico—just 11 years after Thursday launched a Kickstarter campaign to try and sell a few boots. Pretty wild stuff. Nolan and I pretty much cover everything in this one—the full version of the Thursday origin story that had more twists and turns than I expected, how they develop product and manage production in factories on multiple continents around the idea of supply chain centricity, Nolan’s quality control mania, their online marketing you may or may not have seen, and how in the world, after more than a decade in business, their core product is still only $199. And yes, of course, The Poron Question. Obviously we did that. https://thursdayboots.com/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Shoebag w/ Ticho: The Best Shoemaking Teachers, Arch Support, and a LOT of Butter | 25 Nov 2025 | 01:21:12 | |
If you came to this podcast about shoes and boots and leather hoping that you’d get to listen to extended conversations about imported cultured butter, you’ve made a fantastic call. Because this, dear listeners, is the Shoebag, in which myself and the legend they know as Tichoblanco answer listener questions about roughout Chelsea boots, arch support in surprising lasts, who we want to teach us to make boots…and imported cultured butter. And burritos. And bagels! And diners. And waffles, which were totally unrelated to the diner conversation. And, New Jersey Costco gas station Rod Stewart. It’ll all make sense, I promise. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Red Wing Heritage President George Curleigh on Retail, Time Capsules, and The Red Wing Way | 06 Nov 2025 | 01:02:27 | |
George Curleigh has been president of Red Wing’s heritage division since 2019, in which time he’s been able to enjoy a list of very fun things including a worldwide pandemic, a factory shut-down, a cyber-attack, a periodically dwindling labor force, a broken supply chain for US-made components, and his OWN CHILDREN stealing his boots. So what’s the general feeling in Red Wing, Minnesota, according to George? Actually pretty fantastic. Retail expansion is going hugely well, especially in Asia. The European and North American markets are showing a ton of strength. A new factory recently came online. And after a massive contraction, a flurry of new styles are being released, and old classics everyone wants revived. We get into all of that, plus why Red Wing buried a time capsule full of boots and manufacturing instructions to be dug up in 120 years, how that endeavor led to realizing Red Wing founder Charles Beckman survived a deadly shipwreck off Nova Scotia back in the 1900s, what it was like coming to old-school-as-it-comes Red Wing from Arc'teryx, one off the world’s most technologically driven apparel companies, how to get people loving working in a boot factory, and why that aforementioned time when his son swiped his 875s was actually a hugely meaningful moment, in the best way. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| How to Revive The Cobbling Industry? Teach it in High School—and it's Already Working. | 30 Oct 2025 | 01:17:28 | |
This past fall, Matt Paisley launched a shoe repair program at Colorado's Thunder Ridge high school, with nearly two dozen students taking the plunge and immediately being drawn into the program, skill development, and practical hands-on cobbling work. I had Matt lay out a blueprint for how he navigated making the shoe repair program happen, and the curriculum he’s been teaching in the first, legitimately monumental go-round. The fact that Matt’s program exists is a wonderful and inspiring story on its own—as is all the remarkable help that’s been offered by the repair and quality footwear community. But potential for Matt’s idea and approach to spread to other schools is what makes this, in my humble estimation, one of the most important episodes we’ve ever published. Here’s Matt Paisley, the guy who lit the spark that just might fix a broken shoe repair pipeline, on the Shoecast. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| SERES Founder Vanessa Arroyo on León, Mexico's Remarkable Shoemaking Culture | 24 Oct 2025 | 01:19:42 | |
My chat this week is with Vanessa Arroyo, founder and designer of SERES Footwear, a focused line designed from the ground up with high-quality natural materials in a way that’s not often seen in the women’s space. Once known as “the weird girl in high school making her own clothes” and thrown into shoemaking almost by chance, Vanessa fell in love with the art and craft of shoemaking between New York City, Chicago, and Leon Mexico, where she found unexpected meaning in her Mexican-American heritage—and sometimes had to stop working when it was raining too hard (you'll see what she means, I kinda love that part). As she walks us through the cobblestone streets of León, Vanessa paints a vivid picture of a shoemaking community bound by heart, heritage, and hands-on artistry. We explore how that local ecosystem fuels creativity, what might be lost as manufacturing drifts further overseas, eand how working within constraints can actually sharpen a design process. I’m also hugely excited and quite honored to have SERES as our first-ever exclusively women’s-focused brand at our Stitchdown’s Boot Camp Chicago quality footwear expo on November 8th, 2025—if you’re reading this before then, trust me, GET YOURSELF TO CHICAGO, you won’t be disappointed by what Vanessa and our other 45 vendors have to showcase. Here’s Vanessa Arroyo, of SERES Footwear, on the Shoecast. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Sprezza's Clayton Chambers on Timeless Loafers, Gorpy Boots, and Quality | 17 Oct 2025 | 00:47:29 | |
This week on the Shoecast our chat is with Clayton Chambers, founder of the Substack newsletter Sprezza and general menswear individual about the world. After running through the footwear signposts in his own life, from churchboy penny loafers to the Clark’s Wallabees he just can’t quit, Clayton digs in on footwear brands in and outside the welted space he’s really feeling, the rise of menswear brand- and product line-building done the slow and steady way, and why the younger generation might just be the unlock to a more widespread quality revival. https://www.sprezza.xyz/ https://www.instagram.com/sprezza__/ https://www.instagram.com/clayton.chambrs/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Ticho is BACK to Talk Østmo x Iron Boots' Lore—and Next Step | 07 Oct 2025 | 01:18:04 | |
The one and only Tichoblanco, aka Tichoblancoshoes, aka just plain old Ticho, is BACK. Where’s he been?Well he’ll tell ya all about that. What’s he been up to? The biggest answer to that is: happily grinding on his Østmo x Iron Boots project along with Cheng and Kai from Iron Boots, and Østmo boots mad genius maker Lars Jensen. Lars was actually our first-ever guest on this show, back at a time when he was still making any boot he wanted, in any size, and any leather, and getting hundreds of people to enter a lottery for it. The power of Lars. Ticho’s here to recount his personal story of meeting Lars even before all THAT, and how their pan-oceanic friendship eventually birthed one of the cooler and most unique ongoing collaborations out there anywhere—which is about to hit an entirely new level, one you’ll be able to see up close at Boot Camp 2025 Chicago this November. Yes we’ll talk about that too. Here’s the man they call Tichoblanco, on the Shoecast. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Boot Camp 2025 Chicago: Exhibitors + Events Rundown | 30 Sep 2025 | 01:23:47 | |
In part two of a tag-team with the Full Grain Podcast, the ever-handsome/charming Phil Kalas grills Ben on what to expect at Stitchdown's Boot Camp Chicago 2025 mega-expo and footwear-loving community epicenter this November. Japanese and Indonesian boot brands? Tanneries galore? Truly excellent women's footwear? The world's best care products? Red Wing & SB Foot??? Yes indeed. And oh so much more. Wherever you are in this world, do everything you can to get to Chicago on and around November 8th, 2025—you really, really won't hate it. https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/fullgrainpodcast/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| BONUS PREVIEW: Brett Viberg Community Q&A at the Viberg NYC Shop | 19 Aug 2025 | 00:13:35 | |
Last week we had our Stitchdown community's first gathering at the new Viberg NYC store—an honestly fabulous-looking little shop in Manhattan’s Nolita neighborhood that’s full of Viberg’s core classic product like stitchdown 2030 and 310 last service boots, but also the loafers and monk straps and split-toe derbies that represent a wholly new—and often confounding for longtime fans—direction for the 94 year old Canadian manufacturer. Amidst the excellent chatter and beers and everyone trying on seemingly every shoe in the shop, we hosted an audience Q&A with Brett Viberg, who gave a ton of insight on everything from how Viberg’s ended up where it is, who Brett sees as the core customer today and going forward, what leathers we might be seeing coming down the line, how his relentless development process functions, and plenty more. This shorter cut of some key questions is available to any Shoecast listener, but if you want the full 40-plus minutes of Brett, it’s available to all Stitchdown Premium subscribers on our private feed, along with a growing cache of other subscriber-only bonus episodes. If you’re interested, check out stitchdown.com for more info on our damned wonderful community and all the benefits. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| (FREE) BONUS: A Look Inside China with Motiv & Arch Support Project's Samuel Wei | 13 Aug 2025 | 00:52:22 | |
FREE Shoecast Bonus Episode—we've got plenty more for Stitchdown Premium subsribers Jason Pecarich of Division Road and Motiv/Arch Support Project co-founder Samuel Wei came on to discuss ASP's legitimately unique approach to footwear, how Motiv broke through Division Road’s no-China policy, and how Chinese customers are finding themselves more drawn towards high-quality heritage products. Also: the ways tariffs are affecting Chinese brands from an export and domestic standpoint, and why certain special Chinese products might reasonably cost as much as things made elsewhere. More than any episode we’ve published, this one offers an uncommon look inside the Chinese economy, mindset, and evolving relationship with quality. I also really loved this quote from Samuel: “Right now the heritage market is half western- and half Japanese-influenced. For a Chinese player to enter that world, I think I need a new angle. So what can I do to have a share in that market? I have to do something really original.” For Motiv and Arch Support, heritage is more of a method—certain standard of doing things. I think we can always re-arrange the forms to create something that meets the quality of the heritage world—but something very new, something people haven’t seen before. Our products look a little bit different, but somehow they still share some languages with the heritage world. I really want to push the boundaries of defining heritage. For us, it’s the principles of the craft, but not necessarily in nostalgic form.” https://divisionroadinc.com/collections/arch-support-project https://divisionroadinc.com/collections/motivmfg https://www.motivmfg.com/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| How Japan's Astounding Bootmaking Culture Grew—And Where It's Going | 05 Aug 2025 | 00:31:38 | |
It’s not a stretch to say there is no quality footwear culture quite like Japan’s. But WHY does the Japanese passion for making and wearing great boot and shoes exist? Well, I had to go to Tokyo to find out. As the final piece of our five-part Sole Searching: Tokyo YouTube series, I sat down with Michiya Suzuki—ex-Red Wing Japan GM and co-founder of The 2 Monkeys boot brand—to crack it open. Turns out, it’s part Americana, part rebellion, and part deep cultural reverence for craft. Michiya walked me through how Red Wing became a fashion staple in Japan, how the iconic Iron Ranger boot came to life, and why today’s Tokyo bootmakers are blending spade-shaped soles, Goodyear welts, and wild originality into something entirely new. We also got did a bit of unraveling of Japan’s essential shoemaking web—everyone from nail makers, to hand-stitchers still doing it the slow, stubborn way. And why, even as the old guard fades, Michiya’s betting that a few brave passionates will lace up and keep the tradition kicking. You can also watch this interview on our @stitchdown YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwfAV6KoUC0 Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| How to Do YouTube Product Reviews Without Losing Your Soul, with The Iron Snail | 01 Jul 2025 | 01:28:43 | |
The Iron Snail, aka Michael Kristy, is one of my favorite YouTube inhabitants, thanks to his legitimately unique approach to reviewing, historicizing, and manufacturing crazily high-quality footwear and clothing. https://www.youtube.com/@TheIronSnail https://theironsnail.us/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Developing Leather for Red Wing and More with SB Foot's Lacy Schumann | 18 Jun 2025 | 01:28:16 | |
Since 1986, SB Foot Tanning Company is most known as the tannery owned by Red Wing, and with good reason: every bit of leather used on Red Wing Heritage footwear is developed and made by SB Foot just a few miles from Red Wing’s US manufacturing facility. But the tannery itself and its relationship with Red Wing stretch much further back—to the late 1800s. And SB Foot creates leather for far more than just its neighbor in Red Wing, Minnesota—everyone from solo makers, to Russell Moccasin, to the US military. Lacy Schumann has spent her last five years developing leather for SB Foot. Maybe Lacy was always supposed to make leather—she did grow up on a beef farm—but it took a veer away from a career in the art world to get her there. I absolutely loved this chat with Lacy, who takes me through SB Foot history 101, what leather development at SB Foot entails (along with the nonstop interactions with Red Wing’s development team), how hard it is to accurately color leather—and let’s not even get started on truly waterproofing the stuff—why she’s in total roughout mode right now, and plenty more. Mentioned in the episode: The Tannery & The Shoe: A Deep Look Inside The Red Wing & SB Foot Factories, by Josh Bornstein https://www.stitchdown.com/brands/red-wing-boots-and-shoes/red-wing-shoes-sb-foot-factory-visit/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Women's Shoe Icon Stuart Weitzman on Nudists, Aretha Franklin & The First Shoe He Ever Sold | 12 Jun 2025 | 01:03:31 | |
No conversation about the all-time great women's shoe designers is complete without a very long segue into Stuart Weitzman. Born into a shoemaking family who manufactured for decades in longtime US shoemaking hub Haverhill, Massachusetts, Weitzman quickly established himself as the rare shoemaker to both the stars AND literally any woman who just wanted a fantastic pair of shoes. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| How to Become a Bootmaker, With Oldspeed MFG's Dave Corey and New River Boot's Dave Mills | 05 Jun 2025 | 01:52:51 | |
I had an absolute gas with Dave Mills of New River Boot, and Dave Corey of Oldspeed Manufacturing on this one. After years of being two of my favorite people on the internet to talk about footwear with, I was lucky enough to spend time with both of them last October at our Stitchdown’s Boot Camp expo—and I guess I needed more. Both Daves have in some ways followed similar paths into the craft and business, and in other ways have diverged—which I found as fascinating, instructive, and inspiring as the overlaps. This episode is a lot of things, for sure, but the piece that excited me most is how it turned into something of a starter kit for aspiring handmade boot and shoemakers, covering everything from finding your first last and essential tools, to what the feeling is like when that first wonderful someone wants to buy a pair of boots that YOU MADE, to navigating the ever-tricky pricing question, to, of course, their most gruesome bookmaking injuries. It’s honestly amazing these guys still have hands. Here’s Dave Corey of Oldspeed MFG, and Dave Mills of New River Boot, on the Shoecast. https://oldspeedmfg.com/ https://www.instagram.com/newriverboot/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Custom Cowboy Bootmaker Jake Houston on Preserving Knowledge, León Mexico, and Zebra Races | 15 May 2025 | 01:46:53 | |
About a half hour from Reno, there’s a place called Virginia City Nevada, where everything feels like it’s 1859 and the US’s largest silver deposit was just discovered. The bars say saloon and look the part. The cemetery is definitely haunted. And of course there’s a custom hatmaker—who shares a space in one of Virgnia City’s oldest surviving buildings with bespoke cowboy bootmaker Jake Houston. Jake Houston wasn’t the first person to fall victim to the wonderful folly of “the boots I want are too expensive, so I’ll just figure out how to make them.” One Lisa Sorrell DVD set, a few rodeos, and over a decade later, Jake has put together an impressively well-rounded business in Virginia City, making fully custom cowboy boots, while also finding vintage pairs to sell in the shop alongside his more affordable Houston Boot Company “shelf” boots made in Leon Mexico. Jake and I had a fantastic chat about his bootmaking journey, the time he glued the lasts into a customers’ pair, the half-decade path to get those shelf boots manufactured, his insistence on sharing his bootmaking knowledge—for free—and why people sometimes get really, really upset when you tell them what bespoke cowboy boots cost. Here’s Jake Houston, on the Shoecast. https://www.houstonbootcompany.com/ https://www.instagram.com/houstonbootco/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Seiji McCarthy is Making Some of the World's Greatest American Bespoke Shoes—In Japan | 06 May 2025 | 01:30:59 | |
Tokyo-based, half-American/half-Japanese Seiji McCarthy discusses his uniquely late path into shoemaking, the development of his vintage-Americana-inspired bespoke line, why he feels more American in Japan, and why it’s sometimes better if your bespoke shoemaker doesn't make your shoes entirely themselves. https://www.seijimccarthy.com/
Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Is Turriff Functional Footwear Making the Best-Quality Barefoot Shoe on the Market? | 29 Apr 2025 | 01:38:28 | |
This week we've got a chat with Andrew Turriff, a Canadian shoemaker who studied at Cordwainer’s Footwear Design program in London, worked for some big sneaker brands, and did pattern work for fellow Canadians Viberg and time in the orthopedic world before deciding to make a zero-drop, anatomical, barefoot shoe with of top-end materials—and also make it resolable, which it’s otherwise quite tough to find. Turriff Functional Footwear's launch model recently became available and I’ve been wearing and loving the shoes for over a month now. Are my feet stronger? I have no idea. Am I a barefoot shoe zealot now? Nope! But I legitimately love the shoes Andrew’s created. Our chat that gets deep into the science behind barefoot shoes, the technical construction and design aspects of Turriff Footwear, and the shoemaking journey that provided the building blocks for what’s certainly been one of the more interesting pieces of quality footwear I’ve worn in a while. https://www.turriffshoes.com/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| How Tariffs Are Already Impacting the Footwear Industry, with FDRA CEO Matt Priest | 10 Apr 2025 | 00:46:57 | |
Matt Priest, President and CEO of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, came on the Shoecast the morning after 104% tariffs on Chinese goods into the US hit in a rapidly-moving-target trade war with the United States and just about every other country. What ARE tariffs? How might tariffs and general uncertainty impact massive shoe brands? Smaller ones? Made-in-USA footwear? Retail prices? What's kinds of supply chain breakdowns have already happened and what might be next? How does the lobbying work that FDRA does function and benefit the footwear industry? And why is everyone suddenly really, really mad at Matt? Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| All the Shoes & Boots Derek Guy Loves—and a Few He Really Doesn't—From Bespoke to Workboots | 13 Feb 2025 | 01:29:31 | |
Derek’s an OG forum junkie turned menswear writer for Put This On, mass publications like The New York Times, and his own always-excellent blog Die Workwear!. In the last few years, Derek has become, to many, Menswear Guy on Twitter, where his sharp cultural insights on style and complete lack of brevity break every rule of the platform in such a wonderfully potent manner (…and sometimes get him screamed at online, believe it or not). I’ve been a huge fan of Derek’s for years, so getting some time with him to just talk about the shoes and boots we dig, from bespoke to workboots, was—putting it quite lightly—an honor. Put This On https://putthison.com/author/derek/ Die Workwear https://dieworkwear.com/ Derek's Twitter: https://x.com/dieworkwear Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| What Opie Way's Justin James Lost in Hurricane Helene—and What He Found | 04 Feb 2025 | 01:17:56 | |
In 2019, Justin James started Opie Way, a recraftable sneaker brand made right in Asheville North Carolina, USA, using incredibly high quality materials—something that basically didn’t exist previously. Then suddenly, Justin's factory and brand didn't exist. In 2024, Hurricane Helene brought six feet of rampaging water tore through the Opie Way factory. Machinery, records, inventory, supplies—destroyed in a literal flash. What’s it like to lose everything? How do you build back in the face of cataclysmic challenges? When true disaster strikes is there, somehow, a positive, just waiting to be uncovered? Check out Opie Way's site: https://opieway.com/ And here's the Pearl Boot Company website, Justin's newest footwear venture we discuss quite a bit: https://pearlboot.com/ Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Skateboard Legend Jamie Thomas Goes Inside a 300° Oven To Explain How Skate Shoes are Made | 28 Jan 2025 | 01:12:44 | |
Jamie Thomas is one of the most revered skateboarders of all time—and also a footwear designer and serial skate shoe brand founder. The release of his latest brand Warsaw seemed as good an excuse as any to have Jamie take me through the history of skate shoes and the sponsorships that arose around them, how and where they're made (and with what materials, constructions, and performance considerations), and how the landscape of one of the world's most influential types of footwear has shifted over the decades. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| How to Make Your Leather Footwear Last Literally (Possibly) Forever, With Pure Polish's Andy Vaughn | 07 Jan 2025 | 01:11:47 | |
The idea that well-made, resoable footwear can last almost literally forever is one of its core allures—but it’s a promise that simply won’t come true if it’s not cared for properly. Especially the leather. Time to keep it clean, keep it conditioned, and keep it protected, with Andy Vaughn, of Pure Polish. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Shoecast BONUS Episode Preview: Shop Talk With Brett Viberg & Shuyler Mowe of Nicks Boots | 17 Dec 2024 | 00:45:16 | |
It's our first-ever BONUS Shoecast episode—in a brand new format called Shop Talk. -2 guests—this time, Brett Viberg of Viberg Boot, and Shuyler Mowe of Nicks Boots. -3 questions apiece—which can be about absolutely anything, and the other guest MUST answer meaningfully. And boy did it end up being hugely revealing, and insightful, and just damned interesting. And fun! But after that, all bonus Shoecast episodes will be available for our wonderful Stitchdown Premium subscribers only. If you want to look more into how to support the show with a membership, and get access to even more Shoecast, stop by Stitchdown.com and check out the Shoecast tab for more info. Hope to see you in the Discord! And right here for bonus episodes, coming very soon. Hope you enjoy this first ever Shop Talk episode, with Brett and Shuyler. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Holly Henry on the Cowboy Bootmaking Community's Sustaining Power (Also: Saddles) | 11 Dec 2024 | 01:05:47 | |
I will tell anyone who dares listen that handmade bootmaking—and perhaps specifically, cowboy bootmaking—is the highest form of leatherwork as functional art. And then I started paying attention a bit more to saddlemaking and was like damn ok maybe they’re tied. Parker, Colorado-based custom bootmaker Holly Henry knows a ton about both. Holly grew up riding horses outside Houston, Texas, and was, quite remarkably, a professional photographer by her early teens. While studying photography in college, she took a shoemaking course—which changed everything. After some skill-informing detours through millinery (that’s hat-making!), tailoring, and, yes, intensive saddle repair, Holly began training to make cowboy boots, moved to Colorado, and struck out on her own as an independent bootmaker. Which is exactly where we pick her up, on the Shoecast. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Aki Choklat on Building a Shoemaking College Program From Scratch | 04 Dec 2024 | 00:44:02 | |
In the US, there are schools for everything—of course you can study business, or to become a doctor. But also if you want to be an electrician, or an airplane mechanic—someone can teach you that. And then you’ve got UConn, which has offered an apparently quite intense puppetmaking major, every year since 1964. So why not for shoemaking? Examples do exist, but they are far too scant—you can head to Atlanta to learn shoemaking from Marcel Mrsan, but that’s far from the only work he’s doing every day. Brooklyn Shoe Space, Cobbler Bushwick, and the Chicago School of Shoemaking are all fantastic and lighting shoemaking sparks every day, although they currently cater more to hobbyists. DW Frommer’s school in Montana was a cowboy bookmaking bastion, but it closed when he passed last year. So what about a multi-year, school that teaches shoe design AND making? I just visited one. The College for Creative Studies in Detroit, the impressive design school which has grown a full degree program that heavily involves shoemaking. I spent two days at CCS this past summer to meet with its program chair Aki Choklat, along with bespoke shoemaking toolmaker and faculty member Tom Carbone, plus a whole bunch of very invested students who really knew their way around a sole stitcher. What Aki and Tom are building at CCS is impressive, and dare I say quite needed, in a landscape where it’s easier to pick up shoemaking than ever before—as long as you do it online, by yourself—but far too hard in the United States to find quality hands-on teaching. And so we talked about that, how the CCS program came about and has grown, what the hell AI is going to do to the shoe industry, and plenty more. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Vintage King Brian Davis of Wooden Sleepers on Why Everything We Buy Sucks These Days | 26 Nov 2024 | 01:28:58 | |
Often, vintage clothing and footwear's defining quality IS quality. As in, its actual construction and materials, how well it was made, way back when. In most cases, it wouldn’t even be here today if it wasn’t. The footwear world we explore on this podcast is absolutely the exception, and a beautiful one, to the core rule of the 21st century: most stuff we buy and use and wear today is, well, kinda shit. It’s made to break down, or just break. It’s SUPPOSED to go into the trash, so you just get get more. Vintage is a reminder that things weren’t always that way. Exploring why most clothes and footwear used to be great, when most simply aren’t now, is just one of the reasons I was so excited to chat with Brian Davis, who’s been finding and selling some of the absolute best vintage menswear and boots for over 15 years. Brian’s store Wooden Sleepers, located in Tuckahoe New York about a 40 minute train ride from Manhattan, is a time capsule of American military, outdoors, Ivy, and workwear, all of it still kicking hard. Brian’s got a whole bunch of thoughts on why, and why that changed—as well as a fantastic outlook on the current vintage landscape, shoe tribalism, materials that age beautifully, and his absolutely wonderful local cobbler, Frank. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Brett Viberg is Back on the Shoecast, and He's Bringing Loafers | 19 Nov 2024 | 01:27:36 | |
15 years ago Viberg was pretty firmly Canada’s most hardcore logging and industrial boot company. Since Brett Viberg took over the reins of the nearly 100-year-old brand from his father Glen, Viberg has in many ways completely changed the high-end, recraftable boot market—most notably with its Service Boot, which became a legitimate game-shifting icon, and inspiration to many. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Brian The Bootmaker May Actually Be Mister Rogers | 02 Oct 2024 | 01:20:40 | |
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. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Molly Monahan, The Motorcycle Mechanic Turned Garlic Farmer Turned Small-Town Cobbler | 10 Sep 2024 | 00:51:15 | |
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. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Jess Wootten on Making Boots in an Australian Gold Rush Town, and Blake Rapid Misconceptions | 04 Sep 2024 | 00:51:41 | |
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. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||
| Caswell's Kevin Wilson on How to Start a One-Man Boot Brand—and Bringing Back US Manufacturing | 14 Aug 2024 | 00:58:35 | |
“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. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events. | |||