The Stitchdown Shoecast

Former Dayton bootmaker Tess Gobeil is the co-founder of Awl Together Leather , a custom leatherwork and shoe repair shop in Vancouver, Canada that just so happens to be on our shortlist of Stitchdown-recommended cobblers .  She's also just an absolute hoot—we're pretty sure this episode sets the Shoecast "hey look at us, we're just sitting here cackling about shoe stuff"...

Summer shoes! Those are just...boots, right? Apparently not! In a Shoecast episode for which we applied 120 SPF sunscreen (to our shoes), Ticho and Ben first figure out what a summer shoe really means, and then get down into dishing out recommendations on loafers, handsewn moccasins of all kinds, unlined bluchers et al, boot-shoes (obviously), Birkenstocks, and, um...sandals? Yes, sandals—at which...

Rising bootmaker Nathan Florsheim 's shoe-famous last name isn't a coincidence—the great great grandson of Florsheim Shoes founder Milton Florsheim decided over a year ago to become the first person in his family to actually make a pair of boots themselves in generations. And man has he gotten good at it quickly. Under the benevolent tutelage our mutual friend Lars from Østmo Boots , Nat...

Over a decade ago, Tull Price's job was to travel to the world's coolest cities to expand his massively successful sneaker brand, Royal Elastics.  Sounds pretty great, right? Nope! The realities of the forces of globalization—and just how much landfilled-destined plastic waste the athletic footwear industry created—eventually became all too apparent. Tull sold his stake in Royal, and beg...

Along with his brother Matt (the one with the mustache), Andrew Brodrick is half of Freenote Cloth , the near-decade-old denim-'n'-more brand (yes they sell boots!) that's committed to manufacturing its entire widening range of menswear in a small radius in and around Los Angeles. Andrew came on the Shoecast to lay out his philosophy on which cuts of denim should go with which boots...

The bootmaking world is a strange one in 2022. The easy part for top makers: finding customers who can't wait to buy their boots. The hard part? Sometimes it feels like literally everything else. Supply chain breakdowns are slapping delays on leather and other materials. Recruiting and training skilled bootmakers: never simple. So how's Wesco dealing? How's this whole thing get solv...

Ticho and Ben from Stitchdown are back with another good ol' fashioned Stitchdown Shoecast Shoebag episode, in which we answer probing listener questions like "are there any more rules with wedding shoes?", "how important is historical context when it comes to a pair of shoes or boots?", and "what's your ritual when you get a new pair?"—and we discover that...

They call Jim McFarland America's Cobbler for a darned good reason—the third generation in a line of cobblers that has run McFarland's Shoe Repair in Lakeland, Florida since 1918, Jim has repaired more shoes than you've ever seen. But the former president of the Shoe Service Institute of America —and Grand Silver Cup Award winner for excellence in shoe repair—knows what's going...

The leather tanning process is an ancient one—almost 10,000 years old. And yet, it can also be a massive damn mystery! So Ashland Leather's Phil Kalas—who put in over a decade at Horween Leather—stopped by the Shoecast to take us through the entire leather tanning process, and all its possible routes to creating beautiful leather for footwear (and everything else). How does the veg-tanning pr...

2021! 'Twas another extremely weird year! It really was. But man was it a wonderful one in in the world of boots and shoes. This episode, Ticho and Ben from Stitchdown.com review some of the most exciting, surprising, and inspiring quality footwear industry trends we saw emerge in 2021—and also look forward, making bold some predictions on where the space will evolve in 2022 and beyond. And s...

The boot brand Kreosote is but one man—JD Gabbard—some wonderful vintage tools, a 1978 Airstream, and one of the most unique and curious spirits in all of the handmade footwear world. After decades traveling the world as a fine art photographer, Gabbard found himself at a bench in a Texas cobbler shop, compelled to learn the trade of boot repair—the first step in his journey to making the things h...

Way back in some far-off distant boot past, Lars Jensen was the first-ever Shoecast guest . He came on to tell us his story, one of making truly incredible Østmo boots , 100% by himself, one pair at a time. Now, Lars is back to tell us about Østmo's future—and it's a very exciting one. For the final episode of Season 4, Lars and some strange person I've never heard of before have be...

There are few things more wonderful than a great customer service experience—especially on an expensive purchase. Unfortunately, they're also a bit too rare. But there IS A WAY to get fantastic, loving, oh-so-sublime customer service! Oh yes, there is a way. It just takes a small bit of work and thoughtfulness on your part.  Which is why we brought in Neil Berrett, co-founder of excellent cus...

All-time Shoecast champion guest Ron Rider— Rider Boot founder, person who may just know more about shoe sizing than literally anyone else in the world, and just all around unfathomably charming man—is back on the Shoecast. This time, Ron lays out his Seven Damning Shoe Sizing Mistakes—from not focusing on heel-to-ball fit nearly enough, to assuming boots and shoes will stretch WAY more than they...

The Shoebag is back! All hail the Shoebag. This time, @tichoblancoshoes and Ben from @stitchdown answer all sorts of reader questions, including: Unstructured vs structured toes? Half soles vs. full soles? What makes a perfect engineer boot? What are the metaphysical differences between oxfords and derbies? (There are plenty.) How do you figure out what new brand to make a move on next as you cont...

Meet Adele Williamson: Tricker's youngest bespoke shoemaker ever, and also Tricker's first female bespoke shoemaker—in the brand's 192-year history. Adele's story is fantastic: unsure of what to do with her life, she enrolled in a shoe design class (not really the good kind), then applied for an internship at Northampton stalwart Tricker's shortly after. Fast forward hones...

Grant Stone 's Wyatt Gilmore is one of the people we most love talking to in the entire footwear industry—so it was high time we had him on the Shoecast. While we spend plenty of time discussing how GS develops new models, and chooses leathers, and how wearing EEE in their Leo last has changed my life, and what Wyatt will be looking for as a judge of the Stitchdown Patina Thunderdome, the bes...

Very special episode! The entire shoe world has been on the edge of its heels waiting for 2030th Shoelympics to kick off from Northampton, England, and the Shoecast has secured exclusive coverage of the opening ceremonies! Esteemed bootcasters Tichblucho and Boot Robinshoe are all set up in Longwing Stadium to give you a first-hand view of the pageantry, the spectacle, and the SHOES, whose amazing...

Nick Horween is a fifth-generation tanner at the eponymous Horween Leather Co. , the Chicago powerhouse that creates Chromexcel, shell cordovan, and an endless array of some of the best boot leathers in the world. So he, uh, knows a lot about leather. Nick stopped by the Shoecast to talk about Horween's fascinating history, how the tannery approaches being environmentally conscious in an indu...

It's completely possible that Jesper Ingevaldsson knows more about shoes than anyone alive. Jesper IS Shoegazing , the seminal and just monumentally good blog covering quality footwear, mostly in the classic dress category. Over the past decade he's taken a keen journalistic eye and an endless sense of curiosity, and educated millions on shoe construction and finishing while also present...

The very first episode of the Shoecast—and the most-listened-to episode of all time—was about Indonesian Bootmakers. To close out season 3, Ticho and Ben from Stitchdown knew it was high time to revisit that wonderful world of hand-welted boots and shoes. Even in the year since that first episode, so much has changed in Indonesian bootmaking. New brands have emerged. Young makers have risen to cra...

Brett Viberg is back once more on the Shoecast, to give us a detailed breakdown of Viberg's coming releases in the second half of 2021—there are a LOT , and we've got a full preview on Stitchdown.com. Ticho and Ben from Stitchdown also get into how Brett is shepherding manufacturing and finishing quality forward, how Viberg's marketing and storytelling efforts play off that, how he...

Five years ago, Jason Pecarich took his extensive experience in the menswear industry and opened Division Road Inc. in Seattle: a collaboration-driven menswear shop headlined by boot and shoe makeups from Tricker's , White's , Wesco , and what would quickly become hands-down the deepest Viberg lineup anywhere in the world. So how'd he he do it? We get into Jason's uniquely in-d...

If Ron Rider isn't the most interesting person in the shoe game, we certainly want to meet whoever is. Ron's lived his whole career in shoes, creating the cult favorite Rider Boot Co. and now acting as one of the behind-the-scenes straws that stir the private label drink for a crazy range of brands. This week, Ticho and Ben talk to Ron about how private label works (it gets pretty weird!...

While there are a handful of "name" leathers and tanneries out there, it's almost shocking how many of both go completely under the radar, even for hardcore boot & shoe lovers. So this week, Ticho and Ben from Stitchdown.com get DEEP into tanneries around the world that really need to be more in the conversation, as well as specific leather articles from bigger-name tanneries th...