ExIT Shoes

Pair Number 15

by jeff

March 15th, 2006

This is the result of a joint effort with a shoemaker that I met when I missed my flight from San Francisco last year. When I first met him, he gave me a crash course in welting which took all of five minutes. I was too afraid to try it on my own, and I finally got some time to go back and work with him.

Pietro, who is in his 80s and has been making shoes since his teens, agreed to work with me if I was not too much of a pest. I made the uppers from water buffalo leather that I bought in Holland last year and have been saving for a special occasion. Pietro lasted the right shoe and stitched the first three stitches on a 4″ piece of welt. Then he sent me home to finish it. I had to find enough welt for both shoes, last the left shoe, then remove the little sample he left for me, and stitch them both up.

They are size 43, width 9, soled with J.R. soling leather from Germany. Heels are leather and finished with SnoSeal. The welt is ornamented by the fancy wheel I bought on my last trip to Holland.