WHY WE SAY OUR SHOES ARE HANDMADE

«
»

 


Last week we were in India for a few days in preparation for production of our SS2010 collection, which is going on now.

Soon we will be posting inspirational mood-boards, sketches and some pictures to give you a hint of what is coming.

HAND LASTING OF ONE OF OUR SPRING BOOT SANDAL DESIGNS

HAND LASTING OF ONE OF OUR SPRING BOOT SANDAL DESIGNS

While in India we took some pictures at one of our main suppliers, ORBIT. This small factory has been really supportive of our brand and has been improving the quality of the products they make for us all the time.

We wanted to show you what we mean when we say that our shoes are completely handmade. What do we mean with this?

Well… nowadays most of the shoes get made as follows:

The different patterns of leather get sewn together and then they get mounted on top of a plastic or wooden shape called a “last”. This process tends to happen mainly by machine nowadays.

Our shoes are still hand-lasted. The small size factories that we use are doing all this process by hand, and this is what in a way make our products special. See pictures in the gallery bellow.

Some of these small factories that we work with are now starting to invest in machines for lasting as they get more and more orders from different companies. India is a booming place for shoe making, because of the raw materials available like leather, and the quality. And we are so often visiting India now, that it is becoming like our second home.

We would like to keep the hand made look.

Tags: ,

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at 12:51 pm and is filed under INDIA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “WHY WE SAY OUR SHOES ARE HANDMADE”

  1. Ashley Says:
    December 8th, 2009 at 1:22 pm

    Having recently been to an Italian factory for “handmade” shoes, I can vouch that at LEAST 90% of the process is now mechanized.
    I think it is amazing, what you guys are doing!

  2. Laura Says:
    December 8th, 2009 at 10:24 pm

    Thanks allot for the comment Ashley. We are very proud about the way we are doing things, even it is not always the easiest way. We still need to improve so many things, one of them being improving quality day after day, but we will get there.
    By the way, I find your blog one of the most interesting things around to read related with fashion, retail and technology. Congratulations! Keep it up. Laura

  3. Christian Says:
    December 10th, 2009 at 11:49 am

    Hi Laura!

    This was interesting to see!

    The ‘factory’ is not at all what I’d imagined (something along the lines of a big machine where you feed leather and glue at the rear and out comes a pair of shoes).

    These guys really do MAKE the shoe!

  4. Laura Says:
    December 12th, 2009 at 1:51 pm

    Hi Christian. One day I will film it all and will make a nice “how to make shoes by hands” post to show the process better. :)
    Laura

Leave a Reply