The Stitchdown Shoecast

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Bespoke Cowboy Bootmaker Zephan Parker's Formula to Keep Craft Alive Mar 17, 2026

Show notes

How do we keep craft alive in an over-technological society? Is it via the individual maker? Or more of a collective workshop approach?
Houston-based bespoke cowboy bootmaker Zephan Parker has plenty of thoughts on all of it.
Zephan used to write graffiti and listen to hip hop while wearing Ralph Lauren. Now he runs a custom bespoke cowboy boot workshop in Houston, Texas. All those things, it turns out, are very connected. I swear.
Zephan and I get into plenty on this one, including their entire range of offerings, how the absence of design leads to the magnification of character, how Parker Boot Company is nailing the fit on $20k custom gator skin boots via remote measuring, regional differences in Texas cowboy boots, just how incredibly different running a business is from making things, and plenty more.

https://zephanparker.com/

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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.
https://www.stitchdownexpo.com/
A website. We have one.
https://www.stitchdown.com/

The Artistically Twisting Journey of Brooklyn's Bespoke Shoemaker, Anne Marika Verploegh Chassé Mar 12, 2026

Show notes

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/

Vintage Boot Wishlists and Reconsidering Tassel Loafers: It's Ticho on the Shoebag! Mar 03, 2026

Show notes

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?

Why Making Things By Hand Has Never Been More Important, w/ Cowboy Bootmaker Emily Boksenbaum Feb 25, 2026

Show notes

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

Why It’s Harder Than Ever to Start a Shoe Brand, w/ the Shoe Snob Justin FitzPatrick Feb 18, 2026

Show notes

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.

Skip Horween & Nicks Boots' Shuyler Mowe—Live from Boot Camp Chicago 2025 Feb 10, 2026

Show notes

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/

Franklin & Poe's Andrew Li on Where Retail's Going, Malls, and The Perfect White Tee Dec 16, 2025

Show notes

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/

Thursday Boot Co.'s Nolan Walsh on Their Own León Factory, Last Obsessiveness, and The Comfort Question Dec 10, 2025

Show notes

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/

Shoebag w/ Ticho: The Best Shoemaking Teachers, Arch Support, and a LOT of Butter Nov 25, 2025

Show notes

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.

Red Wing Heritage President George Curleigh on Retail, Time Capsules, and The Red Wing Way Nov 06, 2025

Show notes

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.

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