The Stitchdown Shoecast

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Women's Shoe Icon Stuart Weitzman on Nudists, Aretha Franklin & The First Shoe He Ever Sold Jun 12, 2025

Show notes

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.
For this chat, we covered why comfort matters so much and how to make it happen, why Stuart ended up in Spain after US manufacturing went kaput, that time Aretha Franklin pulled her shoes off at the AMAs to thank him, his various muses through the decades, his incredible donations to an in-the-works Historic New England shoe museum project, and plenty more.
HUGE thanks to Stuart and Historic New England for all the support in making this episode.
https://www.historicnewengland.org/
Production: Aiden McDonald x Visual Sound Productions https://www.visualsoundprod.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
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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/

How to Become a Bootmaker, With Oldspeed MFG's Dave Corey and New River Boot's Dave Mills Jun 05, 2025

Show notes

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/

Custom Cowboy Bootmaker Jake Houston on Preserving Knowledge, León Mexico, and Zebra Races May 15, 2025

Show notes

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/

Seiji McCarthy is Making Some of the World's Greatest American Bespoke Shoes—In Japan May 06, 2025

Show notes

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/

Is Turriff Functional Footwear Making the Best-Quality Barefoot Shoe on the Market? Apr 29, 2025

Show notes

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/

How Tariffs Are Already Impacting the Footwear Industry, with FDRA CEO Matt Priest Apr 10, 2025

Show notes

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?

All the Shoes & Boots Derek Guy Loves—and a Few He Really Doesn't—From Bespoke to Workboots Feb 13, 2025

Show notes

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.
Links to every brand/style we discuss can be found here: https://www.stitchdown.com/stitchdown-shoecast/derek-guy-recommends-shoes-boots/

Put This On https://putthison.com/author/derek/

Die Workwear https://dieworkwear.com/

Derek's Twitter: https://x.com/dieworkwear

What Opie Way's Justin James Lost in Hurricane Helene—and What He Found Feb 04, 2025

Show notes

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/

Skateboard Legend Jamie Thomas Goes Inside a 300° Oven To Explain How Skate Shoes are Made Jan 28, 2025

Show notes

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.
Here’s my chat with Jamie Thomas, on the Shoecast.
Jamie's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamiethomas/
Warsaw: https://warsawltd.com/
Jamie Thomas' 1997 Leap of Faith jump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqqPCqyAfl4

How to Make Your Leather Footwear Last Literally (Possibly) Forever, With Pure Polish's Andy Vaughn Jan 07, 2025

Show notes

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.
But what’s the best way to do that? And for different types of leather? Well you’ll know a ton more after my fantastic chat with Andy Vaughn, owner of Pure Polish, the Oregon-based company whose emphasis on 100% natural, non-toxic leather care products is fulfilled thanks to the kind of experience and knowledge that comes with obviously researching and making the stuff—but also personally restoring over 100 pairs of vintage shoes—all of which we got out of Andy over the course of a fantastic episode.
Get ready for the most fun you’ll ever have learning about Bentonite clay, along with where things can go VERY wrong, Andy’s Universal Care Truth Trinity, why brushing is so essential and if the fancy ones are worth it, and plenty more.

Time to keep it clean, keep it conditioned, and keep it protected, with Andy Vaughn, of Pure Polish.

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