The Stitchdown Shoecast

Stitchdown
  • 4.4 (7)
  • FASHION & BEAUTY
  • UPDATED MONTHLY
The Stitchdown Shoecast

Exploring the wonderful world of quality footwear, how it’s made, and all the things we love about it.Check out Stitchdown.com for shoe and boot reviews, interviews with industry titans, profiles, release info, and more.

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    Vintage King Brian Davis of Wooden Sleepers on Why Everything We Buy Sucks These Days

    Often, vintage clothing and footwear's defining quality IS quality. As in, its actual construction and materials, how well it was made, way back when. In most cases, it wouldn’t even be here today if it wasn’t. The footwear world we explore on this podcast is absolutely the exception, and a beautiful one, to the core rule of the 21st century: most stuff we buy and use and wear today is, well, kinda shit. It’s made to break down, or just break. It’s SUPPOSED to go into the trash, so you j...

    1h 27m

  2. NOV 19

    Brett Viberg is Back on the Shoecast, and He's Bringing Loafers

    15 years ago Viberg was pretty firmly Canada’s most hardcore logging and industrial boot company. Since Brett Viberg took over the reins of the nearly 100-year-old brand from his father Glen, Viberg has in many ways completely changed the high-end, recraftable boot market—most notably with its Service Boot, which became a legitimate game-shifting icon, and inspiration to many. In our last chat in 2021, Viberg was in the midst of directional shift again, although you could only catch trac...

    1h 26m

  3. OCT 2

    Brian The Bootmaker May Actually Be Mister Rogers

    To be honest I didn’t think I’d ever get Brian the Bootmaker on this show—he doesn’t do many interviews at all, and for whatever reason I was, quite frankly, kind of afraid to ask him. Which in hindsight is insane because he’s about as sweet and genuine and fantastic to talk to as people come. Working out of the central Los Angeles workshop he first wandered into in high school while looking for thread to customize some sneakers, Brian IS Role Club, hand-making some of the world’s most distin...

    1h 19m

  4. SEPT 10

    Molly Monahan, The Motorcycle Mechanic Turned Garlic Farmer Turned Small-Town Cobbler

    When you grow up in a shoe repair shop directly next door to your actual house, it's hard to not catch the cobbling bug. But oh did Molly Monahan try to resist. After learning how to repair motorcycles and doing some farming for a bit, Molly one day told her mother "we're opening the shop back up!" and immediately put mom back to work making leathergoods, before realizing she herself barely knew how to repair a damned thing. Over a decade (and four kids, who themselves are growing up in a cob...

    49 min

  5. SEPT 4

    Jess Wootten on Making Boots in an Australian Gold Rush Town, and Blake Rapid Misconceptions

    This episode's chat is with Jess Wootten of…Wootten! The Ballarat, Australia boots and shoes and leathergoods maker that is doing some very interesting work. We covered how Jess somewhat tripped into a family tradition of bootmaking, ran down what Wootten's making in Ballarat and how, some common misconceptions about the Blake/Rapid (aka McKay welted) construction that Wootten often deploys, what it's like to grow a boutique bootmaking operation (not easy!), why Australians are possibly ...

    50 min

  6. AUG 14

    Caswell's Kevin Wilson on How to Start a One-Man Boot Brand—and Bringing Back US Manufacturing

    “The only way I learned was making many mistakes and losing a shit ton of money in the process” is how Kevin Wilson neatly sums up the never-simple process of getting Caswell Boot Company off the ground. In the past five years since saying "I'm going to start a boot company!", Kevin's stared down a failed Kickstarter attempt, his original US-based factory shutting down, patterns gone missing, rising costs in every possible area, and all the general fickleness that comes standard with ma...

    57 min

  7. AUG 6

    Shoebag!!! Best Boots to Travel With, Shoe Books, Wood Soles, and P'Zones

    Ben and Ticho once again dip into the Shoebag to answer listener questions—and tap in some special experts along the way—including: how to size boots to match orthotic inserts? What are some of the best brands for Women’s GYW shoes? Our thoughts on revolutionary new sole materials? Initial footwear “hard pass” that you eventually learned to love? How to start working as a bootmaker? And obviously, because it's highly shoe related, what are the best road trip snacks? __________This episod...

    1h 14m

  8. JUL 30

    Flora Knight on Guthrie, Oklahoma's Cowboy Bootmaking Lineage and That Time She Tried to Tan Her Own Leather

    She was born in Canada and grew up in New Zealand, but few people could possibly seem more at home making bespoke cowboy boots in Guthrie, Oklahoma than Flora Knight. Learning the craft from two of the historic western city's best teachers imaginable—bootmaking legends Lisa Sorrell and Ray Dorwart—certainly didn't hurt things. Neither did her other obsession: old-time American fiddle-playing. But Flora has most definitely carved out her own path to become a supremely talented bootmaker in her...

    1h 1m
See All (113)

4.4
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

Exploring the wonderful world of quality footwear, how it’s made, and all the things we love about it.Check out Stitchdown.com for shoe and boot reviews, interviews with industry titans, profiles, release info, and more.

Information

  • Creator
    Stitchdown
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2024
  • Episodes
    113
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2024 The Stitchdown Shoecast
  • Show Website
    The Stitchdown Shoecast

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