SINGLE PIECE BOOT

Several years ago I became fascinated with shoe making that uses only 1 single piece of leather. There are a handful of traditional men’s footwear styles that utilize one piece of leather (whole cut dress shoes, RM Williams traditional Chelsea style, etc..) I wanted to make a 1 piece boot for a retiring colleague, hang the lining in order to get a soft scrunch effect on the instep, and finish everything by hand. This style of boot is quite difficult to produce consistently, but can lead to some wonderful results. I would like to go back to these ideas at some point and push the materials a bit more, improve the silhouette, and examine other crimping and lasting techniques. Leather stretches/distorts differently; depending on what part of the hide, and it what direction the pattern is cut. Further experimentation would be needed to make this a viable production boot.

the first prototype. a wonderful leather from a small tannery in Leon, MX that is now sadly defunct.

laser engraved back crust, finished with dyes and creams

leaf laser design inspired by the work of Hillary Waters Fayle

a nice shot of the finished upper before the outsoles are welted.

tremendous finishing work with Italian shoe finishing dyes and creams

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