Way back in some far-off distant boot past, Lars Jensen was the first-ever Shoecast guest. He came on to tell us his story, one of making truly incredible Østmo boots, 100% by himself, one pair at a time. Now, Lars is back to tell us about Østmo's future—and it's a very exciting one.

For the final episode of Season 4, Lars and some strange person I've never heard of before have been working since that first episode to find a way to bring Østmo boots to a larger audience. The first step: find a bootmaking partner that held the same passion and maniacal dedication to quality, precision, and uniqueness that defines Lars himself.

And guess what they've found it: Iron Boots, the small Chinese workshop run by Lars' brother from another motherland Kai, who has been making simply fantastic boots under Iron's own brand for a handful of years now.

We chat about how the partnership came about, why it just makes sense, the development process, and of course, what the Østmo x Iron boots will look like and when and how they'll be available (quite soon).



This episode was sponsored by Nicks Boots, whose Buy With Confidence guarantee ensures you get the right size boot—every single time.



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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.

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There are few things more wonderful than a great customer service experience—especially on an expensive purchase. Unfortunately, they're also a bit too rare. But there IS A WAY to get fantastic, loving, oh-so-sublime customer service! Oh yes, there is a way. It just takes a small bit of work and thoughtfulness on your part. 

Which is why we brought in Neil Berrett, co-founder of excellent customer-servicer shop Standard & Strange to lay out for us a simple set of guidelines and philosophies that can make you happier with the majority of your interactions when buying boots, shoes, and other footwear. And if you also buy other things from time to time for some strange reason, those things too.



This episode is sponsored by Nicks Handmade Boots,  the Spokane-based maker whose Buy With Confidence guarantee ensures you get the right size, every single time. That's very good customer service!!


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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

https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/

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.
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All-time Shoecast champion guest Ron Rider—Rider Boot founder, person who may just know more about shoe sizing than literally anyone else in the world, and just all around unfathomably charming man—is back on the Shoecast.

This time, Ron lays out his Seven Damning Shoe Sizing Mistakes—from not focusing on heel-to-ball fit nearly enough, to assuming boots and shoes will stretch WAY more than they actually will—that we all, really, really, really need to stop making (Ticho and Ben from Stitchdown too).

But the sheer amount of sizing philosophy and hard, actionable info we get at outside those mistakes—including how to tell how if your shoes are mis-sized just by looking at them—is enough to fill up a 14 FFFF boot from our sponsor this week, Nick's Handmade Boots (that's a real size they offer!). 

Don't you DARE pick up a new pair before listening to this one...


Join the Stitchdown Discord today, unless you hate boots of course


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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

https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/

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/

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The Shoebag is back! All hail the Shoebag.

This time, @tichoblancoshoes and Ben from @stitchdown answer all sorts of reader questions, including: Unstructured vs structured toes? Half soles vs. full soles? What makes a perfect engineer boot? What are the metaphysical differences between oxfords and derbies? (There are plenty.) How do you figure out what new brand to make a move on next as you continue on your shoe journey? Are shell engineer boots essential or insane?

Also for some reason we end up talking about freeze-dried gummi worms a lot. Lots of reasons, I guess.



 This episode was sponsored by Grant Stone, king of wide-width shoes and boots (I lavish much praise upon my EEE Diesels in this episode)


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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

https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/

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/

Meet Adele Williamson: Tricker's youngest bespoke shoemaker ever, and also Tricker's first female bespoke shoemaker—in the brand's 192-year history.

Adele's story is fantastic: unsure of what to do with her life, she enrolled in a shoe design class (not really the good kind), then applied for an internship at Northampton stalwart Tricker's shortly after. Fast forward honestly not that many years, and she's working  every day with customers in an endlessly personal manner to create the bespoke creations of their dreams.

And I have to say on top of all that, Adele is just an absolute joy to speak with—bursting with passion for shoemaking, humble, charming, and utterly aware how lucky she is to have her absolute dream job.

Oh and she made shoes for Stringer Bell. And Prince Charles! But more importantly, Stringer Bell.



This episode was sponsored by Grant Stone, one of the best values in quality footwear that you can find absolutely anywhere


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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

https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/

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.

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A website. We have one.
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Grant Stone's Wyatt Gilmore is one of the people we most love talking to in the entire footwear industry—so it was high time we had him on the Shoecast. While we spend plenty of time discussing how GS develops new models, and chooses leathers, and how wearing EEE in their Leo last has changed my life, and what Wyatt will be looking for as a judge of the Stitchdown Patina Thunderdome, the best part of this podcast is without a doubt the brand's origin story.

Grant Stone emerged a half-decade ago as a challenger to the norm: a brand based in Michigan that manufactured in China that was ACTUALLY making a legit incredible product. People were initially skeptical, but that has faded for anyone paying attention, or certainly wearing their products.

But to hear Wyatt tell the story of how he personally ended up at a shoe factory in China with no idea of what to do with his damn life, then learning the trade and truly becoming part of a family that wasn't his own...it's apparent why the decision to manufacture there was made, and why Grant Stone has emerged as such an important player making incredible shoes and boots in a price range that almost seems unfair to everyone else.  It's really a beautiful story, and an inspiring one.

Also: vampire GenFacts!



This episode was sponsored by Standard & Strange, where you don't NEED an engineering degree to buy their engineer boots...but it helps.


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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

https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/

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/

Very special episode! The entire shoe world has been on the edge of its heels waiting for 2030th Shoelympics to kick off from Northampton, England, and the Shoecast has secured exclusive coverage of the opening ceremonies!

Esteemed bootcasters Tichblucho and Boot Robinshoe are all set up in Longwing Stadium to give you a first-hand view of the pageantry, the spectacle, and the SHOES, whose amazing stories will be told through an extremely thin veil of blatant unchecked corporatism. And of course to deliver a preview on which shoes and boots you should expect to see taking home hardware in events like Gaff-Standing, Mirror Shine, the Handwelting, the Steeplechasse, and plenty more. 

[Producer's note: this is by far the weirdest Shoecast episode ever. Also maybe the best? So uhhh...be sure to tell us which.]



This episode was sponsored by Grant Stone, multiple-time gold medalist in the Value event, and a rising contender in so many more.



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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

https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/

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/

Nick Horween is a fifth-generation tanner at the eponymous Horween Leather Co., the Chicago powerhouse that creates Chromexcel, shell cordovan, and an endless array of some of the best boot leathers in the world. So he, uh, knows a lot about leather.

Nick stopped by the Shoecast to talk about Horween's fascinating history, how the tannery approaches being environmentally conscious in an industry that hasn't always been historically,  what leather development looks like, the CXL lottery,  whether Alden rare shell cordovan is ACTUALLY rare, and of course, the actual correct pronunciation of "chamois". And oh so much more.

Also Ticho says incendiary things about Chicago-style hot dogs and pizza that probably mean he can't ever visit the Windy City again. Oh Ticho...



This episode was sponsored by Standard & Strange, where you don't NEED an engineering degree to buy their engineer boots...but it helps.


Theme music: The Road by Punk Rock Opera

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

https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/

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/

It's completely possible that Jesper Ingevaldsson knows more about shoes than anyone alive. Jesper IS Shoegazing, the seminal and just monumentally good blog covering quality footwear, mostly in the classic dress category. Over the past decade he's taken a keen journalistic eye and an endless sense of curiosity, and educated millions on shoe construction and finishing while also presenting a razor-sharp review of the industry at large.

The thing that I love most about Jesper is that he knows his stuff in a way few do in any field—and yet he's not someone who sees his personally preferred, dressier lane as the only correct course for a shoe-lover.

His appreciation of all quality footwear is beyond evident as we get into the crossover between his nerdy world and Stitchdown's: why aren't more people in his wintry home nation of Sweden wearing more rugged boots? (Well luckily they're starting to, actually...) What is and isn't truly "handmade," how should brands market their products honestly, and what do we need to understand as customers? Why are we all so obsessed with buying shoes and boots on sale when it threatens the very existence of the makers we so dearly love?  Why do we buy four or five pairs of expensive footwear that don't get worn enough when one bespoke pair might be the thing that we really need?

These questions and plenty more we discuss—including the correct pronunciation of Swedish shoe store Skoaktiebolaget—are relevant to everyone who loves any kinds of welted shoes. And Jesper's episode is an absolute must-listen.



This episode was sponsored by Standard & Strange, where you don't NEED an engineering degree to buy their engineer boots...but it helps.



Theme music: The Road by Punk Rock Opera 

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

https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/

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 very first episode of the Shoecast—and the most-listened-to episode of all time—was about Indonesian Bootmakers. To close out season 3, Ticho and Ben from Stitchdown knew it was high time to revisit that wonderful world of hand-welted boots and shoes.

Even in the year since that first episode, so much has changed in Indonesian bootmaking. New brands have emerged. Young makers have risen to crazy—and well deserved—levels of prominence. And the old guard continues to innovate, hone their craft, gain access to incredible new leathers, and just create a better and better product, seemingly every week.

So dive in to see where the scene is at today—we'll surely need another one of these episodes a year from now.



This episode is sponsored by Division Road Inc, the Seattle shop that creates some of the best Viberg, White’s, Wesco, and Tricker’s makeups you’ll find absolutely anywhere.



Theme music: The Road by Punk Rock Opera

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

https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/

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/