Long, long ago, Ben & Ticho did a Shoecast episode in which they had to (just for pretend, don't worry) get rid of all their shoes and boots—FOREVER—and only keep five pairs that just made sense for their lives. A lot has changed since then! So we went back to revisit our picks, and the results are...interesting!

Also on this Shoebag episode: why taking pictures of your boots is so damn fun, what’s really happening behind the scenes in tanning, crazy break-in tales, why we both would suck at making shoes, Michael Cera x Maryam, and why a quest for total knowledge when it comes to great footwear honestly kinda takes the fun out of the whole thing. 

Oh and cake, for some reason. Lots and lots of cake. Fudgie the Whale, represent. 
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This episode was sponsored by Nicks Boots—check out their new high-end Brandle line today

Theme Song: 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

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

2026 dates and location for Stitchdown's Boot Camp 4—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—coming soon.

https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/

Ten years ago, Steve Doudaklian looked at a camera, said “good morning shoe repair family”, fixed up some shoes, and put a grainy video on YouTube as a service to cobblers around the world.

A decade later, Steve’s videos still don’t look all that different from his first—but now they’re often watched by millions, and stand as perhaps the measuring stick of high-end shoe repair and restoration worldwide.

In as lively as Shoecast episode as they get, Ben chatted with Steve about the three generations of shoemakers that preceded him; growing up in a legit war zone in Lebanon before emigrating to Falls Church, Virginia; how the shop his dad started—Bedo’s Leatherworks—has grown and shrank and otherwise shifted over time; and forming the Shoe Repair International group which now includes over 1500 cobblers around the globe.

We also get into Steve's favorite shoes to repair, Alden Indys (of course), how YouTube changed Steve’s business and cobbling in general, what a craftsman sees that the customer might not, and—with intentionally zero succession plan, meaning one of America’s iconic shoe repair businesses will end with him—how long he’s planning on keeping it up.

Oh and why all cobblers should wear a shirt and tie on Saturdays.

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This episode was sponsored by Grant Stone

Theme song: 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/

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

2026 dates and location for Stitchdown's Boot Camp 4—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—coming soon.

https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/

To call Sarah Madeline Tierney Guerin an incredibly skilled cowboy boot maker would be accurate—and also highly incomplete. Sarah is also an artist, a historian, an educator, a storyteller, a preservationist, someone who just thinks about things differently than most of the rest of us, and quite possibly the person who knows the most of anyone in the world about the deep history of Massachusetts shoemaking.

Sarah's nom de boot "Saboteuse" (the female version of saboteur, in French) isn't just an extremely cool word. It's a mindset she applies to both her bootmaking work and larger focus of bringing attention to the failures of the larger worldwide systems of modern mass production.

In a rangy chat, Ben and Sarah discuss her genesis as an architect-turned-shoemaker,  why she operates out of a replica of the Massachusetts shoemaking sheds known as "Ten Footers" and the fascinating history behind them and the 19th and early 20th century US shoemaking epicenter of Lynn and surrounding towns,  how we can trace larger histories simply by looking at and understanding objects (in this case, believe it or not, boots), and making maybe her greatest work to date while watching Little League games.

See much more of Sarah's work: https://www.saboteuse.com/
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This episode was sponsored by Standard & Strange

Theme Song: 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/

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

2026 dates and location for Stitchdown's Boot Camp 4—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—coming soon.

https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/

So, Ticho forced Ben to talk about Boot Camp, the fine leather footwear gathering / world's fair of boots and shoes and leather / celebration of shoemaking / big ol' party that Stitchdown just put on a few weeks back in Industry City, Brooklyn.

The two get into plenty of aggressive reminiscing—about the community connections forged and strengthened, the amazing footwear and makers in attendance, and even a Boot Camp miracle or two—before spending the entire second half going over attendee feedback in an effort to make Boot Camp 2024 the best it can possibly be.

If you made it to Boot Camp, we dare say you may enjoy taking a trip down boot-memory lane. If you didn't—well, living vicariously can be a pretty great way to live. And this episode should certainly help you make a call on if coming to Brooklyn for Boot Camp '24 is something that makes sense for you.

Boot Camp Recap Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9j-yAXKIRc
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This episode was sponsored by the imminent Nicks Boots 

Theme Song: 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/

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

2026 dates and location for Stitchdown's Boot Camp 4—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—coming soon.

https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/

“Let’s just change it up a bit” is how Tim Little describes his approach to shoe design for Grenson. It might as well be Tim's ongoing mantra. 

After years in advertising—including handling the Adidas footwear account—Tim decided it was time to change it up a bit and make some welted footwear. Tim Little Shoes was born, with Tim working with various Northampton factories to create different types of quirky-but-classic styles that found a small but obsessive core audience.

That work led Tim to change it up a bit again and take on the role of creative director for Grenson in 2005, before taking the whole damn thing over in 2010. Under Tim's watch, founded-in-1866 Grenson has been reignited in a way that, well, changes it up a bit from your typical historic Northampton shoemaker—combining classic English shoemaking techniques with a more fashion-forward approach that isn't afraid to break rules while knowing what the core of a great shoe always needs to be.

In our Shoecast chat, Tim gets into how the iconic Grenson triple welt arose, how and why Grenson splits is manufacturing between its Northampton factory and India-based production (and the importance of maintaining the former), why so many GYW brands feel the need to make sneakers these days, how Grenson has brought a younger customer into Goodyear welted shoes, and plenty more.

Oh also I attempt to spell veldtschoen, live on air.
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This episode was sponsored by Grant Stone — they've got you covered on just about every size and width you could ever want in dozens of styles

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/

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

2026 dates and location for Stitchdown's Boot Camp 4—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—coming soon.

https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/

Ed Gallun was born into tanning—and even though the American tanning industry isn't what it once was for much of the life of the tannery his great-great-great grandfather started in 1858 in Milwaukee, he simply can't get away from it. That's a very good thing.

Ed relaunched Gallun Leathers in 2022, focusing on tanning incredibly interesting, dare we say gutsy calf leather, as well as more outside-the-box offerings like wild boar, deerskin, and more. In a lively chat with Ed for the final episode of Shoecast season 9, we get a fantastic look at Milwaukee's impressive tanning history and how the landscape shifted over the decades, how the original iteration of Gallun grew from a small shop to a 700,000 sqft titan, what Ed learned studying "space age" tanning technology in Europe, the wildest leather he's working on right now, and how science, selection, and a bit of magic births fantastic leather.


This episode was sponsored by Nicks Boots

Theme song: 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/

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

2026 dates and location for Stitchdown's Boot Camp 4—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—coming soon.

https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/

We're back with Weston Kay, the one and only Rose Anvil from the new streaming video platform called "YouTube", to discuss the shame he feels for the criminal act of cutting a pair of 100+ year old WWI boots in half, how he outfitted his Rose Anvil Builds workshop with some incredible old cobbling equipment, why it's much harder than it should be for him to simply tell people he loves a pair of boots, and alllllllll the things people misunderstand about him and the Rose Anvil channel.

And, of course, if any of his feelings have changed about Alden Indy boots, which I unabashedly love. Things get pretty real!!!
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This episode was sponsored by Grant Stone

Theme Song: 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/

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

2026 dates and location for Stitchdown's Boot Camp 4—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—coming soon.

https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/

Chris Woodford is a bit of a madman. And he’s pretty much thrilled about that.

The fifth-generation shoemaker founded Crown Northampton—maker of some of the world’s best-made sneakers—as a reaction to watching his father’s business unravel, along with so much else of the iconic Northampton, England shoemaking trade.

After watching factory after factory shutter while growing up, Chris knew he needed to create a different kind of business. Early wholesale success in Japan provided the buoy for Chris to design a sneaker made with only the finest possible materials available—including J&FJ Baker oak bark leather, and Horween’s renowned shell cordovan—sell made-to-order models direct, and see if it caught. (Oh it caught.)

Now, Chris is on the verge of launching E. Woodford, an extremely high-end, full-custom handwelt line powered by Chris’s own bespoke shoemaking knowledge, and his desire to create “careers, not jobs” for shoemakers in Northampton.

In a fascinating, engaging chat, Chris talks us through the Woodford family shoemaking history that stretches back to 1908, how wars have always powered the Northampton shoe trade (and what happens when they end), why he’s obsessed with using only the best materials and preserving nearly vanished techniques, and why creating an environment in which shoemakers can learn and grow and be excited about their work every single day is the key to Northampton’s future success.

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This episode was sponsored by Grant Stone

Theme Song: 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/

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

2026 dates and location for Stitchdown's Boot Camp 4—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—coming soon.

https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/

When Dennis Kieback made his first pair of Kustom Kraft boots, he’d barely even seen a pair of Red Wings before. But the bookmaking bug had bitten him hard—and the Kiel, Germany craftsman was infected.

Now 25+ pairs into his bootmaking career, Dennis sits down with Ben to chat how tricky it is to get a business started (“who wants boots from someone who hasn’t made any boots before??”), how he learned the craft thanks to internet resources and esteemed tutors including Lars Jensen of Østmo Boots and Nathan Florsheim aka NF Bootmaker, his evolving last lineup, sourcing truly unique local German leathers, the “flow state” he can get into, how he turns mistakes into magic, and of course, dogs destroying uppers by randomly deciding to operate sewing machines.

Dennis was just an absolute joy to chat with, being very game to fight through a language barrier to share his incredibly positive, inspiring outlook towards his mysterious and demanding craft.


This episode was sponsored by Nicks Boots

Theme Song: 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/

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

2026 dates and location for Stitchdown's Boot Camp 4—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—coming soon.

https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/

Since 1904, the Shoe Service Institute of America has operated as an essential champion for the shoe repair industry. This week, Ben sat down with SSIA board member Justin Bennett (day job: Chicago-based shoe store/repair shop supplier Justin Blair & Co) to catch up on what happened at the recent 116th annual SSIA Convention, including the organization's Grand Silver Cup awards lavished upon North America's top cobblers.

The chat with Justin also covers the growth of shoe-repair YouTube and TikTok, SSIA’s most interesting and successful marketing efforts past and present, the gap between what repair customers want and need today vs back when, the interesting ways he’s seen the market crater and bounce back since 2020, the viability of a trade school for shoe repair, and plenty more.

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This episode was sponsored by Standard & Strange

Theme song: 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/

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

2026 dates and location for Stitchdown's Boot Camp 4—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—coming soon.

https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/