Traditional & Heritage Boots

Aoi and Ren look back at the inaugural Americas Championship of Shoe Shining at Stitchdown Expo 2026 in Chicago — three finalists, twenty minutes each, one brand-new Bridlen oxford and Saphir Médaille d'Or wax — and ask what a mirror shine really takes.

Aoi and Ren visit Grant Stone — the Expo's presenting sponsor, founded in 2016 by Randy and Wyatt Gilmore — and ask how Goodyear-welted boots made in Xiamen from Horween, C.F. Stead and Badalassi leathers keep the built-to-be-repaired idea alive at an accessible price, two days before Stitchdown Expo 2026 opens in Chicago.

Aoi and Ren meet the four Japanese exhibitors heading to Stitchdown Expo 2026 in Chicago — Shinki-Hikaku and Tochigi Leather, wholesaler Hashimoto Industry, and Addict Clothes Japan — and trace the exchange between American bootmaking and Japanese craft.

Aoi and Ren visit Horween Leather Company in Chicago — founded in 1905, still family-run, still tanning shell cordovan and Chromexcel on the Chicago River — and look ahead to its home-city turn at Stitchdown Expo 2026.

Aoi and Ren preview Stitchdown Expo 2026 — the Chicago gathering where heritage bootmakers meet the dress-shoe world of the Super Trunk Show. The tannery-heavy lineup from Horween to Himeji, the hands

Aoi and Ren visit Wesco, the family workshop in Scappoose, Oregon — the Boss engineer boot, the 155-step hand process, and boots built to be rebuilt, not replaced.

Aoi and Ren ask why hand-welting survives in an age of cemented soles — White's Boots, Viberg's channeled insole, and Tokyo's hand-welted makers, CLINCH, John Lofgren and Rolling Dub Trio.