Size matters

The lead picture was taken by my mother, actually. It features my own pair of classic oxford shoes that I’ve made for myself. To wear a pair of shoes made by your hands is truly something special, but the right reason to do so is to doble check your skills, as the proper fit is to get pushed to the final and upmost harsh field test.

The truth is, I’ve never own a pair of shoes so perfectly fitted, prior to this experiment of mine. If you want to ask somebody: ‘what’s the ultimate satisfaction feels like’, ask me. Man, I’m almost not able to explain that to you!

What’s crucial is the flow. The flow is everything. I took it from the music industry. What you looking for in music is: the health, the beauty, the truth. Whenever I mention spirituality in shoemaking, that’s what it comes to.

The health. When you hear the sound and you know it comes from the right place. Your body works just fine and you produce the sound in no harm ways.

The beauty. Do you like what you’re getting? Stands next to ‘the truth’ here. It’s the most intuitive feeling. ‘Either you’re moving or you don’t’ - that sort of thing.

The truth. That irreplaceable factor. The most important one. The greatest. The most looking after for. It’s when you listen to the sound and think to yourself: ‘Man, I get that. I get that alright.’

— Do I know what I want? - Yes!

— Do I want to be the best at what I do? - Yes!

— Does anything else matters? - No!

That’s an exaggeration, for sure. But this statement in its core tells you where I stand. The search for that perfect fit was the engine of my initial interest in last making. It was clear to me that ‘bespoke’ means exactly that. So the fit is king. Idea for given pair of shoes would be the queen then. At the very end, it’s also about the looks.