The Odd Pair

This could be the beginning of a series about the more interesting stages of custom-made footwear production.

Shoemaking is a complex process. The more you pay attention to the details, the more pronounced. Often, they remain invisible in the finished product, but I firmly believe in a kind of emanation of quality. I've written about this phenomenon before. The human subconscious receives stimuli that translate into a certain feeling. It's more difficult to verbalize this feeling than to experience it.

I also believe that the issue of goodwill plays a significant role here. If you feel a dislike for a craftsman, you will always have a distorted perception of their work. Therefore, I propose that there is no such thing as an objectively excellent shoemaker. There are only those who attract more pairs of eyes. From this perspective, this is a desirable, if somewhat perverse, outcome. A conscious craftsman can confidently claim that there is no competition, because their customer won't go to the neighboring workshop, and vice versa. Therefore, the question of how a work is perceived is as complex as its production itself.

I am currently considering a series of entries that will be built around the production of a very specific pair of shoes and will allow me to think more deeply about a wide range of issues with a somewhat philosophical bent. There is definitely too little of this in our community. Perhaps what comes first here is the desire to create something in this style. The act of creativity always excites me the same, whether it involves shoes, words or photos.

However, the reader may benefit from the unusual situation related to this particular production. I have already sewn the uppers that are shown in the third part of my tutorials. In the so-called meantime, I also developed a completely new pair of shoe lasts. Since this pair is one big experiment and exploration of design concepts, each piece can be fresh in its own way.