Free talk Saturday August 2 at 11am at Tandy Leather's flagship store in Portland. I will  discuss the process of custom shoes, from lasts and measurement to design and making. The talk is free to attend, but please register at Tandy: 
tandyleather.com/pages/Tandy-...
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In this class I will teach analog and digital techniques that I use for footwear design and rapid prototyping.

Space is limited.
Details and registration:
exitshoes.com/workshops

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Saturday May 24, 2025, learn about lasts and sizing. Discover the relationships between the last and fit, function, and style.

Space is limited.
Details and registration:
exitshoes.com/workshops

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Piecing scraps to make test shoes almost always leads to interesting results.

This was for testing the fit.

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Saturday May 10 at 11am I'm giving a free talk about how I make custom shoes. This will happen at Tandy Leather's new flagship store in downtown Portland. Space is limited, please register with Tandy. tandyleather.com/pages/tandy-...

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Scrapping, scrapping. I'm practicing making lasts from scratch. Really scratch as the wood is glued together of what I had on hand. Two lefts and a right. Poplar, fir and some kind of pine.

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Last making using documented geometric techniques was high on my list of things to do on my trip to the Netherlands in February and March. If you're interested, I wrote more about this on my site. www.exitshoes.com/jcm/2025/04/...

Button monk. This has been on my mind for a while. I wanted to do a button shoe, but not too many buttons. I wanted to make a monk, so I made this Button Monk. They are welted and the vegetable tanned upper leather is Pull Up from the Italian tannery Solaris.

The Netherlands is a place where you can see amazing waterworks. Long out of service after pumping out the lake where I'm working on shoes and home to Schiphol airport, this pump was turned on while we were visiting the Cruquius. All arms move up and down at the same time.

Knee high custom leather boots. Made from Italian vegetable tanned leather. The liner is fabric for the shaft and leather below.
I was under a bit of deadline pressure to finish these, but they are done and on the street now!
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On February 12 at 3pm, I'm giving a talk on the performance properties of basalt fiber as part of the shoe materials show in Portland. The talk and the show are free to attend, but you have to register at americanevents.com

Two eyelet ankle boots. Importantly, the design was by my client. He had a very clear idea of what he wanted.

The boots are welted construction with basalt fiber shanks, leather midsoles, and Vibram Bologna soles. The upper is vegetable tanned leather "Pull-up" from Conceria Solaris.

Two new shoemaking workshop dates: Jan 18, 2025 for Lasts and Feb 7-9 for Design. exitshoes.com/workshops for details.