Soul for the sole

ON A RECENT DAY, four men at the shoemaking atelier Spigola in Nagata Ward, Kobe, were ardently stitching pieces of leather together, shaving wooden moulds and undertaking other tasks involved in making men’s order-made shoes. Only the sounds of threading and rasping could be heard in the otherwise quiet room.

Custom-made shoes, also called bespoke shoes, are handmade and designed to perfectly fit each client’s feet after consulting with the customer. Such one-and-only shoes made this way become more comfortable the longer they are worn, but cost more than ready-made shoes.

Yet the number of Japanese brands and Japanese craftspeople making such shoes are increasing, and the shoes are gaining in popularity at home and overseas.

The atelier is located in “shoes town,” an area that was developed after World War II as home to many manufacturers of vinyl chloride shoes.

It was opened in 2001. Koji Suzuki, who represents the atelier, trained under a renowned shoemaker in Florence, Italy, for slightly more than four years before he opened the atelier.

“Even minute inaccuracies can affect the comfort and expression of shoes,” Suzuki says. “So we must concentrate when working.”

Shoes manufactured at the atelier with fine, apparently Italian-influenced designs are popular and its clients are not only in Japan but also in the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere overseas.

The manufacturing process for a pair of order-made shoes involves more than 200 procedures. Roughly, the process starts with foot measurement, followed by making wooden moulds and sheet patterns, cutting the leather, making sample shoes for fitting and final sewing.

Suzuki emphasises foot measurement. With a tape measure in his hand, he talks with clients about when and where they want to wear the shoes they order, their hobbies, and various other matters. “I always make efforts to present shoes that fit their lifestyles and even enhance their characteristics,” he says.

Because the atelier’s shoes are sewn stitch by stitch, with minor revisions made down to the millimetre, it takes a minimum of 10 months to finish a pair. Due to the nature of the work, only eight to 10 pairs can be worked on per month. Prices start from 340,000 yen (Bt99,000), according to the atelier.

“Ordering custom-made shoes means you can get an original item that pursues good foot comfort and design,” says Isao Takeuchi, an editor with Sekai Bunka Publishing, which publishes the Men’s EX fashion magazine, among other titles.

 “It’s also delightful to have shoes made while having sincere discussions with shoemakers.”

Although each pair generally costs hundreds of thousands of yen, quite a few people think the skills of the craftspeople who put their all into each stitch, and also the warm touch of the shoes, make them worthy of their price tags, Takeuchi says.

The number of craftspeople making order-made shoes in Japan has been increasing since around 2000.

According to Kei Takegawa, who authored a book on quality Japanese shoes made by craftspeople, people began recognising the importance of handicrafts again around the mid-1990s. It was then that the boom in luxury men’s shoes occurred, too. 

On the back of this trend, the number of young people who learned shoemaking overseas increased. Upon returning home, they opened stores and gave lessons to teach their skills. In turn, their students began setting up shoemaking businesses, and the level of their skills is so high that it is said some of them hold events overseas to accept orders, while some deliver their products to long-established tailors in Italy.

“The number of shoemakers is currently decreasing in Europe, although it’s the home of shoemaking,” Takegawa says.

“So, the situation in Japan is very unusual. From now on, more [Japanese] shoemakers may work for wealthy people across the world or take over the businesses of renowned shoemakers overseas that have no successors.”