Shoemaking
Shoemaking is a traditional
handicraft profession, which has now been largely superseded by
industrial manufacture of
footwear.
Shoemakers (also known as cobblers) may produce a range of footwear items, including
shoes,
boots,
sandals,
clogs and
moccasins. Such items are generally made of
leather,
wood,
rubber,
plastic,
jute or other plant material, and often consist of multiple parts for better durability of the
sole, stitched to a leather upper.
Most shoemakers use a
last—made traditionally of iron or wood, but now often of wood—on which to form the shoe. Some lasts are straight, while curved lasts come in pairs: one for left shoes, the other for right shoes.
The shoemaking profession makes a number of appearances in popular culture, such as in stories about
shoemaker's elves, and the
proverb "The shoemaker's children are often shoeless". The
patron saint of shoemakers is
Saint Crispin.
Some types of ancient and traditionally-made shoes include:
* Furs wrapped around feet, and sandals wrapped over them: used by
Romans fighting in northern Europe.
* Clogs: wooden shoes, often filled with straw to warm the feet.
* Mocassins: simple shoes, often without the durability of joined shoes (although different types of leather have different wear characteristics).
The
Society for Creative Anachronism offers some advice about making period shoes.
Current crafters may use used car
tire tread as a cheap alternative to creating soles.
Well-known people named Shoemaker include:
*
Eugene Merle Shoemaker, who co-discovered
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.
*
Willie Shoemaker a.k.a. "The Shoe" or Bill Shoemaker, record-setting U.S. horseman who rode
thoroughbred horses to victory in 8,833 official races (including four times in the
Kentucky Derby) during his career (
1949–
1990). He held the career record for more than 28 years.
*
Sylvia Browne, the authoress who was born Sylvia Celeste Shoemaker.
*
Michael Schumacher, F1 champion
*
Henry Wharton Shoemaker (1880-1958), an American folklorist, diplomat, and writer, among other things.
*
Cobbler*
Order of the Knights of St Crispin, an American labor union of 50,000 shoemakers c. 1870
*
Historical footwear*
A Beginner's Addendum to Making Shoes — Addendum to a (non-available) article on how to make shoes
*
Simple Shoemaking — Commercial site about shoemaking
*
Bootmaker dot com — Various commercial and non-commercial resources about bootmaking
