Shoegazing Podcast

We live in a digital world, and nowadays a lot of both marketing and sales takes place solely online in various ways. One online shoe retailer who have successfully used all the digital possibilities is Kostas Mandilaris of The Noble Shoe, who sells among others Carlos Santos, Paolo Scafora and Crockett & Jones. In this episode we talk about the benefits and challenges with selling relatively expensive quality shoes only online, about how to work with digital marketing in various ways, and much more. This is actually the first episode that’s been recorded after the coronavirus has turned the world upside down, and since one can’t travel like normal and I very much prefer to do these podcast interviews in person, we will likely see some more local Nordic folks represented the coming months. Luckily, we have lots of interesting shoe people up here.

For this episode I met Takashi Fukuda, who is a legendary buyer at the department store Isetan Men’s in Tokyo. For many years he has been the head buyer at their shoe department, and has been highly influential on what will be found on the shoe shelves at Isetan Men’s. Isetan is a Japanese chain of department stores, with it’s huge flagship store in Shinjuku in central Tokyo. There they have one building dedicated to women’s fashion and more, and one whole building with only men’s clothing and accessories. The shoe department of Isetan Men’s is likely the largest one in the world when it comes to quality shoes. It is an incredible place for shoe lovers, with everything from low-end Blake stitched shoes up to some of the best bespoke shoes in the world, and everything in between. I usually travel to Japan and Tokyo once a year, and the first day I arrive I always head directly to Isetan Men’s to browse the shelves and to see what’s new since my last visit. For makers of quality shoes, not just Japanese but from all over the world, Isetan Men’s is the single most prestigious store to be represented at. They have a huge impact on what will be popular among the Japanese, which together with the US is the largest market for quality shoes there is. And since other stores and shoe agencies from around the world always have an eye at Isetan Men’s, what is found here often quickly get traction also in Europe, the US and elsewhere as well. So, I sat down to talk with Takashi Fukuda about the impact that Isetan Men’s has had on the shoe industry in Japan, and abroad, how they work when bringing in new brands, and how they are going to keep its relevance in the increasingly digital world. Takashi Fukuda isn’t the best English speaker, hope for leniency, but I’m sure you’ll find it a good listen anyway.

This episode was recorded at the Micam shoe fair in Milan, Italy, back in February. In this episode we’re meeting Jonathan Church, one of the owners of the British firm Cheaney & Sons. Jonathan has worked in the footwear industry for three decades, first in the firm bearing his family name, Church’s, later with Cheaney. Cheaney was one of the last Northampton based shoe factories to transcend from focusing on Private Label to sell shoes under their own name, which they did after Jonathan and his cousin William Church acquired the company in 2009. It has resulted in a massive increase in both turnover and profits. Our talk focus around this topic, but we also talk about his experience of the Prada takeover of Church’s, and about Brexit.

This time you will meet Robin Chang, founder of the leading quality shoe store in Taiwan, Oak Room, located in the capital Taipei. He has been involved in the shoe business for many years, and is considered one of the foremost experts on the classic shoe industry in Asia. In this episode we will focus on the situation for factories making classic quality shoes as well as bespoke shoemakers in Asia, outside of Japan. It’s a topic that many in Europe or the US know very little of. Things are happening quickly in this part of the world, and this industry has come further than many believe. We will talk about how China has already moved away from being a low cost production country for shoes, nowadays it’s countries like Laos and Vietnam where manufacturing of quality shoes is growing the quickest. This has meant that we now see a lot of new Chinese independent shoemakers making fully handmade shoes, raised in a shoe industry that in parts have moved on, and now thanks to social media they can reach customers themselves. We also talk about for example how the very affordable, often very well-made Asian made quality shoes will be pushing European manufacturers, as they come into play as proper competition, we will go into the situation with customers in the domestic countries, and much, much more. You have a very informative half an hour in front of you, enjoy!

This episode was recorded at the Micam shoe fair in Milan, Italy, back in February. I sat down with Richard Utting, Export Manager at Loake, the famous British manufacturer of Goodyear welted shoes. Loake was a brand that, contrary to many other Northampton based companies, first got big on the domestic market and then went on to grow internationally. Richard Utting has been a large part of this journey, and we had a very interesting talk about everything from how to succeed internationally and why it’s beneficial to be on different markets, to how brand building has increased importance also for makers of classic shoes and of course about Brexit.

Christophe Corthay is a legendary bespoke shoemaker from France. He has spent more than three decades making shoes, previously with his brother Pierre at Maison Corthay, but nowadays he runs Atelier du Tranchet together with Sebastian "Toulouz" Algans and Phillippe de Paillette. Those who’ve seen their shoes know that most of them are truly artistic creations, that looks like nothing you see from other brands. So I decided to talk to Christophe Corthay about the sometimes slightly controversial topic: shoes and art.

In this episode of the Shoegazing Podcast I met Maslow So from Hong Kong, the man behind the brand Mori of Shoemakers, who in a very interesting way try to combine elements from bespoke shoes with factory-made RTW shoes. Mori has various bespoke shoemakers from around the world designing lasts and models, and then a factory in China producing hand welted lovely looking shoes offered at a very competitive price. We sat down and talked about this project, and about merging bespoke and factory-made.

Meet the famous shoemaker Hiro Yanagimachi, one of the pioneers of the new wave of Japanese bespoke shoemaking. When he started his business two decades ago there were only a few Japanese making bespoke shoes, today there’s more than 50 bespoke shoemakers in the country, now one of the leading scenes in the world. How this came to be is what we focused our discussion around.

What's the main challenges when setting up a new shoe brand, how is it to be a small player working together with a big factory, and how do you succeed in today's highly competitive market? These are some of the questions that Tom Brone, the man behind the brand Sons of Henrey, answers in this episode.

Hear bespoke shoemaker Daniel Wegan talk about dedication, which took him to the bespoke department of Gaziano & Girling, made him the head of the same department, and this year he won the World Championships in Shoemaking. He also gives a bunch of advice to aspiring shoemakers.

In this episode, I met the famous Japanese bespoke shoemaker Yohei Fukuda, who besides making some of the finest shoes in the world, also have been very successful with creating a brand image, something quite difficult especially for small bespoke shoemakers. It’s around this topic we focused our discussion.

For the first edition of the Shoegazing Podcast, I sat down with Patrik Löf, founder and owner of the famous Swedish shoe shop Skoaktiebolaget, to talk about the journey they have been on and about the past, current and future situation for multi-brand men’s shoe stores.