Custom • Sneaker Boots
Im just getting onto blog posts now so I'll be sharing a few older custom orders - this weeks are the Sneaker Boots from last year!
A customer contacted me wanting something with the detailed paneling of a sneaker, but with a finer leather sole that would be more reminiscent of a dress boot. I'd never done anything like this before, but it sounded interesting and I was definitely up for the challenge.
I'll be sharing a few notable steps of the process with you here - but definitely not all the steps - we'd be here all day!
Lets get into it!
The first part of the process was to create a mockup to test the fit and design details. On a mockup like this - we could easily mark on if we wanted to mave any design lines around as well as quickly modify the design by simply cutting sections away. This customer also had particularly small ankles so that was a slight challenge with the pattern making - ensuring the fit was right, whilst also maintaining appealing aesthetic proportions. I think we got there in the end!
They also requested all black but with contrast textured panels. This was a bit tricky! To achieve this I used a black chrome calf for the toe, side panel, lacing and heel panels, a pigskin for the ankle puff area and tongue and a highly textured sheep for the main body. The sheep was the main issue in that it had a high level of stretch so I first laminated it to a pigskin in a cross-grain direction so as to reduce the stretch of both laminated leathers as much as possible.
Here you can see the upper and lining all sewn up and being lasted, as well as the green geometric feature stitching on the tongue.
Another interesting detail on these, and something I hadn't done before - was the beaded leather randing - visible here on the finished edge between the upper and the sole. We decided on this randing as it would create a bit of a buffer between the upper and the soling, whilst still maintaining the finer edge we were after. A normal randing would've added a bit too much bulk to the appearance. The soling and heel on these was full vegetable tanned leather with a rubber heel topper, and then blake-stitched to finish.
All finished up! Let me know what you think in the comments below or get in touch to get started on your very own custom order :)
