Greetings

[kemitchell]

@cjackson, so glad to have you here!

This was quite the post. There’s so much to discuss here. Hopefully we get to all of it, somewhere down the line.

Intros sure are great.

First off, I’d just like to say that I have personally really appreciated a number of your posts on Reddit. And that was before having any real idea of who you are or how you got into shoes or how long you’ve been at it—in short, without any introduction. I’ve been on Reddit a long time, but I’ve always been on old-school forums before, during, and since. Intros are a part of the older forum world that I really miss, for just this reason.

Discussion Styles, Hopes, and Dreams

@cjackson

I find that I prefer technical discussions about shoemaking, rather than some of the bullying and infighting that occurs on the shopping-based shoe forums like r/GYW, so I rarely read about factory-made shoes anymore.

I want you and anyone else to know that while I generally intend to my Awesome Moderation Powers as Guy Who Just Happened to Set Up the Forum as sparingly as I can, I am personally way more interested in seeing discussions here veer positive, practical, and very literally constructive. This should be a welcome place for anyone making or repairing shoes. I hope that shared experience, not Internet presence or time spent online, stays the bedrock.

As for /r/goodyearwelt, I’d be lying if I said I don’t check it still, though I’ve less and less reason to. I still very much keep up on what some mass-production manufacturers turn out, and learn a lot from it. I made a recent post revisiting some work boot patterning points, for example. I’m hoping Red Wing trickles out more information on its 224 last with the recent re-release of their “Beckman” model. But the consumer-side chatter on these topics is a whole different matter. I’m not really interested in that, either.

@cjackson, I hope you won’t hesitate a minute to write about the kinds of discussions and resources you’d like to see here on this forum. I’d also encourage you to be “constructively selfish”, starting the kinds of topics you’d like to see without waiting for anyone’s approval or go-ahead. It’s what this place needs right now.

Hobby

@cjackson

I don’t have any plans of making the next great shoe or boot company, or even selling anything - I just want to make shoes for family and friends and enjoy the craft purely as a hobby. I see it as something I’d like to continue enjoying as I get older. You never know what the future holds, but that’s been my plan up until now.

This really resonated with me. I am nearing the stage where I really want to start making for others, likely starting with close friends.

The older folks in my life still call me a young man. I’m inching up toward forty. But I’m happy to see lots of examples of shoemakers continuing well into their sixties. I’d love to see a discussion here about ways older shoe and boot makers have tweaked their tools and setups for more comfort and less injury.

@cjackson

I believe that we are still in the infancy of this hobby as a modern revival, and there will be a lot more to come. Things could be very different from now in 10 years, if not 5 years. I have seen the evolution of the collective internet knowledge of shoes from basically nothing worthwhile 20 years ago to the point we are at now, where people have turned arguing about shoe factoids online into a sport. I think with people like us actually making shoes at home, this is the next big evolution of that.

Amen, brother.

I won’t pretend to see everything that’s going from a ten-thousand-foot view. But I see the way that remaining custom/bespoke makers in the UK and USA opened up over the last working generation or two, and the way that’s made it easier and far less daring for the casually curious to jump into making, especially with the benefit of videos online. I can speculate that had something to do with the near total massacre of once-thriving domestic mass production, rising concerns about perpetuating the craft, and simple loneliness without many to talk to. Fellow custom makers in those markets probably look an awful more like potential allies than primary competitors these days.

I’m personally hoping the trickle-down effect of all that new sharing leads to some new ideas that eventually end up back in the industry, improving the kinds of shoes nearly everyone can afford.