I suspect there may be no company mass producing shoe lasts left in the United States of America.
It’s been surprisingly tough finding good information about US lastmaking companies. There are all kinds of old general press mentions about how there used to be many of these firms. But I’ve had trouble finding names and pinning down details for even some of the larger firms that gobbled up smaller ones as the industry declined.
By 1998 there were only three last makers left in the U.S., including Jones & Vining. The company bought out its two competitors, one of which was Vulcan, a last maker based in Walnut Ridge. Jones & Vining moved its manufacturing operation to the Vulcan building in 1998.
The farewell song of Jones & Vining may have been trying to get a change to the Berry Amendment, or an independent procurement decision by the federal government, to buy the lasts for Berry-compliant military boots domestically, as well:
The company would like to expand, and with the aid of Congressman Marion Berry’s office, Jones & Vining are trying hard to get a last contract for military footwear.
“The boot has to be made here. The shoe laces, the eyelets, everything has to be made here. But, the shoe last can be bought from somewhere other than the United States like Mexico or China. We’d really love to get some of that business.”
The same article quotes plant manager Spencer Bruce as saying there were 64 last companies in America in 1959.
I was able to find online record of a much older DLA contract, way back in 1981. But nothing more recently. It doesn’t look like the lobbying push worked. It may not have been enough if it had.
The J&V thing hits me hard, being from Arkansas, where all trends over time (besides walmart) have been stories of jobs and skills moving abroad or to other states. There are a couple shoe factories, like a Belleville factory that depends on military contracts, and the one that makes some of the Thursday boots. Central Last Co was also in Arkansas, Van Buren I think
Thanks for that. Bunch of new wiki entries, if only stubs.
A quick search suggests Central was in Mammoth Spring.
I see no reason to doubt there were in fact many of these last companies, just as there were more finders and tanneries and peg mills and all the rest, when shoe production was still widespread and localized throughout the country. I suppose digging up those bones might make sense of stamps on old lasts auctioned online or dug out of rummage sales, but do relatively little for those of us trying to learn or do lastmaking going forward.
Maybe I’m wrong to think focusing on the final surviving companies will do much better. But I have found a few names, and I’m working my way to e-mail addresses.
Trade rags are a great place to go looking for information. I honestly don’t know what mass-production-market model makers read these days. Wish I did.
Might be a good place for piecing together the past. Im sure Sarah Guerin would know where the good historical nuggets can be found.
You could probably ask Tom Carbone about trade pubs, what with DCC being a real academic shoe design and making program.
I’ve been able to confirm with a lastmaker that Jones & Vining’s Walnut Ridge, Arkansas factory was the last remaining shoe last production facility in the US of A. It closed in 2020.
Which explains why all the Pacific Northwest boot shops started importing lasts from Mexico.
You suspect correctly. There are no last companies in the United States anymore. And… (I warn you that I am quite grumpy on this topic) I only know of two trained last makers in the US, and they are too old to want to open a business or teach. Here’s my real point, and I don’t seem to have to capacity to make people understand: Last making is a craft. Lasts are more than just vaguely foot or shoe shaped things. A good last creates shoes or boots that accommodate your foot, balances you properly, and allows you to walk without crippling yourself. The very idea that someone can make a cast of their foot and then make a proper last is offensive. The very idea that someone could just spontaneously start a last company with zero knowledge or training is offensive. The last is the heart of the shoe or boot. The last is the reason you’re able to walk properly in shoes and boots. Years and years of training and practice go into learning to make lasts. In short, the blithe assumption that we in the United States can just start making our own lasts is naive. We can’t. The knowledge is gone. The infrastructure is gone. The factories are gone. The machines are gone. The people who knew how to run the machines are gone. It’s all gone. We either (as a country) learn to play nice with our global partners, or we live in poverty and deprivation. Those are our only two choices.
I am quite interested in a model of buying [custom?] lasts as stl files from trained last designers and printing/assembling them locally. Even in an ideally cooperative world, I like the idea of not dealing with all the impact of shipping and packaging, and in my dream world it would even be recycling local materials. Ironically, my pal and I are still contributing to this problem in that she shipped me a set of PET-G 3D printed last from “3D Shoemaker” (looks nearly identical to Podohub?) How to 3D Print your own Shoe Lasts with Working Hinges - 3DShoemaker
I’m not sure what you could get away with regarding scrap wood and CNCs, but I know at the Innovation Barn the Girl Scouts are 3D printing with local plastic they collect at the facility. swoon.
I am not terribly looking forward to paying 25% more for lasts out of León. Nor am I expecting that price hike to sprout any new US lastmaking companies.
But I do think there is another option: learn to make lasts. That’s clearly possible, as many of the foreign producers show. Many didn’t exist even a couple decades ago. And there are advantages to starting afresh, with the benefit of the latest technology. Jumping right to four-axis milling of HDPE, for example. No hardwood. No lathes. No hand finishing back curves and toes. Ditto focusing just on what custom makers need, all model making and no grading.
I’m laminating blocks and tooling up to carve wood the old fashioned way. But I’m also trying out German orthopedic casting materials, scanning lasts, and chatting with folks using Rhino 3D and Blender online.
So far, when I’m able to get in touch with lastmakers, they’re excited and supportive about what I’m doing, going at it from scratch. I’ve never had one say it can’t be done by self-study. It doesn’t seem to insult anyone suggesting that I might, especially when it’s clear I’ve done all the research I can, and am hungry for more.
I don’t think anybody’s expecting my first garage lasts for friends to masterpieces, either. I’m not. But what I’m gathering, especially from the older folks, is that there aren’t any dark secrets or lineal superpowers involved, just as there aren’t in shoemaking. It’s just hard.
@Customboots, who were the two lastmakers you had in mind? If I haven’t e-mailed them, I should!
What you describe is not all that far from how many professional last companies work right now. Yin Hwa, for example, still has a model room in Portland. Many of those operations work specifically for last-specific lathes and milling machines, such as those from Newlast. But it’s possible to mill lasts in general-purpose machines, too. Perhaps slower.
You may have seen my post on German thermoplastic polyurethane for last casting. The other clear option is HDPE, the go-to material for mass producers. It’s safely meltable at kitchen temperatures, without substantial hazard below burning temperature. It’s really common in consumer liquid containers. You might like to check out:
People are melting down and reusing HDPE in things like panini presses, then molding in melamine and carving or turning down. It works.
I know far less about additive 3D printing, like with PETG. But I see internet shoemaking friends doing that, often by doing the last division on the computer and printing in separate parts, to fit within the working areas of their printers.
I’ve been doing this for a very, very long time. I do know what I’m talking about but… take it or leave it.
Make footwear is HARD. Making good footwear is hard. Making footwear that doesn’t cripple you is hard. Learning all the techniques is hard. Learning them well enough that they become muscle memory takes years. It is so tough, in fact, that the shoe industry originally developed as three separate crafts – clicking (cutting out the leather), closing (sewing it all together), and making (putting it on the last/soles/heels). Most makers in Europe are astonished that in the US one person does all of that.
Now add in learning to be a last maker. You’re simply never going to excel at all of this if you start halfway through your life and do it as a hobby. You would be so. much. farther. ahead. if you buy a last you trust and focus on shoe making.
None of your words are lost on me, @customboots! I read everything you take the time to write—more than once—and really try to take it to heart, too. I hope you never doubt that.
I’ll make a note and write you an e-mail this week.
