My local shoe friend Gitty Duncan has me thinking about what it would take to split up work between makers around the US, either for making pairs where people specialize in particular steps, or for group projects where, say, five participants make five shoes all at once, passing each pair to the next person in the circle for each stage, like patterning, closing, sewing, bottoming, and finishing.
USPS Flat-Rate Boxes
Here’s a table of flat-rate shipping boxes that I made some time ago, cut down to just some larger sizes. I don’t know whether it’s still current:
| Size | Inside Dimensions | Postage | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Length | Width | Height | Commercial | At Post Office | ||||
| Medium, Top-Loading | 11″ | 27.9 cm | 8 1⁄2″ | 21.6 cm | 5 1⁄2″ | 14.0 cm | $16.65 | $19.15 |
| Medium, Side-Loading | 13 5⁄8″ | 34.6 cm | 11 7⁄8″ | 30.2 cm | 3 3⁄8″ | 8.6 cm | $16.65 | $19.15 |
| Large | 12″ | 30.5 cm | 12″ | 30.5 cm | 5 1⁄2″ | 14.0 cm | $23.95 | $26.30 |
USPS Shoe Boxes
I also found that USPS offers boxes designed for shipping shoes, though I don’t believe these come with any kind of associated postage discount:
Outside: 14⅞×5¼×7⅜″
Inside: 14⅜×5⅛×7¼″
You can get a pack of these free from USPS, but they come marked for Priority Mail only.
If I put a pair of size 12B Allen Edmonds Park Avenue shoes with cedar shoe tress, plus some bubble wrap, into one of these boxes and put it on a scale, it weights almost exactly 4 pounds.
Using some random residential addresses found via Google Maps, shipping Priority Mail from Oakland:
| To | Postage |
|---|---|
| Outer Sunset, San Francisco | $10.24 |
| MacArthur Park, LA | $13.38 |
| Austin, TX | $24.76 |
| Tampa, FL | $24.87 |
| Montclare, Chicago | $24.87 |
| Cedar Park, Philadelphia | $24.87 |