Seeing a pair of shoes made by somebody else’s own two hands is like witnessing the reveal of a great magic trick. It inspires amazement and is a complete mystery as to how it happened.
If you need a new pair of shoes, your first thought typically isn’t to make your own. You go to the Nike SNKRS app, see what’s coming up, set a notification, get a reminder that they are being released, get nervous, sit still in a chair at 8:59 AM and stare at your phone, refresh the app several times before deciding that refreshing may actually slow you down, see the shoes come online, desperately hit buttons on your phone with shaking fingers and then feel the crush of disappointment when you find out you didn’t get them. Then you settle for some basic bullsh!t from Nike.com that any old a$$hole can get. You are not special. You are just like everyone else.
There is good news. The Shoe Surgeon is here to break the wheel.
The Shoe Surgeon is a guy out in Los Angeles named Dominic Ciambrone who started Surgeon Studios which, according to the website, is a “collective of creatives, built to inspire creativity, further the industry and push the unique and timeless craft of custom shoe making and design.”
Their sh!t is legit, in both design and craftsmanship. They deconstruct and reconstruct sneakers (Air Jordan 1s are a very popular silhouette, for example), often in exotic, luxury or unusual materials like python skin, deconstructed Gucci luggage or an Ikea bag. If that sounds expensive, that’s because it is. The shoes they release on the website are typically between $3,000 and $5,000 to purchase.
YOU: I thought you said it was good news, you privileged white pr!ck!! (opening and closing a window on your head)
Here is the good news, Slappy. The Shoe Surgeon also started Shoe Surgeon Shoe School to teach you how to deconstruct and reconstruct a pair of shoes yourself.
If you were to google “how to make sneakers” on the internet you’d find bits and pieces of the process here and there. I guess if you spent several hours on bad websites and watching bad YouTube videos you might be able to cobble a decent process together and could fill in missing holes as you go through trial and error. Shoe Surgeon Shoe School hands you the process, the tools and the materials in one tidy package.
The classes have traditionally been held in specific major cities around the globe (mostly New York City and Los Angeles). They cost anywhere between $3,500 and $5,000, not including travel and lodging (looks like breakfast, lunch and one dinner are included).
YOU: That’s still too expensive for the average person, you Slave Master of the White Male Patriarchy!! (throwing yourself down the stairs)
I know. Keep reading, Fu@ko.
Shoe Surgeon Shoe School just released their first 30 day online course. Through a series of detailed, pre-recorded videos you will learn every step of the process from deconstruction to pattern making to reconstruction. They have packages you can purchase with all the tools and leathers you’ll need, and you can add on leather packages of different colors if you so choose. For the few things they don’t sell, they will provide Amazon links to get what you need. How much? $649, plus another few hundred bucks for a sewing machine and the aforementioned materials.
The price is still close to $1,000, which is an investment to be sure. But learning this process from the comfort of your own home and ending up not only with the knowledge of how to do it but also the literal and figurative tools to be able to do it again – there is a lot of value there. There is also some proprietary information included, like the shoe pattern for an Air Jordan 1, specifically designed for hand lasting a shoe (vs. the patterns you could create from deconstructing a factory made shoe). The Shoe Surgeon sells these patterns he created for individual silhouettes on his website (e.g. Air Force 1, Air Jordan 3, etc.), but they’re $500 each. So there is a bulk or group discount element to the overall cost.
I also have a lot of appreciation for people who have spent years accumulating expertise in a certain field only to make that expertise available to others. The Shoe Surgeon could have hoarded this knowledge for profit and glory, but instead he is paying it forward. Sure, he charges for the class and probably makes a profit, but he’s also potentially training his future competition. There is a generosity of spirit there, an understanding that it was a long and difficult road to get where he got and maybe he can make it easier for the next generation of shoe artists by collecting what he’s learned and making it available for others. I’m glad to support this. Shout out to two other generous spirits who have done similar things: Sam Harris with his Waking Up meditation app (if you email him and explain that you can’t afford the subscription he’ll give it to you for free) and Scott Myers with his screenwriting blog Go Into The Story (many free resources, an incredible amount of information).
Justifications aside, all of this to say I love shoes, appreciate the Shoe Surgeon and am taking his class. The next four installments of this blog will show you how it goes. With any luck I will be sporting a homemade pair of AJ1s by early February. If you don’t end up liking my design, I’ll take this opportunity to invite you up front to suck it.
Day 1: Intro and Design
The Intro video is pretty much what you think it is – welcome, here’s what we’re going to do, etc. On to Design.
The Shoe School has some features built into the software portal (called Monthly, if that means anything to anyone), one of which is a fairly limiting design tool. They only let you choose three colors and those colors aren’t always close to the actual color of the leathers you have. Here’s where I’m starting.
Day 2: Deconstructing the Shoe
Day 2 is all about deconstructing the “donor” pair of shoes you are starting with. I grabbed a pair of my recently purchased AJ1 Mids because I like the blue outsole (the part of the sole that touches the ground on the bottom) and the midsole is still pretty clean.
The only part of the donor shoe you need is the sole. Let’s do this, Dom!
I’m told to take the laces off and remove the insole from the interior footbed of the shoe. In there you’ll see 4 loose threads probably taped down to the bottom. The threading starts and stops on the medial side of the sole (inside part of the foot). Find roughly where the threads line up and then pull the stitching out of the midsole that attaches it to the upper section of the shoe using a scratch awl.
Once you get the thread out, the next step is to pour Acetone, an adhesive remover, into the shoe and swish it around to get full coverage around the inside of the sole. The Acetone works to loosen the glue bonding the sole to the upper. It’s is a pretty fume-y chemical, so they recommend you execute this step either outside or in a well-ventilated room. They also recommend you wear certain gear to protect yourself.
Once the Acetone loosens the midsole from the upper you can use a bone folder to peel away the sides of the sole, ultimately allowing you to carefully separate the sole from the upper. This can be difficult. I had a tough time separating the sides of the shoes (where the white leather meets the sole), maybe because I didn’t focus enough of the Acetone there? Regardless, I got it done.
Once you have the soles removed, Dominic says he likes to write his intent in the soles, something that nobody will see but you will know is there. I love this. I’ve become a big fan of “hidden design” in general. It’s like wearing a suit with a wild lining inside the suit jacket. The world doesn’t see it, but you know it’s there and that little design spark makes it a little more satisfying to wear.
Days 3-7, Part 1: Pattern Prep
Day 3 throws a lot at you: pattern prep, tracing patterns onto leather and cutting them out and skiving (that’s a real word, not a typo). Fortunately, they give you five days to do it.
The Pattern Prep phase is basically cutting out the shoe part patterns and getting them ready to trace onto the leather.
You also need to cut out the “registration marks” that help to line up the leather pieces, and punch holes out of the pattern (haven’t done any hole punching yet, except with your mom).
That’s it for this week. I’ll leave you with a little bit of extra flavor. Here is some artwork that hangs in my workspace. It is a collaboration between me and my 7 year-old daughter.
Hope your 2021 has been trending upward. See you next week.
-MG
