Hallo. I’m taking an online sneaker deconstruction/reconstruction class from the Shoe Surgeon and am documenting the process as I go. If you missed the first four parts of this series you can check them out here:
Days 24-30: Attaching Soles and Finishing the Shoe
At the end of Part 4 I had just finished closing the Upper and wearing it as a hat.
I finished my day by wearing my pants as mittens and my winter coat as a kilt. Being a traditionalist, I opted to go commando under my makeshift kilt and I’m happy to report that the public indecency charges have been dropped and I am allowed near elementary schools again.
After waiting a few days for my final lessons to unlock, I am anxious to get this shoe completed. The light at the end of the tunnel is bright, warm and inviting and I’m sick of wearing this thing on my head. Time to get Lasting.
The Lasting process is basically where you give the shoe it’s proper shape by placing it on the shoe Last, which is a mold of the foot in your size and made specifically for this Air Jordan 1. After some Liner trimming and sanding the Lasting Allowance (area at the bottom of the Upper that gets folded under the shoe to hold it in place), it’s time to lace up the Upper in preparation for putting it on the Last.
Before we cram the Upper on we have to prepare the Last. I cover the bottom with masking tape and then sand around the edges to “cut” the tape to fit the bottom of the Last exactly. Once done, I carefully peel the tape off the Last and affix it to some card stock to create a pattern (which I can keep and use again later, thumbs up emoji). This pattern will be traced onto the Lasting Board so I can cut out the Lasting Soles upon which I will attach the Upper.
To keep the Lasting Soles on the Last you have to, guess what, bond them with double sided tape and then nail them down.
What’s very fun about the next step is realizing that my second jar of contact cement broke open in transit and glued its own cap shut. I go into full Camping Mode and use the can opener extension on my Leatherman to cut that b!tch open. I need to spread the contact cement on the bottom of the Lasting Soles and on the Lasting Allowance of the upper.
Side note: I found it counter-intuitive that you need to let the cement dry and tack up in order to get the strongest bond between the cemented surfaces. It’s also a little cleaner on the hands once it’s tacky and not so liquid.
Getting the Upper onto the Last isn’t too hard, but you have to make sure you line it up properly or you’re going to get a shoe that’s off center and therefore fu@ked-up looking. The markings I made on my leather pieces when tracing them out help with this, like the silver dot on the heel below.
Once I find the center point I stick the heel down, tacky cement on tacky cement. This makes a nice bond, but it’s a good idea to tap it with a hammer to make sure you’ve really stuck it on there (yes, really). Once the heel is in place, it’s important to line the toe up in a similar fashion and then pin that down with a combination of the cement and a Lasting Nail. Once that’s done it’s time to grab the Lasting Pliers and pull the rest of that sh!t into place.
The idea here is to get the Upper pulled relatively tightly onto the Lasting Sole but only to the Lasting Allowance markers you drew onto your leather pieces in the beginning. And you want the upper to be smooth agains the Last, all the way around, as much as possible.
Hot d@mn, these are shoe-looking Uppers. I apply a little extra contact cement around the lasted bottom to extra-secure them and then skive the excess Lasting Allowance with a box cutting knife so they will lay flush in the soles.
Finally, ready for soles.
The good news is I forgot to get good pictures of preparing the soles with contact cement, heating them up with a heat gun and putting them on the lasted shoe. Actually that’s bad news and there is no good news. But I did it and here’s what it looked like after it was done.
There is one final thing to do before I put these on my impatient feet. To reinforce the Sole-Upper connection I need to stitch them together through the pre-existing stitch holes in the Soles I took from the donor pair of AJ1s I deconstructed in Part 1. You do this using a Hook Awl.
The Hook Awl has a hook at the end (no sh!t!) that is used to grab the thread and pull it through to the other side. I start on the medial side of the shoe (inside of the foot) and work my way around. The Toe is the hardest part because you can’t see the thread and hook. At some point you develop a feel for it but it’s easy to fray the thread if you’re not careful.
The Shoe Surgeon says he finds this the most fun and meditative part of the process. I didn’t want to finish it too quickly. I loved the entire process and wanted the experience to last as long as possible. As I get older there aren’t too many first-time-I-get-to-do-somethings left. I may have to bring this up with my wife.
The truth is I couldn’t slow it down too much. There was another competing motivation moving it along. In the end, my desire to have them on my feet for the first time outweighed my desire to prolong the process. So I finished.
My first impression is that they feel good. You can immediately tell that these AJ1s are made with a higher quality leather than the standard AJ1s you get from Nike these days. They are soft and move easily. There was literally no break-in period before they felt comfortable. I don’t know how they’ll hold up in the elements outside or if they will be durable, but that’s really beside the point. If they fall apart tomorrow it would actually be a good source of information on how to do it better next time.
My basic review of the class is that it was very well done. The videos were clear and instructive. The written directions and diagrams that accompanied the videos were great supplements as well. There were a few hiccups along the way (e.g. they forgot to give us the Tongue pattern initially) but those oversights were quickly remedied and will likely be solved ahead of the next group to take the class. The interaction with my peer group was great on many levels. It was good to commiserate with other people going through the same thing and I got a lot of helpful tips and tricks from people who had figured things out before I did. It was inspiring to watch the group’s incredible designs come to life.
A quick shoutout to Monthly who hosted this class. Monthly is an online platform that hosts several creative how-to classes, each one taught over a 30 day period (thus the name “Monthly”). It looks like they have a lot of cool stuff, including this Shoe Surgeon Shoe School course. I may check out their music production class sometime in the future if I can find the time.
Was it worth the money and time? 100% yes, especially because I am now set up with the tools and knowledge to do it again. It was extremely satisfying to make something with your hands that you can love. We’re often told that our possessions don’t define us but the truth is that some objects that we own give us deep satisfaction. Some of our possessions are so well made, so comfortable, so beautiful, or so meaningful beyond the object itself that they take on a larger psychic dimension than their physical being would portray. Don’t feel bad about loving some of your sh!t. I love these hand made shoes.
I’ve already set up one side of my little office with a crafting table to make more. I also have a few extra supplies on the way so I can get started (again). Thank you Dominic Ciambrone, a.k.a. The Shoe Surgeon. This has been a blast.
-MG
