No conversation about the all-time great women's shoe designers is complete without a very long segue into Stuart Weitzman. Born into a shoemaking family who manufactured for decades in longtime US shoemaking hub Haverhill, Massachusetts, Weitzman quickly established himself as the rare shoemaker to both the stars AND literally any woman who just wanted a fantastic pair of shoes.

For this chat, we covered why comfort matters so much and how to make it happen, why Stuart ended up in Spain after US manufacturing went kaput, that time Aretha Franklin pulled her shoes off at the AMAs to thank him, his various muses through the decades, his incredible donations to an in-the-works Historic New England shoe museum project, and plenty more.

HUGE thanks to Stuart and Historic New England for all the support in making this episode.
https://www.historicnewengland.org/

Production: Aiden McDonald x Visual Sound Productions https://www.visualsoundprod.com/

This episode was sponsored by Coblr—the business management system powering the repair industry. https://www.coblros.com/

Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership

https://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/

Check out our site!

https://www.stitchdown.com/

2025 dates and location for Stitchdown's Boot Camp 3—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—coming soon.

https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/

Women's Shoe Icon Stuart Weitzman on Nudists, Aretha Franklin & The First Shoe He Ever Sold