The Stitchdown Shoecast

George Curleigh has been president of Red Wing’s heritage division since 2019, in which time he’s been able to enjoy a list of very fun things including a worldwide pandemic, a factory shut-down, a cyber-attack, a periodically dwindling labor force, a broken supply chain for US-made components, and his OWN CHILDREN stealing his boots. So what’s the general feeling in Red Wing, Minnesota, according to George? Actually pretty fantastic. Retail expansion is going hugely well, especially in Asia. The European and North American markets are showing a ton of strength. A new factory recently came online. And after a massive contraction, a flurry of new styles are being released, and old classics everyone wants revived. We get into all of that, plus why Red Wing buried a time capsule full of boots and manufacturing instructions to be dug up in 120 years, how that endeavor led to realizing Red Wing founder Charles Beckman survived a deadly shipwreck off Nova Scotia back in the 1900s, what it was like coming to old-school-as-it-comes Red Wing from Arc'teryx, one off the world’s most technologically driven apparel companies, how to get people loving working in a boot factory, and why that aforementioned time when his son swiped his 875s was actually a hugely meaningful moment, in the best way.  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 membershiphttps://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/

This past fall, Matt Paisley launched a shoe repair program at Colorado's Thunder Ridge high school, with nearly two dozen students taking the plunge and immediately being drawn into the program, skill development, and practical hands-on cobbling work. I had Matt lay out a blueprint for how he navigated making the shoe repair program happen, and the curriculum he’s been teaching in the first, legitimately monumental go-round. The fact that Matt’s program exists is a wonderful and inspiring story on its own—as is all the remarkable help that’s been offered by the repair and quality footwear community. But potential for Matt’s idea and approach to spread to other schools is what makes this, in my humble estimation, one of the most important episodes we’ve ever published. Here’s Matt Paisley, the guy who lit the spark that just might fix a broken shoe repair pipeline, on the Shoecast.  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 membershiphttps://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/

My chat this week is with Vanessa Arroyo, founder and designer of SERES Footwear, a focused line designed from the ground up with high-quality natural materials in a way that’s not often seen in the women’s space.Once known as “the weird girl in high school making her own clothes” and thrown into shoemaking almost by chance, Vanessa fell in love with the art and craft of shoemaking between New York City, Chicago, and Leon Mexico, where she found unexpected meaning in her Mexican-American heritage—and sometimes had to stop working when it was raining too hard (you'll see what she means, I kinda love that part).As she walks us through the cobblestone streets of León, Vanessa paints a vivid picture of a shoemaking community bound by heart, heritage, and hands-on artistry. We explore how that local ecosystem fuels creativity, what might be lost as manufacturing drifts further overseas, eand how working within constraints can actually sharpen a design process.I’m also hugely excited and quite honored to have SERES as our first-ever exclusively women’s-focused brand at our Stitchdown’s Boot Camp Chicago quality footwear expo on November 8th, 2025—if you’re reading this before then, trust me, GET YOURSELF TO CHICAGO, you won’t be disappointed by what Vanessa and our other 45 vendors have to showcase.Here’s Vanessa Arroyo, of SERES Footwear, on the Shoecast. 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 membershiphttps://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/

This week on the Shoecast our chat is with Clayton Chambers, founder of the Substack newsletter Sprezza and general menswear individual about the world. After running through the footwear signposts in his own life, from churchboy penny loafers to the Clark’s Wallabees he just can’t quit, Clayton digs in on footwear brands in and outside the welted space he’s really feeling, the rise of menswear brand- and product line-building done the slow and steady way, and why the younger generation might just be the unlock to a more widespread quality revival. https://www.sprezza.xyz/https://www.instagram.com/sprezza__/https://www.instagram.com/clayton.chambrs/ 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 membershiphttps://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/

The one and only Tichoblanco, aka Tichoblancoshoes, aka just plain old Ticho, is BACK. Where’s he been?Well he’ll tell ya all about that. What’s he been up to? The biggest answer to that is: happily grinding on his Østmo x Iron Boots project along with Cheng and Kai from Iron Boots, and Østmo boots mad genius maker Lars Jensen. Lars was actually our first-ever guest on this show, back at a time when he was still making any boot he wanted, in any size, and any leather, and getting hundreds of people to enter a lottery for it. The power of Lars.Ticho’s here to recount his personal story of meeting Lars even before all THAT, and how their pan-oceanic friendship eventually birthed one of the cooler and most unique ongoing collaborations out there anywhere—which is about to hit an entirely new level, one you’ll be able to see up close at Boot Camp 2025 Chicago this November. Yes we’ll talk about that too. Here’s the man they call Tichoblanco, on the Shoecast.  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 membershiphttps://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/

In part two of a tag-team with the Full Grain Podcast, the ever-handsome/charming Phil Kalas grills Ben on what to expect at Stitchdown's Boot Camp Chicago 2025 mega-expo and footwear-loving community epicenter this November. Japanese and Indonesian boot brands? Tanneries galore? Truly excellent women's footwear? The world's best care products? Red Wing & SB Foot??? Yes indeed. And oh so much more. Wherever you are in this world, do everything you can to get to Chicago on and around November 8th, 2025—you really, really won't hate it. https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/fullgrainpodcast/ 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 membershiphttps://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/

Last week we had our Stitchdown community's first gathering at the new Viberg NYC store—an honestly fabulous-looking little shop in Manhattan’s Nolita neighborhood that’s full of  Viberg’s core classic product like stitchdown 2030 and 310 last service boots, but also the loafers and monk straps and split-toe derbies that represent a wholly new—and often confounding for longtime fans—direction for the 94 year old Canadian manufacturer.Amidst the excellent chatter and beers and everyone trying on seemingly every shoe in the shop, we hosted an audience Q&A with Brett Viberg, who gave a ton of insight on everything from how Viberg’s ended up where it is, who Brett sees as the core customer today and going forward, what leathers we might be seeing coming down the line, how his relentless development process functions, and plenty more. This shorter cut of some key questions is available to any Shoecast listener, but if you want the full 40-plus minutes of Brett, it’s available to all Stitchdown Premium subscribers on our private feed, along with a growing cache of other subscriber-only bonus episodes. If you’re interested, check out stitchdown.com for more info on our damned wonderful community and all the benefits. 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 membershiphttps://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/

FREE Shoecast Bonus Episode—we've got plenty more for Stitchdown Premium subsribersJason Pecarich of Division Road and Motiv/Arch Support Project co-founder Samuel Wei came on to discuss ASP's legitimately unique approach to footwear, how Motiv broke through Division Road’s no-China policy, and how Chinese customers are finding themselves more drawn towards high-quality heritage products. Also: the ways tariffs are affecting Chinese brands from an export and domestic standpoint, and why certain special Chinese products might reasonably cost as much as things made elsewhere. More than any episode we’ve published, this one offers an uncommon look inside the Chinese economy, mindset, and evolving relationship with quality. I also really loved this quote from Samuel:“Right now the heritage market is half western- and half Japanese-influenced. For a Chinese player to enter that world, I think I need a new angle. So what can I do to have a share in that market? I have to do something really original.”For Motiv and Arch Support, heritage is more of a method—certain standard of doing things. I think we can always re-arrange the forms to create something that meets the quality of the heritage world—but something very new, something people haven’t seen before. Our products look a little bit different, but somehow they still share some languages with the heritage world.I really want to push the boundaries of defining heritage. For us, it’s the principles of the craft,  but not necessarily in nostalgic form.” https://divisionroadinc.com/collections/arch-support-projecthttps://divisionroadinc.com/collections/motivmfghttps://www.motivmfg.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 membershiphttps://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/

It’s not a stretch to say there is no quality footwear culture quite like Japan’s. But WHY does the Japanese passion for making and wearing great boot and shoes  exist?Well, I had to go to Tokyo to find out. As the final piece of our five-part Sole Searching: Tokyo YouTube series, I sat down with Michiya Suzuki—ex-Red Wing Japan GM and co-founder of The 2 Monkeys boot brand—to crack it open. Turns out, it’s part Americana, part rebellion, and part deep cultural reverence for craft. Michiya walked me through how Red Wing became a fashion staple in Japan, how the iconic Iron Ranger boot came to life, and why today’s Tokyo bootmakers are blending spade-shaped soles, Goodyear welts, and wild originality into something entirely new. We also got did a bit of unraveling of Japan’s essential shoemaking web—everyone from nail makers, to hand-stitchers still doing it the slow, stubborn way. And why, even as the old guard fades, Michiya’s betting that a few brave passionates will lace up and keep the tradition kicking. You can also watch this interview on our @stitchdown YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwfAV6KoUC0 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 membershiphttps://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/

The Iron Snail, aka Michael Kristy, is one of my favorite YouTube inhabitants, thanks to his legitimately unique approach to reviewing, historicizing, and manufacturing crazily high-quality footwear and clothing. I sat down with Michael to chat about his favorite historical nuggets from the footwear he's covered, how he manages to deliver accurate information in a world that often lacks it, where his collaborative footwear projects are going, how damn hard small-scale quality manufacturing is in the US (and basically anywhere), and how and why people start caring about expensive stuff that's actually made the right way.https://www.youtube.com/@TheIronSnailhttps://theironsnail.us/ 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 membershiphttps://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/