The Making of Your Shoes

Here we explain the main stages that are involved in the making of your new shoes or boots. They are completely handmade, with the trained hands and keen eyes of our expert shoe makers (each with an average of 15 years experience). Our staff love what they do and will not allow anything other than the finest quality footwear to leave their factory. When you receive your new footwear, you will see and feel just how justified we are in saying that the quality of our shoes and boots is of the highest standard. Imagine the joy you will have when wearing them, we know you will love your new exclusive footwear.

First we select the leather, from over 2000 rolls of the finest supple leather cowhide. Our buyer travels the world searching for and selecting only the very best leather. Any leather hides/skins we purchase has to pass numerous tests before we buy it, including the feel on both sides, strength, suppleness, flawlessness, smell, tanning, colour and durability. We could buy much cheaper leather but we know this would only produce an inferior product. All our shoes and boots are leather lined, using an extra soft fine kid leather that gives amazing comfort and a sensual feel to your delicate feet and toes.

Part of our large selection of leathers and other materials.

Special tools for cutting and preparing the leathers.

Your chosen leather and lining is then cut using up to 10 special knives. Our Clicking machine is used for this, pressing from the top and pushing the knives into the leather, perfectly cutting each part of leather to be used for the upper and the lining for the inside.

Once your leather upper and lining parts are cut all, pieces have to be slowly passed through the Skiving machine, which removes any rough edges, leaving clean perfectly trimmed and cut leather parts, ready to build your shoes or boots.

The leathers for your shoe, cut out and trimmed.

One of our craftsmen, trimming and perfecting the materials.

Next toe puffs are ironed on by hand, for support and shape at the toe. Upper quarters are stitched together, rubbed down and all edges folded in and back. The heels are countered and stiffeners sewn in to give you a firm solid heel.

The lining material is then glued to the upper and then sewn to the upper; we only use natural adhesives in this process.

The shoe sole is attached to the shoe using traditional machinery.

Our back mould warming machine - designed to warm the leather and stretch it to the right shape.

Next the moulded shaped heel part of the upper is formed first by using a back mold warming machine, that warms the leather to the correct temperature then it is stretched round a steel heel mold, pulling it into shape. Once cooled the heel shape is now permanent.

The upper is then pulled onto the last, the toe is warmed (as the heel) and stretched over the toe, and this forms the toe shape. The insole is then sewn and tacked onto the upper whilst on the last. All our insoles have toughened steel shanks, extra strong for durability, support and strength.

All of our shoes have a strong steel plate - designed to strengthen the sole and make the shoe more durable.

The various components that make up your finished shoe.

In this example the shoes have a 7 inch heel and 2 inch platform. The platform is dressed/covered with the same leather, then the platform is stuck securely with our natural adhesive onto the last.

Now the sole of the shoe is warmed up, so it is pliable and it is stuck securely onto the last. We have a special sole pressing machine for this. Once the sole is permanently fixed, the last is then removed.

Every process in the making of your shoes is checked by one of our craftsmen.

Traditional shoe lasts are used to hold and shape the leather ready for glueing to the soles.

The final part to be fixed to your shoe is the heel. The raw heel is dressed/covered with leather. The heel is positioned on the underside, a solid steel heel plate is placed on the inside of the shoe(under the heel), then using our heel attachment machine, 6 small steel nails are put into the heel. Most shoe manufacturers do not use this process and that's why so many high heels just break from the shoe upper. Here at London Shoe Tailers we'd rather spend that extra time and money to produce the finest most durable footwear that we can.

Now your shoe has been built, the last stage is probably the most important, 2 senior craftsmen will now inspect every detail of your new shoes or boots. Every little detail is checked. No defects are accepted and a single fault may result in the shoe being destroyed. Once checked your shoes are carefully packed and posted to you.

Our factory uses traditional methods and machinery to create the very finest shoes and boots.

The final product.

We hope that you now understand a little about how your footwear is made and that our prices also reflect our quality, workmanship and exclusivity.

Further information:

- Sizing Payment and Delivery of your shoes
- Customising your shoes
- Caring for your shoes
- How to walk in high heels
- History of High Heels
- Links