Dear Readers,
Sorry that I was gone for so long without posting. I was away in London for the London Super Trunk Show 2022 and was busy from morning to night since Thurs, the 5th of May. The event was a huge success and I will have a lot to show on it in the coming weeks. For now, I want to leave you with something special though.
In case you are not aware of Bedo’s Leatherworks, first and foremost, please go check him out at his links below:
YouTube – his channel is a great source of seeing how to recraft a pair of shoes where Steve can rebuild anything and that literally means anything. https://www.youtube.com/c/BedosLeatherworksLLC/videos
Website – http://www.leatherrepair.com/
Here, Steve Doudaklian, owner of Bedo’s, shows us his skills in recrafting a pair of older shoes from my J.FitzPatrick Line. The customer wanted to ‘up the craftsmanship’ on them by making them handwelted, using a JR Sole (not convinced that this is better but many love this brand), adding a fiddleback, narrowing the waist, and giving them a spade-like sole. That is not to mention the very cool detailing on the sole, but rather more of the construction side of things. It was an amazing recraft, to say the least, and that is what separates Steve from many. I love the fact that he was able to make the customer even happier to wear a pair of my shoes and know that this is not a slight on my quality or make but rather the ability to blend two different ideas to get the ultimate outcome. And that is a great thing. Sometimes, brands cannot give you what you desire so it is nice to be able to get it from a 3rd party that you can trust to not only get the job done and but to do it phenomenally.
I wanted to mention one thing about the shoes though. It is quite an old pair despite appearing quite new. We no longer use a plastic shank-like piece for shaping the hump on the sole. The metal shank is still there and instead, we reinforce it with sole leather and now have a flat waist.
Enjoy the video and when you ever need recrafting work on your shoes, make sure to consider Bedo’s. It’s not expensive to ship to Virginia and back!
Justin this is oscar your most loyal fan that thank you for giving Steve his well deserved praises he is a master ofhis craft as well as you….I will be paying you a visit soon but unannounced I don’t want you to know when I’m going there. Don’t worry it’s not to whack you. Just looking for shoes….
Thank you Oscar, look forward to seeing you soon! 😉
I watch Steve’s videos all the time. He’s local to me, so I also use him for more significant repair work. He is a true artist. I like how he explains the entire process and also talks about where the manufacturers cut corners. I was happy to see leather heel blocks and rands on your shoes as well as some other really nice design touches – like the tongue stitch.
Thank you for commenting Eugene. Glad that my shoes impressed you 😉
Steve,
How did you pull in the uppers when rewelting without making the shoes tighter?
Why do you handwelt a Goodyear welted shoe? I thought the whole point of Goodyear welting is that a machine can do it.
Doesn’t skyving the welt before attaching it make it weaker by having less leather through which you are stitching?
you might wish to send him a direct message on Instagram or Facebook as not sure he will respond here