How is shoes made

 Shoe making process

Ever thought about what goes under making shoes. If you also have that question budding in your mind then you are on the right blog.

Now, Shoes are something that has been worn for over centuries. They are that part of attire that completes a person. One can judge you on the basis of what type of shoes do you wear. 

So enough of telling how important shoes are. Let us get dive into the shoe-making process.

Steps in shoes making process

1. Designing
2. Shoe Lasts
3. Stamping
4. Sewing
5. Assembling
6. Final touches

Getting into Details

1. Designing

Before actually starting to make shoes one should have the direction of what types of are we making. So there comes the designing part. So if I go deeper into designing then the steps are:-

Starting with a concept

First, it should be clear that for whom are we making the shoes. What are their lifestyle, age, gender, liked, dislikes, income, desires, and all those things. Whether our target market is the top 1% or  rest 99%. 

Research

Once it is clear that for whom are we making the product then let's research. Research about your competitors, your past successful products, what trends are going on currently. One may prepare a questionnaire and ask your target customers, discuss with them, Find the problem that you can solve by making correct shoes. One can analyze the type of material, color, styles to use in shoes.

Taking Inspiration

It's about looking at the whole world from the problem-solving eye. Being completely aware of everything happening around. Imagine, dream 💤, Look for innovation or improvement in past products or competitors' products but do not copy!

Then begins sketching part

Draw, draw keep on drawing. Keep experimenting. That's all you can do here. This step is to bring the ideas or imagination into a real form that will exist. Now there might be any process or deal in the company to submit some minimum final sketches. If they pick one from 10 designs you are awesome 😎. The basic things in designs can be the lines, shape, stitch details, edge finish, colors, and textures. Think of where you can place the logo. Find out what more does customers need or demand and keep drawing 😊.

2. Shoes Lasts

So what are shoe lasts? They are the replica of your feet. They can be made from wood or plastic. Different material has different process of making. Like in order to make wood last one will need to carve, cut, shape the wood so that it looks like feet, while plastic last will be a speedy and cost-effective process. To make plastic feet mould there are different processes like injection moulding technique. Since every foot is unique variety of shoe lasts are made of different sizes and shapes. Every aspect is tested like when we stand our feet are wide while sitting they become narrow. So these types of moulds are also prepared.

One might think why shoe lasts are made first before making shoes? So it's like the shoe lasts is kept as a reference and then shoes are made such that they fit the lasts.

3. Stamping

Stamping is a process where the leather or any material is cut into a shape by applying pressure. You may refer to this stamping wikipedia page. There are machines known as shoe stamping machine to do this job. Only the shape of the blade has to be made once for a specific shoe type. For a single shoe, it depends on how many leather pieces are used. They are known as uppers as they will be the top part and the bottom part will be the outer sole.

4. Sewing

Now the different pieces are ready. It's time to join them and convert to an upper (Upper means shoe without outer sole i.e only the leather part). Again some machines may be used to sew the pieces. Some companies still sew them by hand. Mostly there are 4-5 pieces involved to make a complete upper. Imagine the front toe piece, then two side pieces, and one stripe back piece. 

5. Assembling

Then finally the upper will be joined to an outer sole either through glue or doing some stitches. Depends on the type of pattern. Partially the grooming of the shoe starts, like checks are made whether there are no extra stitches, any errors, formation of any weak point. Then are the uppers and outer sole stuck perfectly.

6. Final touches

Final step adding laces to the shoes. Cleaning, polishing them. Checking for any errors or defects. Stuffing the shoes with paper or cardboard to maintain the shape of the shoes. Packaging and Delivery.

After reading an interesting journey of shoes if you are tempted to buy one then this blog might help you with Top 10 Men's Casual Shoes.

Ending with a beautiful quote

I make shoe contact before eye contact