l visited a shoe factory over lunch time, it is the main factory in Victoria for repairing goodyear welted, blake-rapid, and blake stitched shoos; they do many of the repair jobs for the top end shoe retailers and have been doing so for decades.

Without being prompted, the bloke starting talking about how goodyear welted shoes were nice but had a major construction fault with regards to gemming failure (his exact words). He said that it was quite common for older goodyear shoos (8 years +) to have the glued on feather come unstuck; he said it didn't matter how good the reputed shoe was, they all had that weakness.

Not everyone is going to have that problem, everyone has individual feet, walk differently and treat their shoes differently. With some people the welt might open up alittle and there may even be a small hole in the sole which goes un noticed for a while, and if there is water and salt on the ground it will work it's way to the gemming and cause it to eventually fail (assuming the upper doesn't fail first). The factory repairer said he is always repairing failed gemming by gluing it back and restitching the welt to the fastener by hand. He said blake-rapid is a much superior construction.

Whether you have Edward Green or Grenson, all these gemmed shoes have this construction weakness.

l'm just sick of all these know-it-all igents who think they always know better than industry people. The fellow over at Style Forum has been involved in footwear for about 50 years, he's obviously seen alot, but that counts for nothing apparently. He has stated that he has repaired many shoos where the gemming has failed (why would he need to lie?), but apparently that counts for nothing. We even have church ministers who never owned goodyear welted footwear before the forums, they used to wear tennis shoos, yet these people come across like they are shoo experts and know better than industry people. WAKE UP!!!

l saw a couple of dozen goodyear shoos in need of repair, many had holes in the soles and welts coming adrift where water can seep in and ruin the gemming. lt's no wonder that gemming failure is so common. This place wasn't just a shoe repairer, it was a factory that repairs dozens of pairs each week. l think that says it all.

l-gents think they know it all, but they don't! lt's no wonder many industry people refuse to get involved...too many egotystical i-morons would wanna beat them down.

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The bloke l spoke to said he knows another man who makes shoos completely by hand; he is going to do some research and get back to me. l find that some of the best shoemakers in Melbourne are the ones who don't advertise, they need to be found (they don't need to advertise, they have a reputation and have been around a long time).

Last edited by The_Shooman (2010-04-01 02:22:13)