
The Stitchdown Shoecast
Exploring the wonderful world of quality footwear, how it’s made, and all the things we love about it. Check out Stitchdown.com for shoe and boot reviews, interviews with industry titans, profiles, release info, and more.
Episodes
134 episodes
Sprezza's Clayton Chambers on Timeless Loafers, Gorpy Boots, and Quality
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 pe...
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Season 16
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Episode 3
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47:30

Ticho is BACK to Talk Østmo x Iron Boots' Lore—and Next Step
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 Boot...
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Season 16
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Episode 2
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1:18:05

Boot Camp 2025 Chicago: Exhibitors + Events Rundown
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. Japane...
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Season 16
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Episode 1
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1:23:47

BONUS PREVIEW: Brett Viberg Community Q&A at the Viberg NYC Shop
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 ...
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13:35

(FREE) BONUS: A Look Inside China with Motiv & Arch Support Project's Samuel Wei
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 foo...
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52:22

How Japan's Astounding Bootmaking Culture Grew—And Where It's Going
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...
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Season 15
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Episode 9
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31:39

How to Do YouTube Product Reviews Without Losing Your Soul, with The Iron Snail
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 Mi...
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Season 15
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Episode 8
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1:28:44

Developing Leather for Red Wing and More with SB Foot's Lacy Schumann
Since 1986, SB Foot Tanning Company is most known as the tannery owned by Red Wing, and with good reason: every bit of leather used on Red Wing Heritage footwear ...
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Season 15
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Episode 7
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1:28:16

Women's Shoe Icon Stuart Weitzman on Nudists, Aretha Franklin & The First Shoe He Ever Sold
No conversation about the all-time great women's shoe designers is complete without a very long segue into Stuart Weitzman. Born into a shoemaking family who manufactured for decades in longtime US shoemaking hub Haverhill, Massachusetts, Weitz...
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Season 15
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Episode 6
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1:03:32

How to Become a Bootmaker, With Oldspeed MFG's Dave Corey and New River Boot's Dave Mills
I had an absolute gas with Dave Mills of New River Boot, and Dave Corey of Oldspeed Manufacturing on this one. After years of being two of my favorite people on the internet to talk about footwear with, I was lucky enough to spend time with bot...
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Season 15
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Episode 5
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1:52:52

Custom Cowboy Bootmaker Jake Houston on Preserving Knowledge, León Mexico, and Zebra Races
About a half hour from Reno, there’s a place called Virginia City Nevada, where everything feels like it’s 1859 and the US’s largest silver deposit was just discovered. The bars say saloon and look the part. The cemetery is definitely haunted. ...
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Season 15
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Episode 4
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1:46:54

Seiji McCarthy is Making Some of the World's Greatest American Bespoke Shoes—In Japan
Tokyo-based, half-American/half-Japanese Seiji McCarthy discusses his uniquely late path into shoemaking, the development of his vintage-Americana-inspired bespoke line, why he feels more American in Japan, and why it’s sometimes better if your...
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Season 15
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Episode 3
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1:31:00

Is Turriff Functional Footwear Making the Best-Quality Barefoot Shoe on the Market?
This week we've got a chat with Andrew Turriff, a Canadian shoemaker who studied at Cordwainer’s Footwear Design program in London, worked for some big sneaker brands, and did pattern work for fellow Canadians Viberg and time in the orthopedic ...
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Season 15
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Episode 2
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1:38:29

How Tariffs Are Already Impacting the Footwear Industry, with FDRA CEO Matt Priest
Matt Priest, President and CEO of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, came on the Shoecast the morning after 104% tariffs on Chinese goods into the US hit in a rapidly-moving-target trade war with the United States and just abou...
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Season 15
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Episode 1
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46:58

All the Shoes & Boots Derek Guy Loves—and a Few He Really Doesn't—From Bespoke to Workboots
Derek’s an OG forum junkie turned menswear writer for Put This On, mass publications like The New York Times, and his own always-excellent blog Die Workwear!.In the last few years, Derek has become, to many,
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Season 14
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Episode 9
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1:29:31

What Opie Way's Justin James Lost in Hurricane Helene—and What He Found
In 2019, Justin James started Opie Way, a recraftable sneaker brand made right in Asheville North Carolina, USA, using incredibly high quality materials—something that basically didn’t exist previously....
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Season 14
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Episode 8
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1:17:56

Skateboard Legend Jamie Thomas Goes Inside a 300° Oven To Explain How Skate Shoes are Made
Jamie Thomas is one of the most revered skateboarders of all time—and also a footwear designer and serial skate shoe brand founder. The release of his latest brand Warsaw seemed as good an excuse as any to have Jamie take me through the history...
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Season 14
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Episode 7
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1:12:45

How to Make Your Leather Footwear Last Literally (Possibly) Forever, With Pure Polish's Andy Vaughn
The idea that well-made, resoable footwear can last almost literally forever is one of its core allures—but it’s a promise that simply won’t come true if it’s not cared for properly. Especially the leather. But what’s the best way ...
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Season 14
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Episode 6
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1:11:47

Shoecast BONUS Episode Preview: Shop Talk With Brett Viberg & Shuyler Mowe of Nicks Boots
It's our first-ever BONUS Shoecast episode—in a brand new format called Shop Talk. The idea is simple: -1 moderator (Ben from Stitchdown)-2 guests—this time, Brett Viberg of Viberg Boot, and Shuyler Mowe of Nick...
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Season 14
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Episode 5
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45:17

Holly Henry on the Cowboy Bootmaking Community's Sustaining Power (Also: Saddles)
I will tell anyone who dares listen that handmade bootmaking—and perhaps specifically, cowboy bootmaking—is the highest form of leatherwork as functional art. And then I started paying attention a bit more to saddlemaking and was like damn ok m...
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Season 14
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Episode 4
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1:05:48

Aki Choklat on Building a Shoemaking College Program From Scratch
In the US, there are schools for everything—of course you can study business, or to become a doctor. But also if you want to be an electrician, or an airplane mechanic—someone can teach you that. And then you’ve got UConn, which has offered an ...
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Season 14
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Episode 3
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44:03

Vintage King Brian Davis of Wooden Sleepers on Why Everything We Buy Sucks These Days
Often, vintage clothing and footwear's defining quality IS quality. As in, its actual construction and materials, how well it was made, way back when. In most cases, it wouldn’t even be here today if it wasn’t. The footwear world we...
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Season 14
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Episode 2
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1:28:58

Brett Viberg is Back on the Shoecast, and He's Bringing Loafers
15 years ago Viberg was pretty firmly Canada’s most hardcore logging and industrial boot company. Since Brett Viberg took over the reins of the nearly 100-year-old brand from his father Glen, Viberg has in many...
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Season 14
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Episode 1
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1:27:37

Brian The Bootmaker May Actually Be Mister Rogers
To be honest I didn’t think I’d ever get Brian the Bootmaker on this show—he doesn’t do many interviews at all, and for whatever reason I was, quite frankly, kind of afraid to ask him. Which in hindsight is insane because he’s about as sweet an...
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Season 12
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Episode 9
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1:20:40

Molly Monahan, The Motorcycle Mechanic Turned Garlic Farmer Turned Small-Town Cobbler
When you grow up in a shoe repair shop directly next door to your actual house, it's hard to not catch the cobbling bug. But oh did Molly Monahan try to resist. After learning how to repair motorcycles and doing some farming for a bit, ...
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Season 12
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Episode 8
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51:15
