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in general.
What is clear however is that the
beginning of the 16th century saw
radical changes at all levels of society.
The New World was discovered, the
professional
mercenary
soldier
appeared, there were paved streets in
towns, the use of printing became
widespread and, arguably the most far
reaching of all, the development of
Protestantism allied to philosophical
and technological changes all linked to
the renaissance movement. Each of
these factors may have played a small
part in changing the mentality of
shoemakers, though the paving of
streets and new found mobility of the
mercenary armies were probably the
most direct.
STITCH DOWN
The invention of the stitched down
construction seems to have occurred at
about the same time as the welted shoe
appeared but quite how it came about is
not clear, as no clues can be found in
earlier archaeological finds. However, it
could be that once the idea of using a
last instead of a sewing support had
been adopted, the stitched down
construction could have been a logical
adaptation that at the same time also
produced more robust footwear.
The way it was produced at that time
was to sew the upper to the edge of the
insole
(Figure 4 A–B)
with the upper
flanged out and to which the outsole
was then stitched
(Figure 4–C)
. In its
modern form it is often referred to as
the Veldtschoen construction after the
shoes worn by Boer farmers in South
Africa. Furthermore, the insole now
extends beyond the edge of the last so
that upper, insole and outsole are all
stitched together in a single operation.
In order to make such shoes using
either the welted or stitched down
construction, shoemakers needed to use
a last instead of a sewing form. The
combination of both a stiff insole and
outsole securely sewn to the upper in
turn meant that all shoes had to have a
wide opening so that this solid last could
be removed. Changing the fashion of
closed shoe uppers to the open Tudor or
‘cow mouth’ style secured on the foot by
a strap across the instep was a popular
way of solving the problem. For a brief
period at the beginning of the century,
all three constructions can be found in
the style of shoe: turn shoe, welted and
stitch down.
THE WAY FORWARD
The turn shoe construction in fact
continued in use right up to the mid
20th century but only for lightweight
indoor shoes, slippers and some
children’s footwear. The welted
construction, on the other hand,
became the standard method of
making shoes in general and, by the
start of the 17th century, was
sufficiently perfected to begin to
incorporate toe and heel lifts with the
latter having extra layers added as
fashion demanded ever higher heels.
Hand welted footwear reached its
zenith in the mid 19th century and
surviving examples demonstrate the
extraordinary skills possessed by the
best shoemakers
(World Footwear
March/April 2011).
Such shoes were inevitably
expensive and poor people most
usually wore second hand items. The
one big advantage of the construction
however was that shoes made this
way could be re-soled and heeled
repeatedly depending on the original
quality of the shoes themselves. The
invention by Charles Goodyear Jnr. in
1869 of a system to mechanise the
hand welting process changed all this
and made possible the mass
production that drove down prices and
made good shoes available to all.
While the welted process now
occupies only a very small and
exclusive niche in the footwear market
it was, nevertheless, its introduction in
the early 16th century that created the
‘big bang’ which in turn led to the
footwear industry we know today.
32
WORLD FOOTWEAR | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012
The Tudor or ‘cow mouth’ style of upper
allowed easy removal of the last once the
shoe was finished.
CREDIT: MARQUITA VOLKEN
Fig 4 – Stitch down.
CREDIT: MARQUITA VOLKEN
Fig 3 – Welted.