Peter Feeney custom shoes, part 1: measuring

If the suit is the ideal vision of the male figure, then the shoe is the ideal vision of a foot. They are practical, to protect from the elements and offer support. But once those jobs are done, the rest of pure expression. Usually, though, our only choice is what’s on the shelf. Not much room for creativity.

Now try to imagine a shoe made just for you. First, there’s the machanics of it. The inner shape of this shoe will be based on your foot and yours alone. It’s as if you made a plaster cast of your foot then wrapped leather around it (the actual process is somewhat similar). Second, there’s the look of the shoe. What colour should the leather be? What about the shape of the toe box? And the swoop around the ankle or the instep? All leather, or mix in some suede?

I have to admit, getting custom shoes excites me almost more than a custom suit. After all, I will hopefully have a long and intimate relationship with these creations of leather and rubber, thread and nails. I will not only wear them, but I will work them. There will be a give and take, every day, as I press and pound into them, while they support and lift me up.

But I wasn’t thinking about any of that when Peter Feeney measured me for my first pair of his custom shoes. (You can read all about Peter and his studio in my report.) Long before I get to plan how my shoes will actually look, Peter needs to get a last made, a plastic form that closely resembles the shape of my foot. Peter took a number of measurementst, not just length and width, but also height at various spots to create a 3 dimensional shape. My last is being made right now because as the saying goes “the last comes first.” When that’s done, Peter will work on a rough shoe that I can try on to insure the last correctly mimics my foot, while I start thinking about the actual look, shape and colour of my shoes.