The Stitchdown Shoecast

This week on the Shoecast it's Sarah McIntosh, founder of the Chicago School of Shoemaking and Leather Arts, who has lived a life shaped by making things by hand. Sarah shares how living in a back-to-the-land community in the 70s (and building her own log house!) led to making a pair of shoes for herself—which grew into a decades-long career crafting custom-fit footwear. She also reflects on building a welcoming school where people can learn leatherworking and shoemaking, discover what ...

Alligator leather. It's bold. It's fancy. It's expensive. It’s also the result of, and driving force behind, a massive conservation effort—and one of the toughest crafts in tanning. That’s why we brought Christy Gilmore of American Tanning and Leather on the Shoecast, to explore how her family built a U.S. tannery that takes wild-caught alligator hides from raw material to finished leather, and what far too many people misunderstand about the industry. Christy traces AMTAN’s history from its ...

Ticho hath returned for the Season 19 Shoebag episode, in which we answer listener questions ranging from shoe-related time travel, to the upsides and downs of the quality footwear loving community growing like crazy in the past decade—and also preview Stitchdown Expo 2026 in Chicago this Nov 6-7. Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membership https://www.stitchdown....

Thiele Tanning has operated out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin since 1934. And while things rarely stay the same in tanning—Thiele has made everything from bowling shoe leather, to baseball glove leather, to some actually VERY good patent leather—for decades its wheelhouse has been lining leather. If you’ve got a pair of shoes or boots you truly love from a historic manufacturer, there’s a solid chance it’s Thiele lining touching your feet. In this chat with Jordan Proefrock, we get into that ...

It wasn’t always easy for two Belgian guys named Robin to build a shoe brand. Early production setbacks, finding investment, and eventually building a physical retail presence are never easy to contend with. But even though both Lennertson founders grew up in a culture of “we make and fix things around here,”building knowledge in footwear was perhaps their biggest hurdle—one they took on voraciously. Luckily they had plenty of help along the way—including for last development, thanks to...