Cobblers II

In 2008 I bought a pair of hand made boots from Guat shoes in Sheffield. The experience was most satisfying. The boots are quite basic and traditional in design, they have real stitching rather than being glued together. There is no padding internally, the sort of thing you get with modern boots. Despite the lack of padding, they are just as or more comfortable than mass produced and marginally cheaper boots.

Apart from some scuff marks on the toe area and some wear on the soles. They are still going strong. I also have a theory that mass produced boots need a lot of padding because the outer skin design is so poor regarding comfort. eg. they design them to look cool, but that design is crap regarding comfort, so they stuff a load of padding in to compensate.

Unlike most modern boots however the soles on these boots can be replaced. The idea being that over the life time of the boots instead of buying two pairs for the approximate cost of £60 each (if you are lucky), I would spend an initial £90 for the hand made boots and about £30 for sole replacements later. The total cost being the same, but with just under half the materials used. I may even get away without replacing the soles, depending on wear.

That idea is still on schedule.

Cobblers

Thats what we need in Waterlooville and the wider area. More local shoe makers and cobblers. But until that happens I recommend buying British handmade shoes. Guat shoes of Sheffield are an excellent example.

They may seem expensive at first. But that assumes that you buy into the fashion and wasteful mass produced shoe concept. Basically the idea behind locally produced products like shoes, is that you pay more initially but then get them re-soled and/or repaired at least once later. The resulting cost is the same over the years as two pairs of good quality mass produced shoes that you just throw away when you have finished with them.

So for no real extra cost, you get a pair of handmade shoes, made in the UK from locally sourced materials, all of which is much better for the environment.

It would be great if we had many cobblers/shoe makers set up in all towns across the nation, including Waterlooville, reducing imports, providing local jobs and services, plus more importantly reducing emissions and helping the environment. Civilisation wouldn't collapse just because we go local.