Shoemaking Workshop
Overview
External provider: Shoe Artistry
This is a fun class where you are taught the process of leather shoemaking. Students will learn about manual feet measurement, the insides of a pair of leather shoes, and the design and development process of creating your leather shoes. You will be taught the unique skills and techniques of leather stitching and sneaker sole stitching, how to prep and cut shoe materials and more.
This is a fun, relaxing but intensive five days; but by the end of the course, you will know that it's all worth it with your own custom made shoes! Come and join us for this awesome activity during EMB@RC Week!
You can customize your leather lace-ups via material choices and simple design details: Top Line, Laces, Eyelids, Pull Tabs and Topstitching.
Course Day to Day Breakdown (subject to change):
Day 1 : Introduction to Shoes and Feet. Brief Introduction to Leather Crafting and Simple Shoe Making
Day 2 : Tutorial - Design and Pattern Making
Day 3: Trip to Leather and Accessories shop. Prepping of Materials
Day 4 : Making shoes
Day 5: Making shoes
*Each day will start at 10am and end at 5pm.
About Shoe Artistry
In 2011, rising rent threatened to shut down a 40-year-old traditional shoemaking workshop, Ming Kee Shoes, in Jordan, Hong Kong. In a heartbeat, Jeff and Kit dropped their careers, inherited all tools and shoemakers, took on the business, and committed the following decades to revive and reinvent the trade.
Jeff was a trained product designer, a highly regarded lecturer with Hong Kong’s top design institutes, and a reputable business design consultant for social enterprises. Kit was a globetrotting fashion and jewellery designer, with her development and sourcing operations taking her places. They both have a deeply-seated passion for empowering young designer entrepreneurs and in maintaining sustainability in the local production workforce that faces extinction threats in this age of industrialization.
Shoemaking is a heritage craft. With mass production, handmade leather shoes are no longer in demand. The modern society sees the traditional craft vanishing, with shoemakers left without successors. Shoe Artistry wishes to educate consumers on the value of the shoemaking craft, and revamp its image, eliminating the perception that the trade is for lowly labourers, but a hard-earned skill that requires experience and an eye for creativity.
To preserve the shoemaking legacy, the industry needs to bring in new blood and next-generation craftsmen have to attain a certain level of artistry. Guided by this vision, Jeff and Kit implemented the following practices to the Shoe Artistry business over the years:
Integrated 3D design technologies to the shoemaking process
Revamped the shoemaking operations to focus on bespoke designs, quality construction, perfect fit, foot wellness, and customer service
Introduced shoemaking workshops, apprenticeship programs, and commercial consultations
CAS Information:
HKD 3,290
4-8
