The Stitchdown Shoecast

Apr 10 2025 121 ep. 64 mins 106
The Stitchdown Shoecast Podcast artwork

Exploring the wonderful world of quality footwear, how it’s made, and all the things we love about it. Check out Stitchdown.com for shoe and boot reviews, interviews with industry titans, profiles, release info, and more.

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How Tariffs Are Already Impacting the Footwear Industry, with FDRA CEO Matt Priest

Apr 10 2025 46 mins  
Matt Priest, President and CEO of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, came on the Shoecast the morning after 104% tariffs on Chinese goods into the US hit in a rapidly-moving-target trade war with the United States and just about every other country. What ARE tariffs? How might tariffs and general uncertainty impact massive shoe brands? Smaller ones? Made-in-USA foo

All the Shoes & Boots Derek Guy Loves—and a Few He Really Doesn't—From Bespoke to Workboots

Feb 13 2025 89 mins  
Derek’s an OG forum junkie turned menswear writer for Put This On, mass publications like The New York Times, and his own always-excellent blog Die Workwear!. In the last few years, Derek has become, to many, Menswear Guy on Twitter, where his sharp cultural insights on style and complete lack of brevity break every rule of the platform in such a wonderfully potent manner (…and

What Opie Way's Justin James Lost in Hurricane Helene—and What He Found

Feb 04 2025 77 mins  
In 2019, Justin James started Opie Way, a recraftable sneaker brand made right in Asheville North Carolina, USA, using incredibly high quality materials—something that basically didn’t exist previously. Then suddenly, Justin's factory and brand didn't exist. In 2024, Hurricane Helene brought six feet of rampaging water tore through the Opie Way factory. Machinery, records, inve

Skateboard Legend Jamie Thomas Goes Inside a 300° Oven To Explain How Skate Shoes are Made

Jan 28 2025 72 mins  
Jamie Thomas is one of the most revered skateboarders of all time—and also a footwear designer and serial skate shoe brand founder. The release of his latest brand Warsaw seemed as good an excuse as any to have Jamie take me through the history of skate shoes and the sponsorships that arose around them, how and where they're made (and with what materials, constructions, and perfo

How to Make Your Leather Footwear Last Literally (Possibly) Forever, With Pure Polish's Andy Vaughn

Jan 07 2025 71 mins  
The idea that well-made, resoable footwear can last almost literally forever is one of its core allures—but it’s a promise that simply won’t come true if it’s not cared for properly. Especially the leather. But what’s the best way to do that? And for different types of leather? Well you’ll know a ton more after my fantastic chat with Andy Vaughn, owner of Pure Polish, t

Shoecast BONUS Episode Preview: Shop Talk With Brett Viberg & Shuyler Mowe of Nicks Boots

Dec 17 2024 45 mins  
It's our first-ever BONUS Shoecast episode—in a brand new format called Shop Talk. The idea is simple: -1 moderator (Ben from Stitchdown) -2 guests—this time, Brett Viberg of Viberg Boot, and Shuyler Mowe of Nicks Boots. -3 questions apiece—which can be about absolutely anything, and the other guest MUST answer meaningfully. And boy did it end up being hugely revealing, and i

Holly Henry on the Cowboy Bootmaking Community's Sustaining Power (Also: Saddles)

Dec 11 2024 65 mins  
I will tell anyone who dares listen that handmade bootmaking—and perhaps specifically, cowboy bootmaking—is the highest form of leatherwork as functional art. And then I started paying attention a bit more to saddlemaking and was like damn ok maybe they’re tied. Parker, Colorado-based custom bootmaker Holly Henry knows a ton about both. Holly grew up riding horses outside Hou

Aki Choklat on Building a Shoemaking College Program From Scratch

Dec 04 2024 44 mins  
In the US, there are schools for everything—of course you can study business, or to become a doctor. But also if you want to be an electrician, or an airplane mechanic—someone can teach you that. And then you’ve got UConn, which has offered an apparently quite intense puppetmaking major, every year since 1964. So why not for shoemaking? Examples do exist, but they are far too

Vintage King Brian Davis of Wooden Sleepers on Why Everything We Buy Sucks These Days

Nov 26 2024 88 mins  
Often, vintage clothing and footwear's defining quality IS quality. As in, its actual construction and materials, how well it was made, way back when. In most cases, it wouldn’t even be here today if it wasn’t. The footwear world we explore on this podcast is absolutely the exception, and a beautiful one, to the core rule of the 21st century: most stuff we buy and use and wear

Brett Viberg is Back on the Shoecast, and He's Bringing Loafers

Nov 19 2024 87 mins  
15 years ago Viberg was pretty firmly Canada’s most hardcore logging and industrial boot company. Since Brett Viberg took over the reins of the nearly 100-year-old brand from his father Glen, Viberg has in many ways completely changed the high-end, recraftable boot market—most notably with its Service Boot, which became a legitimate game-shifting icon, and inspiration to many.