Last weekend, we had the honour of receiving two English guests in our store in Maastricht. They provided our costumers and staff with lots of information and demonstration on their product. Click to read more!
Last Friday evening, we were rejoiced with the visit of two of Edward Green & Co.'s employees, Rob and Nathan. After careful preparation behind the screens, a few physical alternations were made to our famed shoe cellar in order to be able to display some marvelous novelty shoe models that they brought, and to fit the hand-sewing station that would become the centre of attention during the following two days.
Rob is a trusted employee at Edward Green's 75 Jermyn Street shop in London, the Mecca of traditional footwear. He's also experienced with doing trunk shows like this one, and we were delighted by the way he accompanied our customers with regard to making their decisions for MTO-models. Because as we all know, making these tough choices can be a painstaking process.
As their brand aficionado's know well, Edward Green is renowned for their split toe models, like the Dover and Clapham that we have in our regular collection. Only a few craftsmen at EG (three at the moment, but only one a few years back) are able to perform this unbelievably difficult part of the shoemaking process. Nathan is one of those three. He has been doing this for about a year, and was inspired by his father, who is one of the other two hand-sewing professionals.
It was amazing to see how this craft is still performed with the traditional process, that involves the splitting of boar's bristles to use as a needle, and that involves absolutely no machinery at all. From beginning to end, the hand-sewing of the apron and split toe take approximately two hours!
We enjoyed this weekend an awful lot, just like our valued customers who were grateful for the opportunity to order their unique MTO-pairs and for experiencing the production of their footwear as if they were in the factory theirselves. We thank them, but we especially thank Rob and Nathan for displaying their expertise.
We try to organise an exciting event like this every now-and-then. If you are interested in receiving a heads-up, please leave your e-mail address here.