But it’s faster than finding a vendor.
I spend every Friday morning using Blender.
If the heading already didn’t give it away, you may be thinking ‘what on Earth is a bootmaker doing using Blender?’
Well, since you asked, here you go.
The grind can be numbingly grind-y.
Every day, week and month, there are ups and downs. Just like any other job. And because I’m also a shareholder of the business, the rollercoaster is magnified far more compared to just being an employee.
It’s difficult for me to just say ‘who gives a shit’ and then turn off at 6.00pm or whatever.
There are days where ignorance on social media is bewildering, there are weeks where enquiries are low, there are months where a series of stupid mistakes are made.
Despite the magnification of the ups and downs, I try to remain even keeled. Not too high, not too low. It’s been part of my personality for as long as I can remember.
To the extent that I remember mum asking me when I was younger, ‘are you a human or a robot?’, on more than one particular occasion.
What keeps the fire going.
Being a robot aside, what else helps to distract me from the ups and downs is trying to learn something new every now and then.
To really learn deeply though, active time needs to be spent in focus. At least for me that is. I always found it quite strange that in corporate life, ‘upskilling’ and ‘learning’ are championed, but employees aren’t given allocation of time and space to do this effectively.
Rant aside.
So every Friday morning, I allocate 3-4 hours to learn. The goal is to work on a topic or project, whilst releasing my mind from the grind of needing to have a tangible outcome.
As long as I take some steps forward learning about something that I deem to be worthwhile, that’s a win.
Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t just randomly learn, I’m very targeted. Ideally it has to be something I can put to use in the business.
So this is the story of why I’ve been teaching myself how to use Blender.
Jack of all trades, master of none.
When I launched the Everyday line, I launched it with the Atlas wedge as the standard outsole. I worked with a manufacturer to tweak the properties of their EVA wedge to match what I wanted in the underfoot feel of the Everyday line of boots.
What I didn’t do though, was to design the outsole tread pattern. I was running hot on my initial launch timeline, so had to take the decision to move forward without a customized tread pattern.
I focused instead on material characteristics and properties, which to me, were more important than the (mostly) aesthetic of a customized and branded tread pattern.
I’d originally had the idea that I’d like a nice tread pattern, like how Dr. Sole has revolutionised the market with their outsole designs.
Within the Malaysian market, a ‘fancy looking’ outsole tread would likely elevate the marketing aspect of my boots and the Outstation brand.
Finding a vendor to design the tread was a miss.
So with this in mind, I had originally searched Fiver for a freelancer to help me design the outsole. I already had a concept and assembled a tech pack to give as a reference.
As you know, the story didn’t end well. I received a series of files after a few weeks, opened them, and was quite underwhelmed with the result.
It wasn’t a total disaster, but it was clear that the person wasn’t dialed into the boot market and what I was looking for.
Maybe the freelancer wasn’t experienced enough, maybe it was a case of you get what you pay for. Maybe it was my tech pack. Who knows.
At that point, there was no time for iteration. So I gave up, instead directing my outsole manufacturer to produce the Atlas wedge using their standard tread.
And the first boot, The Wanderer, launched according to schedule.
Deep down I knew already what came next.
I always had it in mind, that to learn how to use Blender would be useful for the business. Not just for outsole design, but also for designing lasts and eventually for a bespoke commission workflow.
I could imagine; 3d scan feet, 3d model a suitable last in Blender for that particular pair of feet, 3d print the lasts. From there, my usual patternmaking workflow in Illustrator could take over; no difference to the MTO business.
Now, to expectation manage a little, this is still something that I need to decide on. I don’t know if I want to push the business into that level of customization. Particularly in my market, where price point rules decision making.
Back to the story. I failed to source a suitable vendor to design me an outsole I was happy with.
I knew what had to happen next. Over a period of the next 6 months, I slowly learnt how to use Blender.
Looking back, it was relatively straightforward. I was already a generalist in the other software that I used, and there was some overlap in terms of concepts.
It was now just about understanding how to apply them into 3d space.
2 steps forward, 1 step back.
Every Friday morning was my allocate morning to learn. I would dread it.
Not because I disliked learning something new, but rather, it was same feeling of dread you get when you need to go to the gym. You know it.
Wake up, groan, think about skipping, then drag yourself out of bed.
And like the gym, the hardest step was the first one. Just starting.
The habit eventually formed though. Wake up, go downstairs, turn on the PC, open Blender, stare blankly at the screen, prepare for the frustration to come.
And frustrating it was. Starting with zero knowledge of Blender was terrible. I already knew the outcome that I wanted, but just didn’t have the skill to execute it.
Over months though, the muscle memory of keyboard commands eventually grew. I learnt through YouTube videos and just googling shit. It was somehow the same way that I’d learnt how to make boots. Frustrating, a lot of mistakes, and mind-numbingly slow.
There were some mornings where I was so stuck, I did nothing but watch YouTube for the full 3 hours to find the solution.
Those days were the worst.
The longterm view kept me in check.
Luckily for my purpose of designing an outsole, I only needed to use the functionality of Blender in one of the most simple ways.
Hard surface modelling.
I didn’t have to worry about learning colouring, texturing, rigging, animating, or any of the other amazing functionality that Blender has.
So even on the days where I just watched YouTube videos, I kept reminding myself, ‘at least I learnt something’.
And I had moved a tiny bit forward in knowledge, despite not having ‘done’ anything that morning.
If it fits it fits, if it doesn’t, bad luck.
My reasons for designing and manufacturing an outsole are more than simply cosmetic.
As any other cobbler, re-crafter or bootmaker knows, the major outsole manufacturers, Vibram, Dr. Sole, SVIG, Dainite and the like only offer products in certain sizes that fit certain last shapes.
Outside of these players, there aren’t any other major brands that are as consistent with their product supply, let alone sizing.
Regardless of the outsole brand, it’s a real hit or miss whether a last and associated sizing will fit a particular outsole.
This has to be caught in the product development cycle, to avoid design disaster.
Finding alternatives is tricky.
In terms of keeping the consistency of my product, this isn’t a great situation. I’d touched on this elsewhere in the journal, where the supply chain sometimes limits what can be built.
Last width is the most common issue. It’s strange to me why outsoles aren’t made wider, so that they can fit on wider lasts. And if the last is a narrow last, makers can simply trim the outsole back in the bottoming and finishing process.
If anyone out there knows the reason, please let me know. From a business perspective, it makes no sense, limiting the amount of boots an outsole can fit onto.
Nonetheless, how the boot is constructed also makes a difference on outsole fit.
For example, if the boot is welted, the welt can be cut narrow, meaning narrow outsoles can fit. Some time later after a few resoles, if the welt can’t be trimmed back (i.e. narrowed) anymore, it can just be replaced.
However, with a stitchdown boot (as I build), I like to keep the ‘welt’ of the upper quite wide, in order to maximise the amount of times it can be re-stitched, resoled and then trimmed back.
So due to this, lesser number of off-the-shelf outsoles fit my boot widths, especially at larger sizes.
And this was my primary concern. I actually needed to design an outsole due to last size and shape.
With a number of Outstation customers purchasing boots for their unusually large feet (from an Asian viewpoint), my originally manufactured Atlas wedge is a tight fit at sizes 45-48..
And if I need a re-sizing of my outsole, I may as well design a customized tread. Kill two birds with one stone.
It’s done, but not yet done done.
So as of today, my re-designed Atlas outsole wedge is more or less complete.
It’s still a wedge, it’s still chunky, it’s still named Atlas. Think of it as a facelift.
I now need to talk to the manufacturer about the technical aspects, such as shrinkage and detailing limitations. Then I’ll tweak the 3d model accordingly.
After that comes the process of mold development, samples, testing, feedback, re-testing etc. Iterate until brain fried.
I estimate there’s at least 6-9 months ahead to complete this. My timeline is aligned with the refresh of the Everyday line; the facelift model Wanderer boot planned for mid 2027.
What a waste of time, right?
Before we wrap up, some of you out there may be thinking, ‘why did I go to all this trouble of doing everything myself?’. Months of learning could have been allocated searching for the right vendor, and maybe getting a better outcome.
To be honest, yes.
But I didn’t want to.
Because in the long term, it’s more useful for me to have a knowledge of not only how to do basic 3d design, but also to be able to talk the same language with any future vendors that I use.
My hope is that it reduces the likelihood of getting short-changed, scammed or having a fast one pulled on me.
Now going back in the story a little, recall that when I initially searched for a vendor to do the outsole design, I simply couldn’t find anyone that satisfied my requirements.
And until now, it’s the same situation.
I believe that it’s not because there are no decent vendors out there, but more that I don’t have an industry network, who can recommend someone that is trustworthy and professional.
So in a way, I don’t seem to have a choice.
No regrets though. The process has been interesting (if painful), the skills will be useful, and it certainly ticked the box of learning something new every now and then.
