Making chelseas. My chelseas.
Whenever I’ve got some time between orders, I’m usually experimenting with builds.
That either means developing an upcoming pattern, tweaking an existing pattern, or just making something that I want to make.
With regular customer orders, building standard production boots over and over again can become monotonous. It’s like being a factory, but without the machines doing the work. At least if there were machines, it wouldn’t be so time consuming.
But that’s not the point of today’s journal entry. Rather, it’s going to be one that rambles a bit here and there about how I experiment with builds.
I hide my boots a lot.
So based on the previous paragraph, you can likely imagine there are always half finished boots lying around the workshop. And you’d be right.
This can be a bit of a problem though, because customers spot them and don’t recognise the model from my current lineup of boots.
Most of these non-production boots are somewhat unique; almost never seen before in the Malaysian market. Particularly so within my target market of customer (remember, they are ‘normal people’ and not boot nerds).
So after spotting the unusual boots, the question of ‘how much are they?’ usually comes next.
Market maturity is a pain in my ass.
I always try to avoid stating a price for non-production boot models.
Simply because the market isn’t mature enough to understand the price point of high end footwear.
If you’re a boot nerd, you can likely understand why a boot that is chain stitched Norwegian welted, hidden stitched to a double leather outsole, can cost upwards of USD 1,000. And that’s not even taking into account if it was an entirely new pattern designed as a one-of-one.
In a market like Malaysia, where a boot of USD 100 is considered expensive, if I start telling people I that sell boots for 10x the price, the perception immediately changes.
To me being a scammer who is trying to rip people off.
And I’m not joking. This is a story for another day.
It simply boils down to education and awareness of what it really takes to make something with a pair of hands.
So in recent times, I try to hide all these half finished boots in places that aren’t visible to people coming through the workshop. The fact that I need to hide my craft in order to avoid such situations is wild.
Anyway, back to the story. My soon to be chelsea boots.
What’s so exciting about chelseas?
To many people, chelsea boots can be very special. And likely these people are those with a low instep, having never found chelsea boots that actually fit well.
I am one of these people. I have a low instep, and like many others out there, have never really had the pleasure of owning a pair of chelseas to just runaround in.
Yes of course there’s always the option of using inserts on a higher instep chelsea, but it’s not the same. Well, to me at least.
One day, I was pondering over the Everyday last thinking about patterns for the upcoming facelifts. I suddenly remembered that the Everyday last is a low instep last. And I fit quite well into it.
So, I could finally make myself a chelsea boot.
I threw everything aside and immediately started grinding out a pattern for my own first-ever chelsea boot.
For those out there with normal insteps, you can’t imagine the excitement I felt when I realised I could finally have a pair.
The see-saw. Creativity vs market fit.
When I’m making boots for myself, they tend to follow the design cues found in Outstation boots. Relatively clean and minimalist. Nothing too flashy.
After all, the brand reflects my own personality and taste. So whether the boot is for myself or something for the market, it’ll be similar in that aspect.
Where it differs though is the level of craftsmanship.
If the boots are for me, I’ll put in far higher work. This brings them to the next level, something closer to what you’d see in more mature boot markets. And naturally, if they were to be sold, it would be at a very different price point.
When I was much younger, I never really understood this concept. How a company could exist but have two very different versions of the same product. One for the local market, and another for export market.
It had never occurred to me that markets, and thus by definition, the customers in that market, could have so different requirements.
And this is also much the same for Outstation.
I make boots for the local market, for local customer tastes, at a certain price-quality level. I’m interested in building a sustainable business first, and being a Bootmaker second.
If I was in a different market, my mentality wouldn’t change, but the boots that I’d make would now be based on what that market wanted.
Don’t worry, I am going somewhere with all of this. It’s all related to the half finished pairs of boots lying around the workshop.
That leg of the see-saw which is often constrained by the market, creativity, can go starved for long periods of time. So, when I’ve the time I make non-production boots to satisfy that creative itch.
With these boots, I get to test my own bootmaking ability and technique, continually developing my craft.
Even if I have to hide it sometimes.
The technicalities.
I decided that I wanted to make a 5 inch Chelsea. I wanted to experiment with how a low instep pattern can transition from the instep curve to the topline, without the topline becoming too tight around the ankle.
This was a characteristic of my Everyday last, where the low instep also resulted in the topline of the last being tighter compared to other lasts.
It’s straightforward geometry. As the instep rises in a shallow slope, it must intersect a given height at the topline closer to the heel. This leads to a smaller circumference topline (all things equal).
If the instep rises in a more sharp manner, it intersects that same given height at the topline further forward from the heel.
Whilst tinkering with the patternmaking, I also realised I’d need to widen the topline pattern to allow the foot to get into the boot, whilst still keeping the instep low.
This meant that the pattern would deviate from the shape of the last around the topline. I’d never created a boot that didn’t perfectly fit the shape of the last before, so this would be something new to experiment with.
To explain it in simple terms; at the topline, the leather would not be touching the last, because the boot topline needed to be wider than the last topline. That was the first challenge.
The second challenge would be practicality. Typically, I’m wearing shorts 95% of the year in Malaysia. A 4 inch boot with shorts works fine, but a 5 inch boot? That may look a bit strange.
The jury is definitely out on that one.
The pattern took me a bit of time to make. I started with the pattern for the upcoming Frontier line chelsea boot, tweaked it to fit the Everyday last, extended it upwards to 5 inches and then adjusted the topline circumference.
By the time all the changes had been made, it was a totally new pattern. Which also made sense, because the Everyday last is very different from the Frontier last.
Do plan a bit, don’t plan too much.
For builds such as this one, I generally work on the fly. I always have a rough idea in my head of how I want the boot to be built and look like. That is, construction method and aesthetic.
Where I do plan specifically is around materials to be used. I like to kill two birds with one stone, so if I can test new materials whilst satisfying the creative itch, I will.
To that extent, I had a new goring that I wanted to try. So in it went.
Goring is the item that fails on all chelsea boots. It’s inevitable. So from my perspective as a Bootmaker, it’s simply a case of finding materials that prolong this inevitable failure. Using this new goring meant that later I could put it through a real world testing cycle.
I used Tochigi leather roughout for the upper. Because I wanted to wax it down post build to see how it’d look. And try a different waxing agent to my usual one.
I chose to handwelt the boot, using a new 4mm leather that I thought would be suitable for heavy duty welting. I personally prefer wearing handwelted boots, so this tied into the build well.
You see what I mean now right?. A lot of these builds have a similar theme. Testing new materials, experimenting with bits and pieces. Whilst giving my creative ideas an outlet.
The build details are to my tastes. Maybe not yours.
As of today, the boot is structurally complete. It’s sitting on the bench, under pressure from C-clamps on the heel block. It just needs to go through the finishing process and it’ll be done.
The toe is structured, 1.6mm leather. The heel counter is 3.5mm. Fully lined, as I just prefer boots like that.
In the end I chose to stitch the Dainite sole straight to the welt, again, something that I’d never done before but always wanted to do so.
Usually I’ll always have a midsole in between the welt and outsole, but I wanted to understand how the flexibility of the boot would change without one. Maybe it would offset the stiffness of the handwelting somewhat. At least, that was my theory.
I also chain stitched the outsole with 3 colours. Nothing too flashy, A cream, white and dark brown. The average person won’t notice anything special, but upon closer inspection they might see that something’s a bit different.
This is very much my design philosophy. These small details where if you know, you know.
The heel block is leather, with the matching Dainite toplift. I cut the rand and heel block tight, similar to a dress boot.
I really enjoy juxtaposing ruggedness with design lines that you may see in dressier boots.
The creative itch is never satisfied.
I’m looking forward to taking the chelsea off the last later, flattening out the nails in the insole and then trying it on.
This is where most of my post-work analysis will take place. For this particular boot I’ll analyse the feel underfoot, the topline circumference and fit, the materials, and overall whether I was successful in the ‘to-dos’ of this boot.
Then I’ll tweak the pattern a bit if I need to and file it in the library for another day. Maybe it’ll become a production model, maybe not.
I really enjoy doing one off builds, there’s something special about making a one-of-one product, never to be repeated again.
At any point in time, there are at least 2-3 different boots of this nature in my head. Depending on how much time I get to make them, they often start to accumulate, so thesedays I have to list them all down so I don’t forget.
Eventually I’ll get around to building them all.
I’ve often thought once the main boot lines are established and if the business is scaled, maybe I’ll set up Outstation customshop, where I only build unique pieces.
For now though, my immediate to-do is to eat lunch.
