Are some of the least expected.

I’m waiting on my sewing machine spring to arrive, so this week I’m still out of action. Well, at least from a bootmaking perspective that is.

Instead, I’ve been spending my time working on social media, essentially front loading my schedule, shooting and editing all the content for the next few months. So in a way I’ve still been productive, despite not actually working on any builds.

The only challenge has been explaining to customers in queue that their build will be one to two weeks delayed. Luckily, they’re all quite understanding and in no rush for their boots.

Anyway. All this hassle waiting for parts made me do a stocktake on the hardest items to source.

Eyelets aren’t eyelets aren’t eyelets.

Man this is such a needed item, but stupidly hard to source. People really have no idea, much like I originally didn’t.

Eyelets look simple enough; basically they’re a metal ring. They get embedded into the facings and laces go through them. I use brass plated eyelets with a hole diameter of 4mm or 6mm .

What most people don’t understand is why eyelets are hard to find.

The issue is the height (otherwise known as the shaft) of the eyelet.

You see, the facings on Outstation boots are made from 2mm thick leather. Add a reinforcement layer on the back, and there’s another 2mm of leather. This means the eyelet shaft should be 4mm in height right?

Wrong.

Ideally another 2mm is needed to poke out from the back of the facings.

This is so the eyelet ring can be put on the shaft. And then when the excess shaft is pressed flat, it curls back over itself to lock the ring into place.

So this means my ideal eyelet is a 4mm or 6mm hole diameter, with a shaft of 6mm height. And there’s the problem.

Most eyelets commonly found are used for paper, fabric, or other thin material. So the eyelet shaft isn’t really an issue. The most common height is 4mm, plenty enough for the average user.

It took me around 8 months to find a manufacturer that specialized in manufacturing eyelets and rivets. I was very lucky they had what I needed, obviously manufacturing them for other customers.

If they weren’t, I’d have to open a mold designed to my requirements, and only then could they manufacture for me.

Most importantly, because they had what I needed, they didn’t require a massive MOQ. When purchasing directly from manufacturers, you can imagine they only want to deal with volume orders.

And in the case of eyelets being such a low cost item, the manufacturer needs high volume orders to make any type of money.

Anyway. For now, touch wood, I have eyelets.

Ideally I’d like a backup supplier though, just in case.

Expansion drums.

For my sanding and finishing process, I use a small finishing machine. One side has a set of grinding wheels and the other side, polishing wheels.

The issue here is that the arbor of the shaft is 20mm. Meaning, the hole through the centre of any attachment wheels must be 20mm in diameter.

If not, they don’t fit on the shaft of the finishing machine.

For the average wheel found online, a 20mm hole isn’t so common. Most are 16mm, which are meant for small bench grinders and jewelry polishing.

In particular, industrial use expansion drums (which sandpaper is loaded onto) comes in 32mm, 25mm and 20mm arbors. And yes, I could find or 3d print a bushing reducer, but that’s also a pain in the ass.

I just want things that work out of the box. Maybe I’m dreaming though.

Even if I find an expansion drum with the right arbor, the size (diameter and width) of the drum then becomes the problem.

Too large a drum diameter creates too much speed (shout out to the maths nerds out there), causing leather burn from the excess friction when sanding.

Too wide of a drum doesn’t leave me enough space on the side to fit a boot when sanding, because it will hit against the centre console and extraction fan built into finishing machine.

So far, it’s been really hit and miss from random suppliers to find the correct arbor and correct combination of drum dimensions.

Oh yes. The drum dimensions also mean that matching sanding belts need to be found. Standard sanding belts of 100mm x 915mm don’t fit.

So, a customized sanding belt manufacturer also needs found.

Much like last journal entry, when talking about matching awl and thread dimensions, there’s also a similar relationship between drum and belt dimensions.

Ergh. I need to figure all this out.

Metal shanks. Sigh.

I used to have a great supplier who supplied me with two types of shanks.

Both types were metal, 100mm long by 18mm wide. One type of shank was thicker and ridged, the other type was thinner and flat.

For context, the Everyday line uses a leather shank with its wedge sole. It doesn’t need the extra support of a metal shank for such a casual boot.

The Frontier line by contrast, needs a shank. Mounted on an outsole with a heel, the arch simply needs the support that a metal shank gives.

Anyway, recently my shank supplier started becoming very inconsistent with their delivery. To the point of multiple orders being cancelled and refunded without any communication.

I managed to find another shank supplier at short notice, but I’m not really satisfied yet. The new shanks are high quality; the price is also acceptable. But I feel they could be a little too heavy duty for my standard Outstation builds.

What I mean by this relates to the the thickness of the shank. At 2mm thick, plus ridges, they sit a little high when placed into position during the bottoming process.

In a stitchdown construction, the leather lining and upper behind the vamp gets tucked under the boot and nailed into place. The area for the shank lies in the cavity that this leather creates.

And, mathematically speaking, the shank should only be as thick as the thickness of said leather. So, roughly 2mm.

At 2mm in thickness, the shank completely fills the void. Although seeming a good match, it actually isn’t. Because there’s now no room to put cork on top of it.

Adding 3mm of cork and then nailing the midsole on top creates a noticeable bulge. Eventually this means that the sole unit won’t sit flat on the midsole either.

Very bad.

It’d be better to have a shank of around 1mm in thickness, add the 3mm of cork on top and compress it with a bit of hammering.

I’ve said it time and time again, every millimeter counts when bootmaking.

On a side note, all of this is very different compared to a welted construction, where the welt adds another 3-4mm of available height, giving plenty of space for a thick shank and cork layer.

Sigh. WIP to find a supplier with a more suitable shank.

Leather. Wait what?

Yes, leather. The primary material of what boots are made from, is hard to source.

I’d mentioned this before somewhere. It’s not that leather is hard to find. The issue is that suitable leather is hard to find. In particular, leather to use for uppers.

Remember, I don’t build boots that are made from branded tannery leather. My price point and customer base don’t support this.

So, this puts a lot of pressure on me to source leather. At a reasonable enough price for a non-boot nerd to afford Outstation boots, but at a high enough quality that a boot nerd appreciates.

It’s like searching for the holy grail.

If I was buying branded tannery leather, this sourcing job is simplified dramatically. Everybody knows the tanneries, the quality and consistency of the product. Simply choose, click and purchase.

Currently, as I’m starting product development on the Ambassador line, I need to source a tannery with a types of leather that I’m looking for.

I don’t just do this when I need leather for a new line of boots though.

In general, I spend a few hours each month looking for leather suppliers, just in case my current suppliers have problems. Given the declining industry that we all operate in, diversifying the supplier base is super important for supply chain stability.

That said, even if my suppliers are doing well, there’s always the risk that they discontinue the leathers or colours that I use in my colourways.

It’s always such a worry.

However, I’ve realised over time that I have to accept certain things are out of my control.

Rubber slipsoles.

Much like eyelets aren’t just eyelets, rubber isn’t just rubber.

Over the years bootmaking, I’ve learnt a lot about rubber compounds. Looking back, it’s amazing how such a ‘boring’ material becomes interesting and complex when there’s a need to understand it.

Well, the more you know I guess.

Anyway. It’s not easy to find suitable rubber for my slipsoles.

For standard Outstation builds, the leather midsole is stitched to a rubber slipsole, which in term is cemented to the outsole. Because as we all know, rubber bonds to rubber better than it bonds to leather.

I currently use a 2mm neoprene for my slipsoles. Not ideal, but it’s the best that I can do from an availability and price standpoint here in Malaysia.

I’d prefer SBR if I could get it readily. It’s slightly cheaper, doesn’t usually stain thread black when stitching and has known behaviour when working with contact cement.

Why it’s so tough to source rubber slipsoles is because locally (despite Malaysia being a huge rubber producing country), I can’t find high quality rubber sheeting in low enough quantities.

If I want something with very clear technical specifications, I don’t have the volume requirement to get it manufactured specially. Conversely, anything high quality in lesser quantity isn’t available locally.

For example, if I ask general hardware stores or online traders about the specifications of their rubber sheeting, they simply have no idea. Or they just reply ‘neoprene’.

Sigh.

The word ‘neoprene’ in Asia is basically colloquial for any rubber material. It can be a combination of anything mixed with whatever.

SBR, NBR, EPDM, chloroprene, natural rubber, combined in whatever manner the supplier decides, and then sold as ‘neoprene’.

The surfaces of these neoprene sheets come very slick and glossy, so they need to be sanded to remove the mold release on top. If I don’t do this, primer doesn’t stick. If primer doesn’t stick, contact cement doesn’t stick, and if contact cement doesn’t stick, delamination of the outsole will happen.

At the moment, my neoprene slipsoles are ok, but I want to find better. It’s such an important component of the build that I don’t like to take chances.

A frustratingly slow process.

I think that’s about it for now.

I’ve suppliers in place for the above items, but they’re either not a tier 1 supplier or I don’t have a good feeling about consistency of product and/or communication.

Malaysia, as a lower quality footwear manufacturer, makes it difficult to find what I need from local suppliers. This would be my first choice if possible.

When Outstation first started I tried to operate this way, but very quickly I realised I couldn’t. I went through around 3 months of discovery until I made the decision I had to start sourcing a supplier base from overseas.

Simply because I couldn’t find what I was looking for locally, at a high enough quality.