Winson Shoemaker Spiral Cut

The Winson Shoemaker spiral cut is an impressive piece of footwear. It ticks off all of the details I love to see in a shoe: creative design, great last shape, beautiful coloring, and all of the finishing details one could ask for. It is one of those shoes that stops you in your tracks. You can’t help but admire it.

You know that when a shoemaker is quiet it means they are working hard to constantly improve their work. Winson Shoemaker has been doing this for the last few years and it becomes more and more noticeable with each Instagram post that passes, where you see those lines becoming tighter and more refined in each shoe. Those waists and perfect fudging. The shape of the lasts. The finishing of the shoes, the leather shines, the hand-coloring, etc. It all shows and it is inspiring. I am just waiting for the bang, of when his skills to get noticed by the industry.

But then I realized that sometimes when you are good and yet small your own success can be your demise. If you get too busy for your own good and have to turn clients away as you have no one else to assist you then you walk a fine line between wanting more presence and maintaining your capabilities of fulfilling orders.

I feel that Winson has hit this wall. I remember when I did my unboxing on some boots he made for me and I believe he told me he gained like 40 orders from it. It was great and I was happy to help someone with such passion yet he then told me that he did not want more marketing as he was now up to his eyeballs in work and had to put in double time to be able to handle the orders. A great problem to have! I am wondering if he will somehow scale his business as I see the work improving, which for me deserves recognition but at the same time do not want to overrun his plate.

Since originally writing this post at the end of 2021 he has made a few more of these beauties. You can see them here. It is easily one of the coolest single monks that has ever been created. I can easily envision three colorways of the Winson Shoemaker spiral cut that I think would be super popular: 1. All-black calf with a single leather sole, 2. Dark Brown Suede with double leather sole and, 3. Mid-brown hatch grain on a commando sole. Who is going to order one?!