I’m Andre Gerdes, shoe- & leather-technician from Germany and during my carrier, I must have manufactured over a million pair of shoes. All lined up in one single row, they would cover a distance from New York to Toronto! 😀

Shoe making is my passion and business. I offer a fulfilment service for shoe design, development and production: from design to prototype, sample-making and finally the shoe production.

With this blog I like to share my enthusiasm for shoe making, but also to clear up some confusions about the jungle of shoe sizing systems, so we can avoid unnecessary foot injuries. Professional shoe design needs to keep this always in mind. Only if we understand the basic functions of our feet we achieve the best shoe fitting and shoe design will come naturally to you.

Good books about shoe designing are rare and most of them are conceptional more for students who are already planning a career as shoe designers, but this blog was also born with the idea of inspiring all shoe-enthusiasts. More newcomers are required in our traditional industry – just with tradition alone no industry can survive. Fashion means change and through new technologies like 3D shoe design has suddenly changed to a modern and attractive job opportunity.

The focus of this blog and the online courses is to bring shoe design to a broader audience, because shoe-design is not just for some privileged and creative minds. Of course creativity is great, but you don’t really need to be a genius to paint your soles only in red, like the rock star of the shoe designers Christian Louboutin does. Shoe designing is foremost a systematic approach how to transfer an idea or sketch to a 3D object – the shoe last and again convert it back to 2D as shoe patterns. This skill can be learned and mastered by everyone.

The upcoming online programs will be a great opportunity to design and create your own shoes. Don’t miss it!

Regards

Andre Gerdes (The Shoe-Enthusiast)