Shoe School Slide Sandals @ Leffler Leather

Get creative hand-making a buckled sandal in the popular ergonomic-footbed German style

Let your imagination go bonkers! Interpret a two-buckle sandal in the style of a popular ergonomic footbed German sandal that might be worn in places such as.... Arizona.

Over a long full day of heavy creative crafting, you'll be cutting leather, sewing, lasting and attaching soles to your new sandals. You can select your leather uppers, buckles and soling from the amazing Leffler warehouse - it's a candy shop for leather and shoemaking materials! These sandals feature a comfortable moulded cork footbed, (Euro sizes 37-46 catered for). This is a great introduction to the various techniques involved in shoemaking.

This class does include glueing and hammering - tasks fundamental to shoemaking. If you'd prefer a gentler, safer introduction, consider the 1-day sneaker making workshop instead.

Class is held 9-5pm. Refreshments are provided - if you don't want to bring your own lunch, choose the lunch add-on at checkout and we'll fetch you a delicious fresh banh mi both days. Classes are limited to 3 participants.

For more inspiration, see the Shoe School page here.

Hi, I'm Lou! I launched Shoe School in New Zealand in 2015. Since then I've helped students create thousands of shoes of their own custom design.

I’ve been curious about shoemaking since I was a teen, obsessively saving for my 1st pair of purple 8-hole Dr Martens.

I wasn’t able to study shoemaking in NZ so I took a leap of faith and travelled to Australia. Back home I slowly, slowly began to collect antique shoemaking equipment. Gradually I built my own shoemaking studio, with an idea growing that perhaps one day I could teach - this was the beginning of the ‘maker’s movement’ and suddenly everyone, me included was fascinated by all things handmade. And so I doggedly built my studio, and practiced, practiced my craft. My single-minded focus paid off when I was invited to intern in Japan, where I honed my skills in bespoke techniques. More recently, I returned from the USA after immersing myself in the art of crafting cowboy boots.