Bespoke Shoes from Poland – Tadeusz Januszkiewicz

It’s always a pleasure coming into contact with shoes that you have always seen online but never in person. I have always been quite intrigued with shoemaking from the “Eastern” part of Europe, as it is quite different than your makers here in England/France/Italy. You find that their shoes tend to be a bit more heavy looking and feeling. That doesn’t mean that they are like bricks or anything, as you can clearly see here, since this shoe is still quite refined. But it would appear that they either use tanneries that cut a thicker leather or that they really put a lot into the shoe, the stuff that you don’t see on the surface, but feel when wearing them. You typically find that they too use a heavier sole, but this was clearly not the case in this model which looked to be a blind, almost pump like stitch, or even a blake stitch by hand. Hard to say really, but nonetheless what I loved most about this shoe was the immaculate shade of the leather and how lovely it shined up. It’s a shame that Mr. Januszkiewicz, who is somewhere in his 80’s, did not train anyone up to pass on his knowledge, but luckily he is not the only shoemaker in Poland, so we will just have to count on Mr. Jan Kielman to keep the trade alive….

Oh and by the way, they were only around £600