Papa Ercolino

Custom shoes, mid-construction

 97% of all shoes found for sale in stores across the U.S. are imported primarily from the Pacific rim countries, mostly from China.  Not only are most shoes manufactured outside of the U.S. using cheap labor, but they are also manufactured using materials that are as inexpensive as possible...i.e. synthetics instead of naturally occurring materials.   When you've purchased an expensive pair of shoes you may be surprised to find that the heel is plastic surrounded by leather or synthetic material.  These types of heels can not fixed by a shoe repairer....and oh by the way, when was the last time you were able to find someone to fix a pair of your shoes?  That's how I discovered Perry Ercolino..."Papa" Ercolino...the savior of my Frye Boots...which I just found out may or may not have been made in America.  But that's another story.

 

Perry Ercolino

Perry Ercolino, located in Doylestown, PA has been making custom shoes for 37 years.  By appointment, Perry can be found in Washington, DC, Philadelphia and New York City.  His shoes are completely hand made and his customers are primarily very well "heeled" men.   The shoes would be considered a luxury but he has also a number or clients who get shoes made because of special needs.  In any case, Perry found a niche in the shoe market that has been pretty unforgiving to American shoemakers.  

Client's feet translated into measurements

  

He builds shoes the way he learned to years ago as an apprentice to his father and also in shoe design school in Milan, Italy.  He first takes a series of measurements of the person's feet.   Then he plots out all measures on a diagram that will become the basis for a form or "lasts" that are a representation of the clients feet.  Perry quoted Salvatore Ferragamo, the late, great Italian shoemaker as saying..."the "last" is first."    The diagrams and measurents detail the shape of the form that will become the last for that particular client, both right and left foot.  The last will be made into a form that the shoe will be constructed around.

Customer "lasts"

The customer has so many choices available:  style, shape, color, leather, stitching.   Many people don't fit into the typical sizes of shoes available on the market.  For these people Perry can rock their world.....after all how much time does a person spend walking around...

Some of the styles available

Leathers range from cowhide to saltwater crocodile and about a thousand choices in between.  On this part of the shoe, Perry mostly works with leathers from tanneries in Europe as they are able to provide the types and qualities of leather that are the basis of a high quality shoe.  There are a few American tanneries but most of those are more specific to the furniture industry and are not processing the finer grades of leather that are required.

 

Leather for shoes

All of the parts of his shoes are put together with naturally occurring materials which breathe better and last longer.   Cork is used for cushioning and then a leather sole and heel is created from stacking slabs of leather together to create the proper height of each.

Cork is used to cushion the foot

 
All parts of the shoe are sewn on machines that are pretty heavy duty, and specific to different parts of the shoe.  It takes approximately 75 hours to make a pair of shoes.  Hand sewing represents about 12 hours of that time.

 

So as a custom maker Perry is really an artisan.  Maybe far removed from quantity production, but the skill set he has is starting to become rare.   What will we do if more people don't learn this trade?

While I was waiting to pick up my boots, I noticed a framed thank you note from the President for a pair of shoes made as a gift.  I had to ask..."did you touch the President's feet??"   He said "no, they gave me the measurements."  Still, for the president?   I think that's pretty amazing.