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Goodyear Welted Shoes consist primarily of a leather upper, a welt, an insole, and an outsole (sole.). A welt is a strip of leather, rubber, or plastic that is stitched to the upper and insole of a shoe, as an attach-point for the sole. The space enclosed by the welt is then filled with cork or some other filler material (usually either porous or perforated, for breath ability) and the outsole is both cemented and stitched to the welt.
However, most all ready-to-wear welted shoes use a glued-on feather made of linen. Next, the upper (with its inner stiffening layers and lining already attached, which layers are either natural leather or elastic depending on the quality of the shoe) is stretched around and tacked to the last. On a really fine shoe the upper is splashed with water and beaten with a hammer to compress the leather fibers, and to permanently mold them to the shape of the last. The leather is then allowed to dry completely and the process is repeated, often multiple times. (It should be noted that the majority of shoes, even very expensive ones, are lasted by machine.) Once the upper has been shaped the shoes are welted.
The welt is a thin strip of leather - often two feet or more in length, about three quarters of an inch wide and an eighth of an inch thick. In this step the shoemaker uses a single row of lock-stitching (two interlocking stitches) to sew the welt to the upper leather to the feather (in that order.)
Generally this is done with the aid of a Goodyear welting machine. In a very few small workshops the shoes are welted by hand. Once the shoes have been welted, the excess leather is trimmed away from above the seam, and the whole area is compressed with a hammer. Then the shallow, hollow section in the middle of the shoe (created by the attaching, and in some cases the skiving, of the insole) is filled. In most cases a shank (thin metal or wood strip that stabilizes the sole and heel,) and a leather covering used to hold it in place, fill the back half. The front half is sometimes filled with cork.
The sole is then affixed with glue and sewn to the portion of the welt that protrudes from the front and sides of the shoe. The sewing of the sole is almost always done on a machine, with very few exceptions. On a top-quality shoe the sole stitching is hidden in a "channel" and is not visible on the bottom of the sole. Finally, the heel is either built from layers of leather fixed together with wood and brass pegs, or a pre-made heel is attached, and the shoe is finished.
This process of making shoes is referred to as Goodyear Welt construction, as the machinery used for the process was invented by the son of Charles Goodyear. Welted shoes are considered superior by most because they are very durable and are easily resoled. A top- quality welted shoe can almost always be sent back to the maker for resoling, or even re-crafting. The heel can be removed, the sole stitching undone, and a new sole and heel can then be attached. This construction allows multiple sole replacements, extending the life of the footwear. Shoes with other types of construction may also have welts for finished appearance, but they generally serve little or no structural purpose. |
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